Notice2025-17492
Notice of Intended Repatriation: Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, ME
Primary source
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Published
September 11, 2025
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Abbe Museum 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.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 174 (Thursday, September 11, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 174 (Thursday, September 11, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44096-44097]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-17492]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[N6481; NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0040989; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Intended Repatriation: Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, ME
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 Abbe Museum 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.
DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on
or after October 14, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Send additional, written requests for repatriation of the
cultural items in this notice to Aaron F. Miller, Curator of Exhibits &
Collections, Abbe Museum, P.O. Box 286, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, email
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#600101120f0e20010202050d151305150d4e0f1207"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6b0a0a1904052b0a09090e061e180e1e064504190c">[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
Abbe 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 16 cultural items have been requested for repatriation.
The 16 unassociated funerary objects are two red ochre samples, three
charcoal samples; one straw and pyrite sample; three hide and hair
samples; two hair samples; one pyrite, hide, and hair sample; one
limonite with fabric sample, one hair with insect pupa from pyrite, one
hide and hair sample from a fire kit, and one stone plummet.
Fifteen of the unassociated funerary objects were removed from the
Hartford Cemetery site in Orland, Maine. These materials were likely
excavated by Warren K. Moorehead in the late 19th century and donated
to the R.S. Peabody Museum in Andover, MA. The Peabody transferred the
collection to the Bangor Historical Society in the first quarter of the
20th century and they were subsequently transferred to the Abbe Museum
in 1997. Likely around that same time, the 15 objects were part of an
unrecorded loan to a University of Maine, Orono professor. The
materials were rediscovered in 2025 and returned to the Abbe that same
year.
The stone plummet was donated to the Abbe Museum by Walter B. Smith
in 1927 and was recorded in the original ledger book as coming from a
``Red Paint Cemetery in Blue Hill, ME''. The unassociated funerary
object was returned to the Museum in 2024 as part of an undocumented
loan and had been previously listed as missing from the collections.
Additional materials from these two sites were repatriated by the
Abbe Museum in 2020 to the The Wabanaki Tribes of Maine Intertribal
Repatriation Committee representing the Houlton Band of Maliseet
Indians, Mi'kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Penobscot Nation (see
Federal Register (85 FR 335), January 3, 2020).
Determinations
The Abbe Museum has determined that:
<bullet> The 16 unassociated funerary objects described in this
notice are 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 objects have 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> There is a connection between the cultural items described
in this notice and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians; Mi'kmaq Nation
(previously listed as Aroostook Band of Micmacs);
[[Page 44097]]
Passamaquoddy Tribe; and the Penobscot Nation.
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 October 14, 2025. If competing requests for
repatriation are received, the Abbe Museum 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 Abbe 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: August 21, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-17492 Filed 9-10-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 11, 2025.
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