2024-06276. Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: The University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology, Knoxville, TN

AGENCY:

National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology (UTK), intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed from Buchanan County, MO.

DATES:

Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on or after April 25, 2024.

ADDRESSES:

Dr. Ozlem Kilic, University of Tennessee, Office of the Provost, 527 Andy Holt Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996–0152, telephone [phone], email [e-mail] and [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA. The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of UTK. The National Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice. Additional information on the determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, can be found in the summary or related records held by the UTK.

Description

Five lots of unassociated objects were removed from the Cloverdale Ossuary (23BN2) in Buchanan County, Missouri. Reginald Bullock (R. B.) Aker systematically excavated the site in the late 1950s; however, he did not completely excavate the ossuary during that time, returning in 1959 to recover additional burials vandalized from previously unexcavated graves. Details of the transfer of the burials and cultural items are unknown; however, it is likely that the excavated site materials were sent to William Bass at the University of Kansas and subsequently brought with him when he began working in the UTK Department of Anthropology in 1971. The five lots of unassociated funerary objects are one lot of natural stone, one lot of worked stone, one lot of possible petrified wood, one lot of charred wood, and one lot of charred pignuts.

Cultural Affiliation

The cultural items in this notice are connected to one or more identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures. There is a relationship of shared group identity between the identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures and one or more Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations. The following types of information were used to reasonably trace the relationship: geographical information, historical information, and Native American traditional knowledge.

Determinations

Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, UTK has determined that:

• The five cultural items 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 and are believed, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from a specific burial site of a Native American individual.
• There is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.

Requests for Repatriation

Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items in this notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in ADDRESSES . Requests for repatriation may be submitted by any lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice who shows, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the requestor is a lineal descendant or a culturally affiliated Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.

Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after April 25, 2024. If competing requests for repatriation are received, UTK must determine the most appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the cultural items are considered a single request and not competing requests. UTK is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this notice.

This notice was submitted after the effective date of the revised regulations (88 FR 86452, December 13, 2023, effective January 12, 2024) but in the older format. As the notice conforms to the mandatory format of the Federal Register and includes the required information, the National Park Service is publishing this notice as submitted.

Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3004, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9.

Dated: March 15, 2024.

Melanie O'Brien,

Manager, National NAGPRA Program.