[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 61 (Friday, March 29, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19305-19306]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-07352]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-12450; PCU00RP14.R50000-PPWOCRADN0]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: Yale Peabody 
Museum of Natural History, New Haven, CT

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, in consultation 
with the appropriate Indian tribes, has 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 Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

DATES: Representatives of any Indian tribe that believes it has a 
cultural affiliation with the cultural items should contact the Yale 
Peabody Museum of Natural History at the address below by April 29, 
2013.

ADDRESSES: Professor Derek E.G. Briggs, Director, Yale Peabody Museum 
of Natural History, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118, 
telephone (203) 432-3752.

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 in the 
possession of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History that meets 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 1871, three unassociated funerary objects were recovered from 
Memaloose Island, OR, by the Yale College Scientific Expedition. The 
objects were transferred to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History 
in 1873 by Oscar Harger, a student of the Expedition. These objects 
include a wooden bowl, a stone mortar, and a wooden comb.

[[Page 19306]]

Catalog records and historic documentation indicate the objects were 
recovered from Native American graves and therefore meet the definition 
of unassociated funerary objects. The objects were recovered within the 
traditional territory of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the 
Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs 
Reservation of Oregon.
    Sometime prior to 1902, two unassociated funerary objects were 
removed from The Dalles, Wasco County, OR, by an unknown person. The 
objects were transferred to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History 
in 1902 by Mr. and Mrs. William H. Moseley of New Haven, CT. Catalog 
records indicate the two objects, a string of rolled metal tube beads 
and a string of shell beads, were recovered from Native American graves 
and therefore meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects. The 
objects were recovered within the traditional territory of the 
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the Confederated 
Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.
    Based on museum catalog records of the objects, the geographic 
origin of the objects, and the description of traditional territory of 
the tribes, these objects are believed to be culturally affiliated with 
the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and the 
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.

Determinations Made by the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

    Officials of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History have 
determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the five 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 Confederated Tribes and Bands of 
the Yakama Nation 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 unassociated funerary objects should 
contact Professor Derek E.G. Briggs, Director, Yale Peabody Museum of 
Natural History, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118, telephone 
(203) 432-3752 before April 29, 2013. Repatriation of the unassociated 
funerary objects to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama 
Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon may proceed after that date if no additional claimants come 
forward.
    The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is responsible for 
notifying the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation and 
the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon that 
this notice has been published.

    Dated: February 26, 2013.
Melanie O'Brien,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2013-07352 Filed 3-28-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-P