[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 134 (Thursday, July 12, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32315-32316]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-14905]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0025846; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: State Historic Preservation 
Office, Lansing, MI

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Michigan State 
Housing Development Authority, has completed an inventory of human 
remains and associated funerary objects in consultation with the 
appropriate Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, and has 
determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the human 
remains and present-day Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations. 
Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
request transfer of control of these human remains should submit a 
written request to the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office. If 
no additional requestors come forward, transfer of control of the human 
remains and associated funerary objects to the lineal descendants, 
Indian Tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations stated in this notice 
may proceed.

DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or 
Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
request transfer of control of these human remains and associated 
funerary objects should submit a written request with information in 
support of the request to the State Historic Preservation Office at the 
address in this notice by August 13, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Dean L. Anderson, State Historic Preservation Office, 
Michigan State Housing Development Authority, 735 East Michigan Avenue, 
Lansing, MI 48909, telephone: (517) 373-1618, email 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 
associated funerary objects under the control of the State Historic 
Preservation Office, Lansing, MI. The human remains and associated 
funerary objects were removed from a highway construction project on 
US-12, Lenawee County, MI.
    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.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made during 1993-
1995 by the former Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) professional 
staff and by a physical anthropologist. According to documents held by 
the SHPO, in 1995 the OSA initiated consultation on the human remains 
and funerary objects with the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma; 
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin; Hannahville Indian 
Community, Michigan; Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and 
Indiana; and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (previously listed as the 
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation, Kansas).

History and Description of the Remains

    In the 1920s, human remains representing nine individuals were 
removed from a highway construction project in Lenawee County, MI. In 
1925, the remains were re-interred on the grounds of the Walker Tavern 
historic site, located a few miles from the highway construction 
project. The Walker Tavern structure was built around 1832, as a 
farmhouse, and then became a tavern and inn along the Detroit to 
Chicago stagecoach route. In 1921, Frederic Hewitt converted the tavern 
into a museum, and in 1965, the structure was sold to the Michigan 
Department of Natural Resources. The Parks and Recreation Division of 
the Michigan Department of Conservation operated the historic site 
until 1975, when the Michigan Historical Museum, which was part of the 
Michigan Historical Center (MHC), took responsibility for the Walker 
Tavern museum and its collections.
    In the mid-1990s, Barbara Mead, Assistant State Archaeologist, did 
the NAGPRA reporting for the Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) 
and for the state museum. At that time, the state museum turned over to 
Ms. Mead a single cranium and associated funerary objects that she 
determined had been

[[Page 32316]]

part of the group of human remains that was re-interred on the grounds 
of the Walker Tavern site in 1925.
    In 2009, the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, which 
included both the OSA and the state museum, was eliminated. The state 
museum was moved into the Department of Natural Resources, and the OSA 
was moved into the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. Soon 
after that, the OSA was eliminated, and the archaeology staff were 
moved into the SHPO. Consequently, the archaeological collections, 
including the Walker Tavern materials, are now held by the SHPO.
    The human remains in the Walker Tavern collection include a single 
cranium with no teeth present and lacking the mandible. The cranium was 
examined by a physical anthropologist who stated that the individual 
was approximately 10-15 years of age, and that no determination of sex 
or ethnic identity of the individual could be made. No known 
individuals were identified.
    When the state museum assumed responsibility for the Walker Tavern 
collection in 1975, the cranium was recorded under Michigan Department 
of Conservation accession number A1253. The state museum assigned 
catalog number FA-155-75 to the cranium.
    The state museum also cataloged a group of 18 funerary objects 
associated with the human remains disinterred during road construction 
in the 1920s. The 18 associated funerary objects are: One pewter spoon, 
one bottle, one oval stone, one deer mandible, three loose teeth, one 
lot of fur pieces with tassels wrapped in porcupine quill, one silver 
armband, one wooden bowl or toy canoe, one lot of wool scraps, one lot 
of linen scraps, one silver armband, one copper or brass kettle 
fragment, one iron knife blade, one lot of very small bone chips, one 
lot of shell and glass beads and one pewter bowl.
    Based on the funerary objects, it is estimated that the original 
interment of the objects and the human remains took place between 
approximately 1760 and 1810. A typescript in the MHC Walker Tavern 
files identified as an article in the Lenawee County Exponent dated 
November 22, 1923, describes the discovery of Indian graves and 
artifacts during road construction work in the Irish Hills area. The 
article mentions some of the same funerary objects described above and 
associated with the cranium. This assemblage of funerary objects, 
including trade silver and beads, together with the cranium, represent 
a Native American interment.
    The inventory that Assistant State Archaeologist Barbara Mead 
compiled in 1995 included the following information on cultural 
affiliation: Probably Potawatomi. Early in the eighteenth century, the 
Potawatomi, Miami, Ottawa, Huron/Wyandotte and Kickapoo were present in 
southern Michigan. Most of the reports for tribes other than the 
Potawatomi are from the pre-1720 era. By the 1760s, the Potawatomi 
territory included Lenawee County; no other tribes seemed to be 
present, except perhaps as travelers or temporary residents. (Cleland, 
Charles E., 1992, Rites of Conquest, the University of Michigan Press; 
Tanner, Helen Hornbeck (ed.), 1987, Atlas of Great Lakes Indian 
History, University of Oklahoma Press; Trigger, Bruce G. (ed.), 1978, 
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15: Northeast, Smithsonian 
Institution).

Determinations Made by the State Historic Preservation Office

    Officials of the State Historic Preservation Office have determined 
that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
in this notice represent the physical remains of one individual of 
Native American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 18 objects described 
in this notice are 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.
     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 objects and the Citizen 
Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma; Forest County Potawatomi Community, 
Wisconsin; Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan; Pokagon Band of 
Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana; and Prairie Band Potawatomi 
Nation (previously listed as the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation, 
Kansas).

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
request transfer of control of these human remains and associated 
funerary objects should submit a written request with information in 
support of the request to Dean L. Anderson, State Historic Preservation 
Office, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, 735 East Michigan 
Avenue, P.O. Box 30044, Lansing, MI 48909, telephone (517) 373-1618, 
email [email protected], by August 13, 2018. After that date, if 
no additional requestors have come forward, transfer of control of the 
human remains and associated funerary objects to the Citizen Potawatomi 
Nation, Oklahoma; Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin; 
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan; Pokagon Band of Potawatomi 
Indians, Michigan and Indiana; and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation 
(previously listed as the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation, Kansas) 
may proceed.
    The State Historic Preservation Office is responsible for notifying 
the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma; Forest County Potawatomi 
Community, Wisconsin; Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan; Pokagon 
Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana; and Prairie Band 
Potawatomi Nation (previously listed as the Prairie Band of Potawatomi 
Nation, Kansas) that this notice has been published.

    Dated: June 21, 2018.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2018-14905 Filed 7-11-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P