[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 23, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3995-3996]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-1078]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Florida Museum of Natural 
History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL and Southwest Florida 
Water Management District, Brooksville, FL

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains in the control of the 
Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, 
FL, and in the physical custody of the Southwest Florida Water 
Management District, Brooksville, FL. The human remains were removed 
from Tatham Mound, Citrus County, FL.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3). 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native 
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Florida 
Museum of Natural History professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, Seminole 
Nation of Oklahoma, and Seminole Tribe of Florida (Dania, Big Cypress, 
Brighton, Hollywood & Tampa Reservations).
    In 1986-1987, human remains representing a minimum of 366 
individuals were removed from Tatham Mound (8CI203) in Citrus County, 
FL, as part of a Florida Museum of Natural History research project. No 
known individuals are identified. No associated funerary objects are 
included in this notice.
    Tatham Mound (8CI203) is a Safety Harbor culture mound. Tatham 
Mound consists of an earlier, pre-Columbian lower mound that contained 
human remains that are radiocarbon-dated to circa A.D. 1050. An upper 
mound contained the human remains of some of the individuals, most of 
whom were bundle burials in an extremely poor state of preservation. At 
the time of the Hernando de Soto expedition into the region in 1539, 
people associated with variants of the Safety Harbor culture lived from 
north Sarasota County to the Cove of the Withlachoochee, extending 
inland in Citrus County as far as Tatham Mound itself. Narratives 
associated with the de Soto expedition record the names of two Native 
American towns called Vicela and Tocaste in the vicinity of the Cove 
(but not in the locality of Tatham Mound). The Native American town of 
Vicela is thought to have been near the modern town of Istachatta in 
northeast Hernando County, approximately 15 miles southwest of Tatham 
Mound. No archeological site corresponding to Vicela has been found. 
North of Vicela, the de Soto expedition accounts mention the Native 
American town of Tocaste, describing it as being on a large lake. After 
1539, Vicela and Tocaste disappear from the historical records. The 
linguistic affiliation of the Tatham Mound people and their Safety 
Harbor relatives are unknown. No information on their language, other 
than a few proper names noted in colonial Spanish documents, exists. 
Archeological and historical research in Citrus County, which is in the 
Florida Central Gulf Coast region (including Greater Tampa Bay) has 
shown that the Safety Harbor culture dates to the period circa A.D. 
1000-1650. There is no known relationship between the Safety Harbor 
people and any modern Native American group. Consequently, the human 
remains are culturally unidentifiable.
    At the time of excavation, the Tatham Mound site (formerly known as 
the McGregor-Smith tract) was owned by the South Florida Council of the 
Boy Scouts of America. Acting on the advice of the Council's Native 
American Advisory Committee, the Council mandated that the human 
remains be reinterred in the mound at the conclusion of reasonable 
scientific analysis, and that such reinterment would be in accordance 
with State of Florida regulations. The analysis of the human remains 
was carried out at first at East Carolina University and then at the 
University of North Carolina where analysis was completed. 
Subsequently, the human remains were transferred to the Southwest 
Florida Water Management District for storage.
    In late 2004, the South Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of 
America sold the land on which Tatham Mound is located to the Southwest 
Florida Water Management District, a State of Florida agency. The site 
is now joined with the Flying Eagle tract. Ownership of the land by 
Southwest Florida Water Management District affords legal protection 
for Tatham Mound and places the stewardship of the site under the 
Florida Division of Historical Resources.
    Officials of the Florida Museum of Natural History have determined 
that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains described 
above represent the physical remains of 366 individuals of Native 
American ancestry. Officials of the Florida Museum of Natural History 
also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), a 
relationship of shared group relationship cannot reasonably be traced 
between the Native American human remains and any present-day Indian 
tribe.
    The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review 
Committee (Review Committee) is responsible for recommending specific 
actions for disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains. In 
February 2007, the Florida Museum of Natural History requested that the 
Review Committee recommend reburial of the human remains of 366 
culturally unidentifiable individuals at the Tatham Mound site. The 
Review Committee considered the request at its April 2007 meeting and 
recommended the reburial of the culturally unidentifiable human 
remains. In May 2007, a letter from the Designated Federal Official, 
writing on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior, recommended 
reburial of the physical

[[Page 3996]]

remains of the 366 culturally unidentifiable individuals contingent on 
the consent of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, Seminole 
Nation of Oklahoma, and Seminole Tribe of Florida; publication of a 
Notice of Inventory Completion in the Federal Register; and in 
accordance with applicable laws. This notice fulfills the requirement 
of publication. The Florida Museum of Natural History also has received 
consent from the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, Seminole 
Nation of Oklahoma, and Seminole Tribe of Florida. Artifacts removed 
from the mound are not being reburied.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Jerald 
T. Milanich, Florida Museum of Natural History, Campus PO Box 117800, 
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, telephone (352) 378-0990, before February 
22, 2008. Reburial of the human remains, with the consent of the 
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, 
and Seminole Tribe of Florida may proceed after that date if no 
additional claimants come forward.
    Florida Museum of Natural History is responsible for notifying the 
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, 
and Seminole Tribe of Florida that this notice has been published.

    Dated: November 26, 2007
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E8-1078 Filed 1-22-08; 8:45 am]
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