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 Hood Museum of Art, 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 45 cultural items have been requested for repatriation. The 45 unassociated funerary objects are ceramic pots, bowls, and jars.

The Alabama Museum of Natural History, University of Alabama, removed ancestral remains and cultural objects from Mississippi County, AR in 1932 and 1933 through archaeological excavations at Nodena and Pecan Point sites under Director Walter B. Jones. Additional objects from the region entered the Alabama Museum of Natural History collection throughout the 1930s, as ceramics were sold to the museum by collectors Luther E. Jones and Harry Payne. In 1935, Lena Garth purchased 44 Mississippi County, AR ceramics from this collection at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. Garth immediately donated the objects to Dartmouth College Museum in the name of her grandson, a Dartmouth student.

A total of one object, from Mississippi County, AR, was purchased by Frank Proctor from an unknown source in 1900. Proctor gave the vessel to his nephew, Alexis Chapman Proctor, who donated it to Dartmouth's collection in 1967.

Determinations

The Hood Museum of Art has determined that:

• The 45 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.
• There is a connection between the cultural items described in this notice and the Quapaw 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 ( printed page 33735) 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 July 6, 2026. If competing requests for repatriation are received, the Hood 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 Hood Museum of Art 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.

91 FR 33734