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FR Doc 03-10029
[Federal Register: April 25, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 80)]
[Notices]
[Page 20406-20407]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr25ap03-70]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of Defense, Army
Corps of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the
completion of an inventory of human remains and associated funerary
objects in the possession of the U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps
of Engineers, Portland District, Portland, OR. The human remains and
associated funerary objects were removed from the Old Town Umatilla
site (35 UM 1/35 UM 35), Umatilla County, OR.
This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003(d)(3). The
determinations within this notice are the sole responsibility of the
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native
American human remains and associated funerary objects. The National
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations within this
notice.
A detailed assessment of the human remains and associated funerary
objects was made by the Army Corps of Engineers staff and the Cultural
Resources Protection Program of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, Oregon in consultation with representatives of the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon.The Old
Town Umatilla site is located in Umatilla County, OR, on the south
shoreline of the Columbia River, upstream from its confluence with the
Umatilla River. The site is also in the project area of the John Day
Dam, which is located in north-central Oregon and south-central
Washington. John Day Dam project lands extend from the confluence of
the Columbia River and the John Day River upstream to Umatilla, OR.
The Old Town Umatilla site (35 UM 1/35 UM 35) was first occupied in
470 B.C. and is considered to be a prehistoric and historic Umatilla
village. The site served as a major winter village of the Umatilla
Indians during late prehistoric times, and includes a cemetery that
dates from approximately 500 B.C. to A.D. 1700. The site lies within
the traditional lands of the present-day Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon was established by an 1855 treaty,
and consists of three tribes: Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla. All
three tribes belong to the Sahaptin language group, each tribe's
speaking a separate dialect of Sahaptin. Historically, these tribes
occupied over 6 million acres of land in southeastern Washington and
northeastern Oregon. The Umatilla reservation and ceded lands roughly
include the area bounded by the Columbia and Snake Rivers on the north
to Willow Creek on the west to Tucannon River on the east.
The Old Town Umatilla site has a long excavation history. In l948,
the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys first recorded the late prehistoric
cemetery and early historic site as 35 UM 1. The site was excavated in
1965 by the University of Oregon in conjunction with reservoir salvage
for the John Day Dam, and was redesignated as 35 UM 35, the Old Town
Umatilla site. The site was excavated by the Mid-Columbia
Archaeological Society and the University of Idaho from 1970 through
1975, Wildesen and Associates in 1984, Heritage Research Associates in
1986, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Oregon in preparation for construction of a wastewater treatment
facility in 1998.
The excavations removed over 230 human burials and approximately
38,000 associated funerary objects. In l976, at the request of the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon, the
Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District reinterred approximately 230
human burials and associated funerary objects in a cemetery near
Mission, OR. The human remains and associated funerary objects were
among those excavated by the Mid-Columbia Archaeological Society and
University of Idaho in the 1970s. In June 2000, the remains of two
individuals and two associated funerary objects removed during the l965
University of Oregon excavation were repatriated to the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon by the University of
Oregon Museum of Natural History. Human remains from the l998
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon
investigation were reburied on-site when encountered.
In 1999, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, Oregon requested that the Mid-Columbia Archaeological
Society collections from 35 UM 1/35 UM 35 excavated during the 1970s be
placed in the tribe's facility
[[Page 20407]]
so that tribal staff could analyze the materials to identify human
remains. In 2001, Cultural Resources Protection Program staff of the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon examined
faunal remains and artifacts from 35 UM 1/35 UM 35. Their analysis
identified approximately 111 human bones, representing a minimum of one
individual and one additional partial human burial among the faunal
collections. Based on associated artifacts these individuals have been
determined to be Native American. Also, 20,697 artifacts are identified
as associated funerary objects based on their proximity to the skeletal
remains as described in available records. The associated funerary
objects are 4,452 stone tools; 4,129 shells; 2 bottles of uncounted
dentalium shells; 3,997 cobble choppers, hammerstones, and pecking
stones; 2,805 projectile points; 2,075 flakes and cores; 784 shell
beads; 456 bone beads, bangles, and pendants; 285 elk tooth beads; 247
bone punches, awls, and needles; 227 fragments of worked bone; 168
basalt projectile points; 163 net weights, sinkers, and anchors; 155
obsidian projectile points; 70 animal teeth; 94 pestles, metates,
mauls, and milling stones; 55 stone beads and pendants; 53 ochre
fragments; 47 antler or bone wedges; 47 bone harpoon points or guards;
31 bird talons or animal claws; 37 arrow shaft smoothers or abraders;
27 bone pieces; 25 antlers; 22 hopper mortars; 19 obsidian nose pieces
and crescents; 13 gaming balls and bola stones; 9 raw mineral fragments
(mica, concretion, sandstone, graphite, and copper); 8 slate
whetstones; 4 charcoal fragments; 3 carved stone effigies; 3 worked
historic glass tools; 3 pipe bowls or stems; 3 smoothing stones; 2 horn
digging tools or digging stick handles; 2 stone bowl fragments; 1 celt;
1 steatite ring fragment; 1 incised pumice paint pot; 1 bird bone
whistle; 1 coprolite; 1 nutshell; and 169 unidentified tools. The human
remains and associated funerary objects have been cataloged under
various catalog and box numbers, and are currently on loan to the
Cultural Resources Protection Program of the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon.
Officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District have
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, the human remains
described above represent the physical remains of a minimum number of
two individuals of Native American ancestry. Officials of the Army
Corps of Engineers, Portland District also have determined that,
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, the 20,697 objects described above are
reasonably believed to have been placed with or near individual human
remains at the time of death or later as part of the death rite or
ceremony. Lastly, officials of the Army Corps of Engineers, Portland
District have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001, there is a
relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced
between the Native American human remains and associated funerary
objects and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Oregon.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary
objects should contact Ms. Gail Celmer, NAGPRA Coordinator,
Environmental Resources Branch, U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps
of Engineers, Portland District, P. O. Box 2946, Portland, OR 97208-
2946, telephone (503) 808-4762, before May 27, 2003. Repatriation of
the human remains and associated funerary objects to the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Oregon may proceed after
this date if no additional claimants come forward.
The Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District, is responsible for
notifying the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Oregon that this notice has been published.
Dated: March 27, 2003
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources.
[FR Doc. 03-10029 Filed 4-24-03; 8:45 am]
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