[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 17 (Monday, January 27, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3914-3915]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-1854]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession
of the Mesa Southwest Museum, Mesa, AZ
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior
ACTION: Notice.
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Notice is hereby given under the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3005 (a)(2), of the intent to
repatriate cultural items in the possession of the Mesa Southwest
Museum, Mesa, AZ, which meet the definition of ``object of cultural
patrimony'' under Section 2 of the Act.
The items are Western Apache Gaan material consisting of one
Dilzini Gaan mask, one Dilzini Gaan wooden headdress, one Dilzini Gaan
standard with four flat cross bars, and one set of 18 pieces of a
Dilzini Gaan wooden headdress. All these items are made of painted wood
and/or cloth and were acquired by the Museum in 1979, 1985, and 1991.
The cultural affiliation of the first three items is clearly
Western Apache as documented in museum records and verified by the Camp
Verde Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Community,
the Tonto Apache Tribe, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and the White
Mountain Apache Tribe. The fourth item, one set of 18 pieces of a
Dilzini Gaan wooden headdress, was collected near Sanders, AZ, and it
has been clearly identified as Western Apache by the Camp Verde
Yavapai-Apache Tribe, the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Community, the
Tonto Apache Tribe, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and the White Mountain
Apache Tribe. The San Carlos Apache Tribe and the White Mountain Apache
Tribe have documented that these items have ongoing traditional and
cultural importance to the tribes and could not have been conveyed by
any individual tribal member.
Based on the above mentioned information, officials of the Mesa
Southwest Museum have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001
(3)(D), these four cultural items have ongoing historical, traditional,
and cultural importance central to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and
White Mountain Apache Tribe, and could not have been alienated,
appropriated, or conveyed by any individual. Mesa Southwest Museum
officials have also determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2),
there is a relationship of shared group identity which can be
reasonably traced between these items and the San Carlos Apache Tribe
and White Mountain Apache Tribe.
This notice has been sent to officials of the San Carlos Apache
Tribe, the Camp Verde Yavapai-Apache Community, the Fort McDowell
Mohave-Apache Community, the Tonto Apache Tribe, and the White Mountain
Apache Tribe. Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes
itself to be culturally affiliated with these objects should contact
Tray C. Mead, Museum Administrator, Mesa Southwest Museum, 53 N.
Macdonald, Mesa, AZ 85201, or telephone Dr. Susan Shaffer Nahmias,
NAGPRA/Tribal Liaison at (602) 644-2563 before February 26, 1997.
Repatriation of these objects to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and White
Mountain Apache Tribe may
[[Page 3915]]
begin after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
Dated: January 17, 1997.
Veletta Canouts,
Acting Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Deputy Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 97-1854 Filed 1-24-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F
