2018-22599. Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Arizona State Parks and Trails, Phoenix, AZ, and Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY:

National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Arizona State Parks and Trails and the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, in consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, have determined that the cultural item listed in this notice meets the definition of unassociated funerary object. Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim this cultural item should submit a written request to the Arizona State Museum. If no additional claimants come forward, transfer of control of the cultural item to the lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations stated in this notice may proceed.

DATES:

Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to request transfer of control of this cultural item should submit a written request with information in support of the request to the Arizona State Museum at the address in this notice by November 16, 2018.

ADDRESSES:

John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, P.O. Box 210026, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone [phone], email [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3005, of the intent to repatriate a cultural item under the control of Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, that meets the definition of an unassociated funerary object under 25 U.S.C. 3001.

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 in this notice are the sole responsibility of the museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native American cultural item. The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Items

On an unknown date during or prior to 1960, one cultural item was removed by an unknown individual from an unrecorded site, designated AZ CC:2:—Safford Vicinity, located in Graham County, AZ. This object was described as having been removed from an “Indian burial ground south of Safford, Arizona.” The item was acquired by the Yuma Territorial Prison on an unknown date. In 1960, collections of the Yuma Territorial Prison were transferred to Arizona State Parks and Trails (ASPT). In December 2000, ASPT transferred the collection to the Arizona State Museum (ASM). The one unassociated funerary object is a ceramic jar. The human remains associated with this object are either missing or were not collected. Based on ceramic analysis, this object likely dates to A.D. 1050-1450, and is associated with the Mogollon culture.

Archeologists describe the earliest settlements in southern Arizona as belonging to the Late Archaic/Early Agricultural horizon. Recent archeological investigations have added support to the hypothesis that the Hohokam cultural tradition arose from the earlier horizon, based on continuities in settlement pattern, architectural technologies, irrigation technologies, subsistence patterns, and material culture. Archeologists have had difficulty dating the beginning of the Hohokam period because the appearance of its distinctive cultural traits, including ceramic technologies and mortuary patterns, was a gradual process spanning several hundred years. This observation adds further support to the hypothesis that the Hohokam tradition evolved in place from earlier Late Archaic traditions. Linguistic evidence furthermore suggests that the Hohokam tradition was multiethnic in nature. Cultural continuity between these prehistoric occupants of Southern Arizona and present-day O'odham peoples is supported by continuities in settlement pattern, architectural technologies, basketry, textiles, ceramic technology, and ritual practices.

Archeologists have also recognized the presence of people associated with the Mogollon tradition in southeastern Arizona. It is thought that their presence represents a migration of people from the mountainous region to the north, where the Mogollon archeological culture was originally defined. Material culture characteristics of Mogollon traditions include a temporal progression from earlier pit houses to later masonry pueblos, villages organized in room blocks of contiguous dwellings associated with plazas, rectangular kivas, polished and paint-decorated ceramics, painted and unpainted corrugated ceramics, red and brown ceramics, inhumation burials, cradleboard cranial deformation, grooved stone axes, and bone artifacts. In southeastern Arizona, there is evidence for both Hohokam and Mogollon traditions, but it is unclear whether this represents separate occupations of different people who interacted and exchanged material culture, or cohabitation and a blending of identities.

Oral traditions that are documented for the Ak-Chin Indian Community (previously listed as the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona); Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona; Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona; and the Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona support cultural affiliation with Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period and Hohokam sites in southern Arizona.

Oral traditions that are documented for the Hopi Tribe also support cultural affiliation with Late Archaic/Early Agricultural period and Hohokam sites in the region. Several Hopi clans and religious societies are derived from ancestors who migrated from the south, and likely identified with the Hohokam tradition. Oral traditions and archeological evidence also support affiliation of Hopi clans with the Mogollon archeological sites.

Oral traditions of medicine societies and kiva groups of the Zuni Tribe recount migration from distant portions of the Southwest to present day Zuni, and support affiliation with Mogollon, Hohokam, and Late Archaic traditions. Historical linguistic analysis also suggests interaction between ancestral Zuni and Uto-Aztecan speakers during the late Hohokam period.

Determinations Made by the Arizona State Museum (ASM) and Arizona State Parks and Trails (ASPT)

Officials of the ASM and ASPT have determined that:

• Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the one cultural item described above is 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 and is believed, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from a specific burial site of a Native American individual.
• Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between the unassociated funerary object and the Ak-Chin Indian Community (previously listed as the Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona); Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona; Hopi Tribe of Arizona; Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona; Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona; and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, hereafter referred to as “The Tribes.”

Additional Requestors and Disposition

Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to claim this cultural item should submit a written request with information in support of the claim to John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, P.O. Box 210026, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone [phone], email [e-mail], by November 16, 2018. After that date, if no additional requestors have come forward, transfer of control of the unassociated funerary object to The Tribes may proceed.

The Arizona State Museum is responsible for notifying The Tribes that this notice has been published.

Dated: September 14, 2018.

Melanie O'Brien,

Manager, National NAGPRA Program.