FR Doc 03-20757
[Federal Register: August 14, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 157)]
[Notices]               
[Page 48634]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr14au03-79]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

Notice of Intent to Repatriate Cultural Items: Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the intent 
to repatriate cultural items in the possession of the Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, that meet 
the definition of unassociated funerary objects under 25 U.S.C. 3001. 
The cultural items were removed from the Fort Hill site, South Orleans, 
Barnstable County, MA.
    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 within this notice are the sole responsibility of 
the museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the 
cultural items. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations within this notice.
    The 86 cultural items are 76 copper tubular beads; 1 bag of 
fragmentary leather, cordage, copper, and sand; and 9 brass sheet 
fragments.
    The cultural items were collected from Fort Hill, South Orleans, 
Barnstable County, MA, on an unknown date before July 5, 1916, by 
George Ellis, who gave the cultural items to Theodore Eastman Jewett on 
an unknown date. In 1938, the 86 cultural items were donated to the 
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology by Mrs. Henry H. 
Richardson, in memory of Mr. Jewett. Accession records indicate that 
the cultural items were found in a grave.
    The interment most likely dates to the Historic/Contact period 
(post-A.D. 1500). The use of copper and textiles in burials suggests a 
date from the Historic/Contact period or later. Although native copper 
was used to make cold-hammered beads and ornaments prior to the arrival 
of Europeans, the beads from the Fort Hill site are typical of those 
made from traded copper kettles made of imported sheet copper or brass. 
The burial context indicates that the burial is of a Native American 
individual. Oral tradition and historical documentation indicate that 
South Orleans, MA, is within the aboriginal and historic homeland of 
the Wampanoag Nation. The present-day tribes that are most closely 
affiliated with members of the Wampanoag Nation are the Wampanoag Tribe 
of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian 
Tribe (a nonfederally recognized Indian group), and the Assonet Band of 
the Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized Indian group).
    Officials of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (3)(B), the 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 an Native 
American individual. Officials of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and 
Ethnology also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), 
there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably 
traced between the unassociated funerary objects and the Wampanoag 
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, and there is a cultural 
relationship between the unassociated funerary objects and the Mashpee 
Wampanoag Indian Tribe (a nonfederally recognized Indian group) and 
Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized Indian 
group).
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should 
contact Diana Loren, Acting Repatriation Coordinator, Peabody Museum of 
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Avenue, 
Cambridge, MA 02138, telephone (617) 495-4125, before September 15, 
2003. Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the 
Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation on behalf of the Wampanoag Tribe 
of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe 
(a nonfederally recognized Indian group), and Assonet Band of the 
Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized Indian group) may proceed 
after that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is responsible for 
notifying the Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation, Wampanoag Tribe of 
Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe (a 
nonfederally recognized Indian group), and Assonet Band of the 
Wampanoag Nation (a nonfederally recognized Indian group) that this 
notice has been published.

    Dated: July 1, 2003.
John Robbins,
Assistant Director, Cultural Resources.
[FR Doc. 03-20757 Filed 8-13-03; 8:45 am]

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