[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 200 (Monday, October 18, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Page 56224]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-27127]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items from the Willamette
Valley, OR in the Possession of Willamette University, Salem, OR
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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Notice is hereby given under the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act, 43 CFR 10.10 (a)(3), of the intent to repatriate
cultural items in the possession of Willamette University which meet
the definition of ``unassociated funerary object'' under Section 2 of
the Act.
The 405 cultural items include bagged specimens of rock, charcoal,
and soil, flaked and groundstone tools, carved stone bowl fragments and
figurines, animal teeth and bone fragments (probably bovid), and an
antler.
During 1930-1970, these cultural items were recovered from
Kalapooyan burial mounds (Weather, Miller, (Miller's Farm), and
Wendling) in the Willamette Valley near the Oregon towns of Harrisburg,
Halsey, and Shedd during excavations conducted by Willamette University
students, operating either independently or with a professor. The
cultural items have been identified from the handwritten labels noting
these locations.
Based on historic documents and ethnographic evidence, the
Willamette Valley is recognized as the traditional territory of the
Kalapooyan tribes. Based on ethnographic sources and archeological
reports, the Weather, Miller, and Wendling sites in the Willamette
Valley have been identified as Kalapooyan burial mounds. Present-day
Kalapooyan people are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the
Grand Ronde Community of Oregon.
Based on the above mentioned information, officials of Willamette
University have determined that, pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii),
these 405 cultural items 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 and are believed, by a preponderance
of the evidence, to have been removed from a specific burial site of an
Native American individual. Officials of Willamette University have
also determined that, pursuant to 43 CFR 10.2 (e), there is a
relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced
between these items and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon.
This notice has been sent to officials of the Confederated Tribes
of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the
Siletz Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama
Indian Nation of the Yakama Reservation, and the Klamath Indian Tribe
of Oregon. Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes
itself to be culturally affiliated with these objects should contact
John Olbrantz, Director, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette
University, 900 State St., Salem, OR 97301-3931; telephone: (503) 370-
6855 before November 17, 1999. Repatriation of these objects to the
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon may begin
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations
within this notice.
Dated: October 1, 1999.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist, Manager, Archeology and
Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 99-27127 Filed 10-15-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F
