Notice2025-06655
Notice of Intended Repatriation: Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT
Primary source
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Published
April 18, 2025
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Shelburne Museum intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, and/or objects of cultural patrimony and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 74 (Friday, April 18, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 74 (Friday, April 18, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16530-16531]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06655]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0039967; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intended Repatriation: Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT
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 Shelburne Museum intends to repatriate
certain cultural items that meet the definition of unassociated
funerary objects, sacred objects, and/or objects of cultural patrimony
and that have a cultural affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native
Hawaiian organizations in this notice.
DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on
or after May 19, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Alexander Kikutis, Shelburne Museum, P.O. Box 10, Shelburne,
VT 05482, telephone (802) 985-0871, email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#244a454354564564574c41484651564a414951574151490a4b5643"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0f616e687f7d6e4f7c676a636d7a7d616a627a7c6a7a6221607d68">[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
Shelburne Museum, and additional information on the determinations in
this notice, including the results of consultation, can be found in the
summary or related records. The National Park Service is not
responsible for the determinations in this notice.
Abstract of Information Available
A total of seven cultural items have been requested for
repatriation. The one associated funerary object is a pair of death
moccasins. The six sacred objects are two umbilical cord cases, a war
club, a ceremonial shirt, and two whistles. Between 1880 and 1900,
Ogden Pleissner collected six of these cultural items from the central
plains. In 1961, the Shelburne Museum acquired the cultural items from
Pleissner. The ceremonial shirt was acquired from an educational Move
Kit in 1989. The cultural items are attributed to the Tsitsitas/Suhtai
(Cheyenne). Heavy metals, including arsenic and mercury were documented
in pigments when a sample of 99 items was tested in March 2021 with a
pXRF (pXRF, or portable x-ray florescence, collects data on the
chemical composition of items, in a manner that is non-destructive). We
have no record of pesticide use by any of our donors. Museum staff have
occasionally used naphthalene and/or para-dichlorobenzene, in the form
of mothballs, and dichlorvos (DDVP) in the form of Shell No-Pest
Strips, however we have no records of them being used with Native
American items.
Determinations
The Shelburne Museum has determined that:
<bullet> The one unassociated funerary object described in this
notice is reasonably believed to have been placed intentionally with or
near human remains, and are connected, either at the time of death or
later as part of the death rite or ceremony of a Native American
culture according to the Native American traditional knowledge of a
lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization. The
unassociated funerary object has been identified by a preponderance of
the evidence as related to human remains, specific individuals, or
families, or removed from a specific burial site or burial area of an
individual or individuals with cultural affiliation to an Indian Tribe
or Native Hawaiian organization.
<bullet> The six sacred objects described in this notice are
specific ceremonial objects needed by a traditional Native American
religious leader for present-day adherents to practice traditional
Native American religion, according to the Native American traditional
knowledge of a lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian
organization.
<bullet> There is a reasonable connection between the cultural
items described in this notice and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes,
Oklahoma.
Requests for Repatriation
Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items
in this notice must be sent to the authorized representative identified
in this notice under 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 19, 2025. If competing requests for
repatriation are received, the Shelburne Museum must determine the most
appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for joint
repatriation of the cultural items are
[[Page 16531]]
considered a single request and not competing requests. The Shelburne
Museum is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to the Indian
Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this notice and
to any other consulting parties.
(Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,
25 U.S.C. 3004 and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9.)
Dated: April 8, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-06655 Filed 4-17-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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