Notice2023-08807
Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Mobile, AL
Primary source
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Published
April 26, 2023
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The cultural items were removed from Itawamba and Tishomingo Counties, MS.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25422-25423]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08807]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035714; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Mobile District, Mobile, AL
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile
District, intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the
definition of unassociated funerary objects and that have a cultural
affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in
this notice. The cultural items were removed from Itawamba and
Tishomingo Counties, MS.
DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on
or after May 26, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Ms. Alexandria Smith, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile
District, 109 St. Joseph Street, P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, AL 36628-0001,
telephone (251) 690-2728, email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bdfcd1d8c5dcd3d9cfd4dc93f393eed0d4c9d5fdc8cedcded893dccfd0c493d0d4d1"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6a2b060f120b040e18030b4424443907031e022a1f190b090f440b18071344070306">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published as part of the
National Park Service's administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA.
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District. The National Park
Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.
Additional information on the determinations in this notice, including
the results of consultation, can be found in the summary or related
records held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District.
Description
Nineteen cultural items were removed from Itawamba County, MS. The
White Springs site (22IT537) was originally recorded by Joseph Caldwell
and S.D. Lewis in 1971, during a survey of the Canal Section of the
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The site was identified as a 15-to-20-
acre village site located in a field on the east side. Archeological
phases identified at the site include Early Archaic, Gulf Formational,
Middle and Late Woodland, and Mississippian. Testing excavations were
conducted in April of 1971, and full-scale excavation was conducted
between July and August of the same year by the University of Southern
Mississippi. The 19 unassociated funerary objects consist of four lots
of ceramics, six lots of lithics, three lots of faunal remains, one lot
of shells, one lot of soil samples, one lot of projectile points, one
lot of sandstone, one lot of petrified wood, and one lot of charcoal.
Fifteen cultural items were removed from Itawamba County, MS.
Joseph Caldwell and S.D. Lewis identified the Walnut site (22IT539) in
November of 1971 in a floodplain near the confluence of Mackeys and Big
Brown Creeks. The site is located within the operational boundaries of
the Canal Section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. It was described
as a village site measuring 100 feet by 150 feet located on a rise in
swamp and low forest. According to the site form, the site had been
looted and partly cleared for a powerline. Archeological phases
associated with the site include Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Middle
Gulf Formational, and Woodland. The 15 unassociated funerary objects
consist of nine lots of perpetuity samples, one lot of macrobotanicals,
one preform, one anvil stone, one lot of hammerstones, one lot of
projectile points, and one lot of chipped stone fragments.
Seven cultural items were removed from Itawamba County, MS. The
Poplar site (22IT576) was recorded in 1975 by J.R. Atkinson in the
Canal Section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Atkinson described
the site as a circular Woodland midden mound with black soil
approximately one half acre in size. The University of Alabama
conducted archeological testing at the site in 1979 and full-scale
excavations in 1980. Poplar is a multi-component site with Paleoindian,
Archaic, and Woodland components. The seven unassociated funerary
objects consist of two lots of debris, two lots of faunal remains, one
lot of hematite, and two lots of flakes.
Fourteen cultural items were removed from Tishomingo County, MS.
The F.L. Brinkley Midden site (22TS729) is located in the Divide Cut
Section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The site was documented as
a stratified accretional midden dating from the Early Archaic through
the Middle Woodland periods. The site was excavated by the Office of
Archaeological Research, University of Alabama, between December 5,
1977, and July 7, 1978. The cultural items from this site presently
reside at the Cobb Institute, Mississippi State University. Due to
preservation concerns, most likely, no human remains were ever removed
from the site. The 14 unassociated funerary objects consist of one lot
of ceramics, four lots of lithics, one lot of sandstone, one lot of
clay, five lots of float samples, and two lots of soil samples.
Cultural Affiliation
The cultural items in this notice are connected to one or more
identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures. There is a
relationship of shared group identity between the identifiable earlier
groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures and one or more Indian Tribes or
Native Hawaiian organizations. The following types of information were
used to reasonably trace the relationship: archeological, geographical,
historical, other information, and expert opinion.
Determinations
Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian
organizations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, has
determined that:
<bullet> The 55 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.
<bullet> There is a relationship of shared group identity that can
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Alabama-
Coushatta Tribe of Texas; Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Coushatta
Tribe of Louisiana; and The Chickasaw Nation.
Requests for Repatriation
Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items
in this
[[Page 25423]]
notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in
ADDRESSES. Requests for repatriation may be submitted by any lineal
descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not
identified in this notice who shows, by a preponderance of the
evidence, that the requestor is a lineal descendant or a culturally
affiliated Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice to a requestor
may occur on or after May 26, 2023. If competing requests for
repatriation are received, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile
District, must determine the most appropriate requestor prior to
repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the cultural items are
considered a single request and not competing requests. The U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, is responsible for sending a copy
of this notice to the Indian Tribes identified in this notice.
Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.8, Sec.
10.10, and Sec. 10.14.
Dated: April 19, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-08807 Filed 4-25-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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