[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 235 (Wednesday, December 9, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65148-65149]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-29294]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: Metropolitan Park District of the 
Toledo Area, Toledo, OH

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

    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 and an associated funerary 
object in the control of the Metropolitan Park District of the Toledo 
Area, Toledo, OH. The human remains and associated funerary object were 
removed from the Audubon Islands State Nature Preserve, Lucas County, 
OH.
    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 
Metropolitan Park District of the Toledo Area professional staff in 
consultation with the Lucas County Coroner's Office, Center for 
Historic and Military Archaeology at Heidelberg College, and in 
consultation with representatives of the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of 
Indians of Oklahoma; Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern Shawnee Tribe 
of Oklahoma; Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin; Grand 
Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan; Hannahville 
Indian Community, Michigan; Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, 
Michigan; Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma; Shawnee Tribe, Oklahoma; Wyandotte 
Nation, Oklahoma; and the American Indian Intertribal Association, a 
non-Federally recognized Indian group.
    In 2007, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from Audubon Islands State Nature Preserve, Lucas County, 
OH, by Dan Graham. The Lucas County Coroner's Office brought the human 
remains to the park. No known individual was identified. The one 
associated funerary item is an immature raccoon skull jaw.
    The Lucas County Coroner's Office identified the human remains as 
possibly Native American based on context, antiquity and an anterior-
posterior flattening in the subtrochanteric region of the femur that is 
typical of historic/ancient Native Americans.
    A nearby 18th century Ottawa grave demonstrates that this part of 
the island may have been occupied and used as a burial area by the 
Ottawa until around the time of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. Audubon 
Island is located in the lower Maumee Valley in northern Ohio. Some 
Ottawa bands had taken up residence in the lower Maumee Valley by A.D. 
1740-1750. Following Pontiac's siege of Detroit in the summer of 1763, 
some of the Ottawa bands from that area also resettled to the lower 
Maumee Valley. In 1764, Captain Thomas Morris met an Ottawa delegation 
at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, adjacent to Audubon Island. Between 
1783 and 1794, Audubon Island was known as Col. McKee's Island, and was 
farmed as part of Alexander McKee's Department of Indian Affairs post 
at the foot of the Maumee Rapids. Several other Euro-Canadian traders 
occupied lands in the area, presumably with the consent of the local 
Ottawa.
    In 1795, many of the Great Lakes-Ohio Valley tribes signed the 
Treaty of Greenville, which produced several land cessions, including a 
12-square-mile reserve surrounding the foot of the Maumee Rapids and 
Audubon Island. Occupation of Audubon Island by the Ohio Ottawa appears 
to have ceased at that time, at which point some of them moved to 
Walpole Island, Canada. Between 1807 and 1817, the United States 
established four small reservations for the Ottawa along the lower 
Maumee River. Audubon Island lies between two of these reservations. In 
1831 to1833, the four reservations were finally ceded to the United 
States in return for lands in present-day Franklin County, KS. In 1867, 
the Kansas reservation organization was dissolved and the Ottawa sold 
their individual allotments and moved to Oklahoma. Descendants of the 
Ottawa that occupied Audubon Island are members of the Little River 
Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan and Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma.
    Officials of the Metropolitan Park District of the Toledo Area have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of one individual of 
Native

[[Page 65149]]

American ancestry. Officials of the Metropolitan Park District of the 
Toledo Area also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 
(3)(A), the one object described above is reasonably believed to have 
been placed with or near individual human remains at the time of death 
or later as part of the death rite or ceremony. Lastly, officials of 
the Metropolitan Park District of the Toledo Area have determined that, 
pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), there is a relationship of shared group 
identity that can be reasonably traced between the Native American 
human remains and associated funerary object and the Little River Band 
of Ottawa Indians, Michigan, and Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains and associated funerary 
object should contact Rebecca Finch, Metropolitan Park District of the 
Toledo Area, 5100 West Central Ave., Toledo, OH 43615, telephone (419) 
407-9848, before January 8, 2010. Repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary object to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, 
Michigan, and Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma may proceed after that date if 
no additional claimants come forward.
    Metropolitan Park District of the Toledo Area is responsible for 
notifying the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma; Delaware 
Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma; Forest County 
Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin; Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and 
Chippewa Indians, Michigan; Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan; 
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan; Little Traverse Bay 
Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan; Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma; Shawnee 
Tribe, Oklahoma; Wyandotte Nation, Oklahoma; and the American Indian 
Intertribal Association, a non-Federally recognized Indian group, that 
this notice has been published.

    Dated: November 9, 2009.
David Tarler,
Acting Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-29294 Filed 12-8-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-50-S