[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 155 (Tuesday, August 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48558-48559]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-17489]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0030602; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Bruce Museum, Inc., Greenwich, CT

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Bruce Museum 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 
associated funerary objects 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 
and associated funerary objects should submit a written request to the 
Bruce Museum. 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 Bruce Museum at the address in this 
notice by September 10, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Kirsten J. Reinhardt, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bruce Museum Inc., 
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830, telephone (203) 413-6770, 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 Bruce Museum Inc., 
Greenwich, CT. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from Terra Ceia Bay Shore Site, Manatee 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 and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Bruce 
Museum professional staff in consultation with representatives of the 
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians and the Seminole Tribe of Florida 
(previously listed as Seminole Tribe of Florida (Dania, Big Cypress, 
Brighton, Hollywood & Tampa Reservations)).

History and Description of the Remains

    In 1894-95, human remains representing, at minimum, one individual 
were removed from a site on the eastern shore of Terra Ceia Bay, across 
from Terra Ceia Island, in present-day Palm View, Manatee County, FL. 
Edward S. Hubbard, founder of the East Coast Railroad, collected the 
human remains, and Wilbur F. Smith, of Norwalk, CT, collected the 
associated funerary objects. In 1937, Hubbard transferred the human 
remains to Smith, and in 1938, Smith donated the human remains to the 
Bruce Museum. Smith transferred the associated funerary objects to the 
Bruce Museum through donations in 1938 and 1940. In a 1937 letter to 
Bruce Museum curator Paul G. Howes, Smith described the site as a 
burial mound about twenty feet across and four feet high, which had 
been constructed with pure white sand that must have been imported from 
miles away, as there was no similar sand in the vicinity. Smith also 
wrote, ``From my study the mound was one of the Calusa Indians, the 
tribe that inhabited the Tampa Bay region and were very numerous at the 
time the Spaniards discovered the country in the middle 1500s and later 
exterminated the Indians.'' The mound was leveled when the land was 
made part of the Palm View development during the ``Florida Boom.''
    The human remains were determined to be Native American by 
Connecticut State Archaeologist, Nicholas Bellantoni, who performed a 
skeletal and dentition analysis on October 25, 1995, together with Ed 
Sarabia, Tlingit, Indian Affairs Coordinator, Connecticut Commission on 
Indian Affairs. The human remains are comprised of a cranium belonging 
to a female 20-30 years old, based on dentition. Parts of the right 
condial, left coronoid process, and left and right zygomatic arches 
were restored with red ``Marblex,'' and the mandible was reconstructed 
and reattached to the restored skull at the Bruce Museum in 1938, by 
curator Paul G. Howes. No known individual was identified. The 20 
associated funerary objects are four strands of glass beads of various 
color and shape; one strand of brown and white puka shell beads; four 
loose blue glass beads; one large clear, faceted glass bead; one large 
black, faceted button; one single slot brass bell; and eight pottery 
sherds.
    The exact date or period associated with the site is unknown, as 
few reliable temporal indictors were recovered or recorded. 
Nonetheless, the presence of European trade goods, St. Johns Checked 
pottery, and Safety Harbor Incised pottery suggests a Woodland/
Mississippian-into-early Historic designation.
    Geographical, archeological, historical, and legal information, in 
addition to the known historical presence of the Seminole Tribe of 
Florida in the area encompassing the State of Florida, support a 
relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced 
between the present-day Seminole Tribe of Florida and the pre-contact 
tribes who established tribal towns recorded by European explorers in 
the region of present-day Manatee and Seminole Counties.

Determinations Made by the Bruce Museum, Inc.

    Officials of the Bruce Museum, Inc. 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.

[[Page 48559]]

     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 20 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 Seminole 
Tribe of Florida (previously listed as Seminole Tribe of Florida 
(Dania, Big Cypress, Brighton, Hollywood & Tampa Reservations).

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 Kirsten J. Reinhardt, NAGPRA Coordinator, 
Bruce Museum Inc., 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830, telephone (203) 
413-6770, email [email protected], by September 10, 2020. 
After that date, if no additional requestors have come forward, 
transfer of control of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects to the Seminole Tribe of Florida (previously listed as Seminole 
Tribe of Florida (Dania, Big Cypress, Brighton, Hollywood & Tampa 
Reservations)) may proceed.
    The Bruce Museum, Inc. is responsible for notifying the Miccosukee 
Tribe of Indians and the Seminole Tribe of Florida (previously listed 
as Seminole Tribe of Florida (Dania, Big Cypress, Brighton, Hollywood & 
Tampa Reservations)) that this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 7, 2020.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2020-17489 Filed 8-10-20; 8:45 am]
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