[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 71 (Wednesday, April 14, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Page 18447]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-9325]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items in the Possession
of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA
AGENCY: National Park Service.
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
a cultural item in the possession of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA which meets the
definition of ``unassociated funerary objects'' under Section 2 of the
Act.
The eleven cultural items are ceramic vessels and ceramic
fragments.
In 1929, nine of these cultural items were recovered from Pecos
Pueblo by William Claflin under the auspices of Phillips Academy,
Andover, MA. In 1985, William Claflin donated these nine cultural items
to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Between 1915-1929, two of these cultural items were recovered from
Pecos Pueblo by Alfred Vincent Kidder under the auspices of Phillips
Academy, Andover, MA. In 1936, Phillips Academy donated these two
cultural items to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Excavations records indicate that the human remains with whom these
eleven cultural items were associated were not collected. Based on the
ceramic types recovered from this site, Pecos Pueblo was occupied into
the historic period (1300-1838). Historic records document occupation
at the site until 1838 when the last inhabitants left the Pueblo and
went to the Pueblo of Jemez. In 1936, an Act of Congress recognized the
Pueblo of Jemez as a ``consolidation'' and ``merger'' of the Pueblo of
Pecos and the Pueblo of Jemez; this Act further recognizes that all
property, rights, titles, interests, and claims of both Pueblos were
consolidated under the Pueblo of Jemez.
Further evidence supporting a shared group identity between the
Pecos and Jemez pueblos emerges in numerous aspects of present-day
Jemez life. The 1992-1993 Pecos Ethnographic Project (unrelated to
NAGPRA) states: ``[T]he cultural evidence of Pecos living traditions
are 1) thet official tribal government position of a Second Lieutenant/
Pecos Governor; 2) the possession of the Pecos Pueblo cane of office;
3) the statue and annual feast day of Porcingula (Nuestra Senora de los
Angeles) on August 2; 4) the Eagle Watchers' Society; 5) the migration
of Pecos people in the early nineteenth century; 6) the knowledge of
the Pecos language by a few select elders.'' (Levine 1994:2-3)
Based on the above mentioned information, officials of the Peabody
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology have determined that, pursuant to
43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii), these eleven 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 the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 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 Pueblo of Jemez.
This notice has been sent to officials of the Apache Tribe of
Oklahoma, the Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma, the Hopi Tribe, the Jicarilla
Apache Tribe, the Kiowa Tribe, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, the Navajo
Nation, Pueblo of Cochiti, the Pueblo of Jemez, Pueblo of Santo
Domingo, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to be
culturally affiliated with these human remains should contact Barbara
Issac, Repatriation Coordinator, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 022138; telephone (617) 495-
2254, before May 14, 1999. Repatriation of these objects to the Pueblo
of Jemez may begin after that date if no additional claimants come
forward.
Dated: April 8, 1999.
Francis P. McManamon,
Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Manager, Archeology and Ethnography Program.
[FR Doc. 99-9325 Filed 4-13-99; 8:45 am]
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