[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 9, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29945-29946]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-09770]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035822; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Mercyhurst University has completed an 
inventory of human remains and has determined that there is a cultural 
affiliation between the human remains and Indian Tribes or Native 
Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The human remains were removed 
from Ballard County, KY.

DATES: Repatriation of the human remains in this notice may occur on or 
after June 8, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Anne Marjenin, Mercyhurst University, 501 E 38th Street, 
Erie, PA 16546, telephone (814) 824-2012, email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published as part of the 
National Park Service's administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA. 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of 
Mercyhurst University. The National Park Service is not responsible for 
the determinations in this notice. Additional information on the 
determinations in this notice, including the results of consultation, 
can be found in the inventory or related records held by Mercyhurst 
University.

Description

    Human remains representing, at minimum, three individuals were 
removed from the Wickliffe Mounds Site (15Ba4) in Ballard County, KY. 
The individuals (V-MAN-0009; V-MAN-0223; VM-026; V-MAN-0058; V-MAN-
0105; KY-BA-TIN-0001) were removed on an unknown date by Raymond C. 
Vietzen (1907-1995). According to his accounts and descriptions, 
Vietzen visited mounds in Wickliffe, Kentucky with Colonel and Mrs. 
Fain King (Vietzen 1946:19). The collection location was reportedly 
near ``Ancient Buried City'' and possibly King Mounds. Vietzen, an 
avocational archeologist and author, established the Indian Ridge 
Museum in Elyria, Ohio, and the Archaeological Society of Ohio 
(formerly the Ohio Indian Relic Collectors Society). The Indian Ridge 
Museum, founded in the 1930s, served as Vietzen's laboratory and 
repository, and it remained in operation until the mid-1990s. After 
Vietzen's death, the facility fell into disrepair and most of the items 
he had acquired and housed at the museum were sold. In 1998, the Ohio 
Historical Society (presently the Ohio History Connection) removed 
ancestral human remains and some of the remaining items from the 
facility and temporarily housed them at the Ohio Historical Society. In 
October of 2003, these human remains and items were transferred from 
the Ohio Historical Society to Mercyhurst College (presently Mercyhurst 
University). No known individuals were identified. No associated 
funerary objects are present.

Cultural Affiliation

    The human remains in this notice are connected to one or more 
identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures. There is a 
relationship of shared group identity between the identifiable earlier 
groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures and one or more Indian Tribes or 
Native Hawaiian organizations. The following types of information were 
used to reasonably trace the relationship: geographical and historical.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, Mercyhurst University has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of three individuals of Native American ancestry.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the human remains described in this notice 
and The Chickasaw Nation.

Requests for Repatriation

    Written requests for repatriation of the human remains in this 
notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in 
ADDRESSES. Requests for repatriation may be submitted by:
    1. Any one or more of the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian 
organizations identified in this notice.
    2. Any lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian 
organization not identified in this notice who shows, by a 
preponderance of the evidence, that the requestor is a lineal 
descendant or a culturally affiliated Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian 
organization.
    Repatriation of the human remains in this notice to a requestor may 
occur on or after June 8, 2023. If competing requests for repatriation 
are received, Mercyhurst University must determine

[[Page 29946]]

the most appropriate requestor prior to repatriation. Requests for 
joint repatriation of the human remains are considered a single request 
and not competing requests. Mercyhurst University is responsible for 
sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribe identified in this 
notice.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.9, 10.10, 
and 10.14.

    Dated: May 3, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-09770 Filed 5-8-23; 8:45 am]
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