[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 155 (Tuesday, August 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48556-48557]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-17490]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0030600; 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, 
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 Bruce Museum. If no additional 
requestors come forward, transfer of control of the human remains 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 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 (914) 671-9321, 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 under 
the control of the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT. The human remains were 
removed from the Shorakapock Site in Inwood Hill Park, New York County, 
NY.
    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 
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of Indians; and the 
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin (hereafter referred to as ``The 
Tribes'').

History and Description of the Remains

    Around 1930, human remains representing, at minimum, two 
individuals were removed from the Shorakapock Site in Inwood Hill Park, 
New York County, NY. The human remains are believed to have been 
removed by Charles L. Howes, whose brother was Bruce Museum curator 
Paul G. Howes. A Bruce Museum accession card referencing a donation by 
Charles Howes to the museum in 1930 states, ``Colonial relics, bullets, 
buttons, etc. from a dump at Inwood Hill Park, NY. Near Indian shell 
heap.'' Human remains consisting of a cranial vault (I.01535.01) belong 
to a female 20-30 years old. These human remains were varnished and 
stabilized with copper wire in the Bruce Museum laboratory by curator 
Paul G. Howes. Human remains consisting of two mandible fragments with 
dentition, three maxillary fragments with dentition (one of them a 
shovel-shaped incisor), five loose teeth, one loose root, and six small 
cranium fragments (I.01535.02) belong to an adult male of unknown age. 
No known individuals were identified. No associated funerary objects 
are present. The human remains were determined to be Native American by 
Connecticut State Archaeologist, Nicholas Bellantoni, who with Ed 
Sarabia, Tlingit, Indian Affairs Coordinator, Connecticut Commission on 
Indian Affairs; performed a skeletal and dentition analysis on October 
25, 1995.
    Although the exact date or pre-contact period associated with this 
site is unknown, as no reliable temporal indictors were recovered or 
recorded, the Shorakapock site is well documented in the New York 
archeological and historical literature. Records from 17th and 18th 
century documents indicate at least five settlements may been located 
within or near the Inwood Hill Park vicinity. According to The Cultural 
Landscape Foundation, the site was inhabited by the Lenape tribe 
through the seventeenth century and was farmed by European settlers 
during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 1930s, Works Progress 
Administration workers built or paved many of the roads at the site, 
often following earlier circulation patterns, and in 1954, a boulder 
and plaque were placed on the former location of a historic tulip tree 
under which Peter Minuit reportedly purchased Manhattan from the 
Lenape. Geographical, oral traditional, and historical information 
support a relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably 
traced between the present-day Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of 
Indians, and the Stockbridge Munsee Community, and the pre-contact 
Eastern Lenni Lenape who inhabited Manhattan Island, New York County, 
New York, including the Shorakapock site in Inwood Hill Park, at the 
northernmost tip of the island.

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 two individuals of 
Native American ancestry.
     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 The Tribes.

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 should submit a 
written request with information in support of the request Kirsten J. 
Reinhardt, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bruce Museum Inc., 1 Museum Drive, 
Greenwich, CT 06830, telephone (914) 671-9321, email 
[email protected], by September 10, 2020. After that date, if 
no additional

[[Page 48557]]

requestors have come forward, transfer of control of the human remains 
to The Tribes may proceed.
    The Bruce Museum Inc. is responsible for notifying The Tribes that 
this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 7, 2020.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2020-17490 Filed 8-10-20; 8:45 am]
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