[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 52 (Friday, March 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15796-15798]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office 
[www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-6334]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[2253-665]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of the 
Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC, and the Arizona State 
Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and 
the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, in consultation with the 
appropriate Indian tribes, have determined that the cultural items meet the 
definition of unassociated funerary objects and repatriation to the Indian 
tribes stated below may occur if no additional claimants come forward. 
Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes itself to be culturally 
affiliated with the cultural items may contact the Arizona State Museum, 
University of Arizona.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a cultural 
affiliation with the cultural items should contact the Arizona State Museum, 
University of Arizona, at the address below by April 16, 2012.

ADDRESSES: John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, P.O. Box 210026, Arizona 
State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone (520) 626-
2950.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is here given in accordance with the Native 
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3005, of 
the intent to repatriate cultural items under the control of the U.S. 
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, DC, and in 
the physical custody of the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, 
Tucson, AZ, that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects under 
25 U.S.C. 3001.
    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 
cultural items. The National Park Service is not responsible for the 
determinations in this notice.

History and Description of the Cultural Items

    In 1979, cultural items were removed from the Pinnacle Site, site AZ 
P:14:71(ASM), in Navajo County, AZ, during a legally authorized survey 
conducted by the University of Arizona Archaeological Field School under the 
direction of Madeleine Hinkes. A report prepared by Hinkes describes the 
presence of five unauthorized excavation pits at this site. The items listed 
below were found with human burials, but the human remains are not present in 
the collection. There is no record in Arizona State Museum files regarding 
the accession of these cultural items. However, the collection likely entered 
the museum in the same year as other collections from the summer field 
school. The eight unassociated funerary objects are 2 animal bone fragments, 
1 ceramic sherd, 4 pieces of chipped stone and 1 chert scraper.
    The Pinnacle Site consists of a pueblo of about 10 rooms and dates from 
A.D. 1275-1400, based on the ceramic assemblage. The ceramic and 
architectural forms are consistent with the archeologically described Upland 
Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo traditions.
    In 1979, cultural items were removed from an unnamed site, site AZ 
P:14:281(ASM), in Navajo County, AZ, during a legally authorized survey 
conducted by the University of Arizona Archaeological Field School under the 
direction of Madeleine Hinkes. A report prepared by Hinkes describes the 
presence of at least 70 unauthorized excavation pits at this site. The items 
were found with human burials, but the human remains are not present in the 
collection. There is no record in Arizona

[[Page 15797]]

State Museum files regarding the accession of these cultural items. However, 
the collection likely entered the museum in the same year as other 
collections from the summer field school. The 1,116 unassociated funerary 
objects are 7 ceramic bowls, 2 ceramic jars and 1,107 ceramic sherds.
    Site AZ P:14:281 contains a pueblo of about 31 rooms with additional 
stone alignments and dates from A.D. 1275-1400, based on the ceramic 
assemblage. The ceramic and architectural forms are consistent with the 
archeologically described Upland Mogollon or prehistoric Western Pueblo 
traditions.
    A detailed discussion of the basis for cultural affiliation of 
archeological sites in the region where the above sites are located may be 
found in ``Cultural Affiliation Assessment of White Mountain Apache Tribal 
Lands (Fort Apache Indian Reservation),'' by John R. Welch and T.J. Ferguson 
(2005). To summarize, archeologists have used the terms Upland Mogollon or 
prehistoric Western Pueblo to define the archeological complexes represented 
by the sites listed above. Material culture characteristics of these 
traditions include a temporal progression from earlier pit houses to later 
masonry pueblos, villages organized in room blocks of contiguous dwellings 
associated with plazas, rectangular kivas, polished and paint-decorated 
ceramics, unpainted corrugated ceramics, inhumation burials, cradleboard 
cranial deformation, grooved stone axes, and bone artifacts. The combination 
of the material culture attributes and a subsistence pattern, which included 
hunting and gathering augmented by maize agriculture, helps to identify an 
earlier group. Archeologists have also remarked that there are strong 
similarities between this earlier group and present-day tribes included in 
the Western Pueblo ethnographic group, especially the Hopi Tribe of Arizona 
and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico. The similarities in 
ceramic traditions, burial practices, architectural forms, and settlement 
patterns have led archeologists to believe that the prehistoric inhabitants 
of the Mogollon Rim region migrated north and west to the Hopi mesas, and 
north and east to the Zuni River Valley. Certain objects found in Upland 
Mogollon archeological sites have been found to have strong resemblances to 
ritual paraphernalia that are used in continuing religious practices by the 
Hopi and Zuni. Some petroglyphs on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation have 
also persuaded archeologists of continuities between the earlier identified 
group and current-day Western Pueblo people. Biological information from the 
site of Grasshopper Pueblo, which is located in close proximity to the sites 
listed above, supports the view that the prehistoric occupants of the Upland 
Mogollon region had migrated from various locations to the north and west of 
the region.
    Hopi and Zuni oral traditions parallel the archeological evidence for 
migration. Migration figures prominently in Hopi oral tradition, which refers 
to the ancient sites, pottery, stone tools, petroglyphs and other artifacts 
left behind by the ancestors as ``Hopi Footprints.'' This migration history 
is complex and detailed, and includes traditions relating specific clans to 
the Mogollon region. Hopi cultural advisors have also identified medicinal 
and culinary plants at archeological sites in the region. Their knowledge 
about these plants was passed down to them from the ancestors who inhabited 
these ancient sites. Migration is also an important attribute of Zuni oral 
tradition, and includes accounts of Zuni ancestors passing through the Upland 
Mogollon region. The ancient villages mark the routes of these migrations. 
Zuni cultural advisors remark that the ancient sites were not abandoned. 
People returned to these places from time to time, either to reoccupy them or 
for the purpose of religious pilgrimages--a practice that has continued to 

the present-day. Archeologists have found ceramic evidence at shrines in the 
Upland Mogollon region that confirms these reports. Zuni cultural advisors 
have names for plants endemic to the Mogollon region that do not grow on the 
Zuni Reservation. They also have knowledge about traditional medicinal and 
ceremonial uses for these resources, which has been passed down to them from 
their ancestors. Furthermore, Hopi and Zuni cultural advisors have recognized 
that their ancestors may have been co-resident at some of the sites in this 
region during their ancestral migrations.
    There are differing points of view regarding the possible presence of 
Apache people in the Upland Mogollon region during the time that these 
ancient sites were occupied. Some Apache traditions describe interactions 
with Ancestral Puebloan people during this time, but according to these 
stories, Puebloan people and Apache people were regarded as having separate 
identities. The White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, 
Arizona, does not claim cultural affiliation with the human remains and 
funerary objects from this site. As reported by Welch and Ferguson (2005), 
consultations between the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache 
Reservation, Arizona and the Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah; 
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico; and Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, have indicated 
that that none of these tribes wish to pursue claims of affiliation with 
sites on White Mountain Apache Tribal lands. Finally, the White Mountain 
Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona, supports the 
repatriation of human remains and funerary objects from this site and is 
ready to assist the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni 
Reservation, New Mexico, in their reburial.

Determinations Made by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, Washington, DC, and the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona

    Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Arizona State Museum 
have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the 1,124 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.
     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 Hopi Tribe of Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, 
New Mexico.

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to be 
culturally affiliated with the unassociated funerary objects should contact 
John McClelland, NAGPRA Coordinator, Arizona State Museum, University of 
Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, telephone (520) 626-2950 before April 16, 2012. 
Repatriation of the unassociated funerary objects to the Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona and Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, may proceed after 
that date if no additional claimants come forward.
    The Arizona State Museum is responsible for notifying the Hopi Tribe of 
Arizona; White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation; 
and the Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico, that this notice has 
been published.


[[Page 15798]]


    Dated: March 12, 2012.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2012-6334 Filed 3-15-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P