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 University of Alabama Museums, 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 69 lots of cultural items have been requested for repatriation with letters of support from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians. The 69 lots of unassociated funerary objects are ground stone, bone needle, worked stone, bone awl, lithic, complete ceramic vessel, bird points, faunal bone, discoidal, pebble hammer, shell, and ceramics.

During February to March 1940, 69 lots of unassociated funerary objects were excavated and removed from Site 1Tu500, the Moundville site, during the Administration Building excavation. The Administration Building excavation comprised a 50 x 55 ft excavation unit and included five structures (S-1 to S-5), nine firebasins (F-1 to F-9), and 13 burials (2907-2919). Of the five structures within this unit only three contained burials (S-2, S-3, and S-5). The unassociated funerary objects were identified through a set of criteria where artifacts found in structures containing burials or artifacts found within the same excavation square as a burial were determined to be unassociated funerary objects.

Moundville, a large mound complex on the banks of the Black Warrior River whose occupation spans the Late Woodland and the West Jefferson phase through the Moundville I, II, and III phases, and terminates in the Late Mississippian/Protohistoric Moundville IV phase, has been the subject of two centuries of archaeological inquiry.

Determinations

The University of Alabama Museums has determined that:

• The 69 lots of 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 Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana; Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; Seminole Tribe of Florida; The Chickasaw Nation; The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; The Muscogee (Creek) Nation; and The Seminole Nation of 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 ( printed page 37128) 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 22, 2026. If competing requests for repatriation are received, the University of Alabama Museums 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 University of Alabama Museums 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 37127