Federal Register, Volume 76 Issue 119 (Tuesday, June 21, 2011)
[Notices]
[Pages 36147-36148]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-15430]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[2253-665]

Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District, Prineville, OR and 
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District has 
completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary 
objects, in consultation with the appropriate Indian tribes, and has 
determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the human 
remains and associated funerary objects and present-day Indian tribes. 
Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be 
culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects may contact the Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District. 
Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects to 
the Indian tribes stated below may occur if no additional claimants 
come forward.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a 
cultural affiliation with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact the Bureau of Land Management, Prineville 
District at the address below by July 21, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Molly M. Brown, Bureau of Land Management, 3050 NE 3rd St., 
Prineville, OR 97754, telephone (541) 416-6766.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is here given in accordance with the 
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 
U.S.C. 3003, of the completion of an inventory of human remains and 
associated funerary objects in the control of the U.S. Department of 
the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District, 
Prineville, OR, and in the possession of the University of Oregon 
Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Eugene, OR. The human remains 
and associated funerary objects were removed from Jefferson County, OR.
    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 human remains and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Bureau 
of Land Management's Prineville District and Museum of Natural and 
Cultural History professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Burns Paiute Tribe and the Confederated Tribes 
of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.

History and Description of the Remains

    In 1962, human remains representing one individual were removed 
from site 35JE52, in Jefferson County, OR, during excavations by 
University of Oregon archeologists. No known individual was identified. 
The three associated funerary objects consist of fragments of matting.
    Based on archeological context, the individual has been determined 
to be Native American. In April 1961, the site 35JE52, also known as 
the Peninsula II site, was first recorded by the Klamath County 
Archaeological Survey. The site is a rockshelter with pictographs and 
adjacent shell middens located at the base of a cliff on the east bank 
of the Deschutes River. The age of occupation of the site is unknown. 
The Museum of Natural and Cultural History reported the remains to the 
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation in its March 1996 
NAGPRA inventory. In 2007, the Bureau of Land Management, Prineville 
District, in conjunction with Archaeological Resources Protection Act 
(ARPA) investigations concerning site 35JE52, contacted the museum. At 
that time, the museum learned that the site is on Federal land, and the 
NAGPRA notification process was referred to the Bureau of Land 
Management officials.
    Oral traditions and ethnographic reports indicate that site 35JE52 
lies within the historic territory of Sahaptin-speaking Tenino or Warm 
Springs peoples whose descendants are culturally affiliated with the 
present-day Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation is 
composed of three Wasco bands, four Warm Springs bands, and Northern 
Paiutes. The Columbia River-based Wasco were the easternmost group of 
Chinookan-speaking Indians. The Sahaptin-speaking Warm Springs bands 
lived farther east along the Columbia River and its tributaries. Oral 
traditions and ethnographic information also indicated that site 35JE52 
lies within a region that was occasionally used during historic times 
by Northern Paiute people whose descendants are culturally affiliated

[[Page 36148]]

with present-day members of the Burns Paiute Tribe. Ethnographic data 
indicates that the boundaries between Sahaptin speakers and Northern 
Paiutes were quite flexible allowing for intertribal exchange. The 
Burns Paiute Tribe includes Northern Paiutes, who spoke a Uto-Aztecan 
language and who historically occupied and used the greater 
southeastern Oregon region.

Determinations Made by the Bureau of Land Management, Prineville 
District

    Officials of the Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District 
have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
above represent the physical remains of one individual of Native 
American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the three objects 
described above are reasonably believed to have been placed with or 
near the individual human remains at the time of death or later as part 
of the death rite or ceremony.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(2), there is a relationship of 
shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between the Native 
American human remains and associated funerary objects and the Burns 
Paiute Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs 
Reservation of Oregon.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
objects should contact Molly M. Brown, Bureau of Land Management, 3050 
NE 3rd St., Prineville, OR 97754, telephone (541) 416-6766, before July 
21, 2011. Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects to the Burns Paiute Tribe and Confederated Tribes of the Warm 
Springs Reservation of Oregon may proceed after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    The Bureau of Land Management, Prineville District is responsible 
for notifying the Burns Paiute Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the 
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon that this notice has been published.

    Dated: June 15, 2011.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2011-15430 Filed 6-20-11; 8:45 am]
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