FEDERAL REGISTER / Vol. 60, No. 208 / Friday, October 27, 1995 /
Notices PAGE 55046
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items within the Rainbow
House Collection, Bandelier National Monument, Los Alamos County,
NM
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior
ACTION: Notice
_________________________________________________________________
Notice is hereby given under the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act, 25 U.S.C. 3005(a)(2), of the
intent to repatriate cultural items from Bandelier National
Monument, Los Alamos County, NM, which meet the definition of
"sacred object" as defined in section 2 of the Act.
The detailed inventory and assessment of these objects has been
made by National Park Service professional staff, in consultation
with representatives of the Pueblo of Santa Clara; Pueblo of San
Ildefonso; Pueblo of Cochiti; Pueblo of Zia; Pueblo of San
Felipe; Pueblo of Isleta; Pueblo of Tesuque; Pueblo of Jemez;
Pueblo of Laguna; Pueblo of Acoma; Pueblo of Santa Ana; Pueblo of
Sandia; Pueblo of Santo Domingo; Pueblo of Zuni; Ysleta del Sur
Pueblo; and Tewa representatives of the Hopi Tribe.
Between 1948 and 1955, Fredrick Worman of Adams State College, CO
and Louis Caywood of the National Park Service, carried out
legally authorized archeological excavations on Federal public
lands, including the Rainbow House archeological site [LA 217]
within Bandelier National Monument. At Rainbow House one hundred
rooms were excavated, as well as a kiva and an associated plaza.
The occupation date assigned to Rainbow House was between AD
1412-1453.
The thirty-two objects include: eight pipes, three figurines, one
bowl, four pendants, two cylinders, one shell tinkler, one axe,
one groundstone, two kiva bells, one hoe, one stone artifact, two
stone balls, three bone whistles, one bone rasp, one flute. All
of these items were recovered from the kiva and plaza area.
Pueblo traditional religious leaders and other official tribal
representatives have stated that these specific objects are, and
were at the time they were separated from the Pueblo, needed for
the practice of traditional Pueblo religion by present-day
adherents.
Based on provenience data from the original field notes prepared
during excavation, the anthropological literature pertinent to
Rainbow House and other Ancestral Puebloan sites in the
surrounding area, and in consultation with Pueblo representatives
and traditional religious leaders, officials of the National Park
Service have determined that these thirty-two objects are
specific ceremonial objects which are needed by Pueblo religious
leaders for the practice of traditional Pueblo religion by their
present-day adherents.
Artifactual evidence does not allow specific identification of a
single culturally affiliated Indian tribe. However, examination
of the objects specified above and oral history regarding
traditional and religious practices indicate probable cultural
affiliation between the objects and various Pueblo Indian groups.
Based on the above-mentioned information, officials of the
National Park Service have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C.
3001 (2), there is a relationship of shared group identify which
can be reasonably traced between these sacred objects and the
Pueblo of Santa Clara; Pueblo of San Ildefonso; Pueblo of
Cochiti; Pueblo of Zia; Pueblo of San Felipe; Pueblo of Isleta;
Pueblo of Tesuque; Pueblo of Jemez; Pueblo of Laguna; Pueblo of
Zuni and Tewa of the Hopi Tribe. Other Pueblo peoples may also be
culturally affiliated with these cultural items. The Pueblo of
Taos; Pueblo of Picuris; Pueblo of San Juan; Pueblo of Nambe; and
Pueblo of Pojoaque have declined to participate in consultation
efforts to date.
This notice has been sent to consultation representatives of the
following Indian tribes: Pueblo of Santa Clara; Pueblo of San
Ildefonso; Pueblo of Cochiti; Pueblo of Zia; Pueblo of San
Felipe; Pueblo of Isleta; Pueblo of Tesuque; Pueblo of Jemez;
Pueblo of Laguna; Pueblo of Acoma, Pueblo of Santa Ana; Pueblo of
Sandia; Pueblo of Santo Domingo; Pueblo of Zuni; Ysleta del Sur
Pueblo; and the Hopi Tribe.
Representatives of any other Indian tribe which believes itself
to be culturally affiliated with these objects should contact
Superintendent Roy W. Weaver, Bandelier National Monument, HCR 1
Box 1 Suite 15, Los Alamos, NM, 87544, telephone: (505) 672-3861
fax (505) 672-9607, before November 27, 1995. Repatriation of
these objects may begin after that date if no additional
claimants come forward.
Date: October 23, 1995
Veletta Canouts
Acting Departmental Consulting Archeologist,
Archeology and Ethnography Program
[FR Doc. 95-26703 Filed 10-26-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-70-F
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