[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 162 (Wednesday, August 23, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57474-57475]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-18132]


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

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0036432; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center 
at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at 
Colorado College (previously the Fine Arts Center Taylor Museum and the 
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) has completed an inventory of human 
remains and associated funerary objects and has determined that there 
is no cultural affiliation between the human remains and associated 
funerary objects and any Indian Tribe. The human remains and associated 
funerary objects were removed from an unknown geographic location.

DATES: Disposition of the human remains and associated funerary objects 
in this notice may occur on or after September 22, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Michael Christiano, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at 
Colorado College, 30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80903, 
telephone (719) 477-4311, 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 
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. 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 Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College.

Description

    On an unknown date, human remains representing, at minimum, one 
individual were removed from an unknown geographic location. Sometime 
prior to January 1929, the human remains were acquired by Dr. Richard 
Warren Corwin (1852-1929). Corwin was a world traveler who made 
numerous trips to various locales across Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
Oceania. Corwin's nephew, Dr. William Senger, inherited Corwin's 
collections and donated them to Colorado College in 1940 and 1943. In 
1987, Colorado College closed the Palmer Hall Museum, and the 
collection was loaned to several museums, including the Fine Arts 
Center Taylor Museum. Subsequently, the human remains became part of 
the collection of the Fine Arts Center Taylor Museum and in 2016, the 
Fine Arts Center Taylor Museum merged with Colorado College. The human 
remains (Colorado College catalog number 11 and 249)--two teeth--belong 
to a child. Additional teeth belonging to this individual (Colorado 
College catalog number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 235, 236, 240, 242, 243, 
and 252) are currently missing from the museum's collections, but upon 
being located, they will be transferred together with the human remains 
listed in this notice. No associated funerary objects are present.
    On an unknown date, human remains representing, at minimum, one 
individual were removed from an unknown geographic location. On April 
5, 2022, an envelope marked ``July 2019 Tooth and Bone Fragments'' was 
discovered. The human remains (FIC 2022.77)--a tooth--belong to an 
adult. The two associated funerary objects are the femur fragment of a 
small adult mammal (176; FIC 2022.75) and a mammalian skeletal fragment 
(FIC 2022.76).
    Pursuant to 43 CFR 10.16, the Secretary of the Interior may make a 
recommendation for a transfer of control of the culturally 
unidentifiable human remains and associated funerary objects. In June 
of 2023, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College 
requested that the Review Committee consider a proposal to transfer 
control of the human remains and associated funerary objects in this 
notice to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe 
of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado. The Review Committee, acting 
pursuant to its responsibility under 25 U.S.C. 3006(c)(5), considered 
the request at its June 2023 meeting, and it recommended to the 
Secretary that the proposed transfer of control proceed. A July 2023 
letter on behalf of the Secretary of Interior from the Designated 
Federal Official transmitted the Secretary's independent review and 
concurrence with the Review Committee that:
     The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College 
consulted with every appropriate Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian 
organization,
     None of the consulted and notified Indian Tribes and 
Native Hawaiian organizations objected to the proposed transfer of 
control, and
     The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College 
may proceed with the agreed upon transfer of control of the culturally 
unidentifiable human remains and associated funerary objects to the 
Hopi Tribe of Arizona and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern 
Ute Reservation, Colorado.
    Transfer of control is contingent on the publication of a Notice of 
Inventory Completion in the Federal Register. This notice fulfills that 
requirement.

Determinations

    Officials of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado 
College have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
in this notice are Native American based on biological evidence and 
museum history.
     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(3)(A), the two 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), a relationship of shared 
group identity cannot be reasonably traced between the Native American 
human remains and associated funerary objects and any present-day 
Indian Tribe.
     Pursuant to 43 CFR 10.10(g)(2) and 10.16, the disposition 
of the human remains and associated funerary objects may be to the Hopi 
Tribe of Arizona and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute 
Reservation, Colorado.

Request for Disposition

    Written requests for disposition of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects in this notice must be sent to the 
Responsible Official identified in ADDRESSES. Requests for disposition 
may be submitted by:
    1. Any one or more of the Indian Tribes or non-Federally recognized 
Indian groups 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

[[Page 57475]]

Native Hawaiian organization, or who shows that the requestor is an 
aboriginal land Indian Tribe.
    Disposition of the human remains and associated funerary objects 
described in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after September 
22, 2023. If competing requests for disposition are received, Colorado 
Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College must determine the most 
appropriate requestor prior to disposition. Requests for joint 
disposition of the human remains and associated funerary objects are 
considered a single request and not competing requests. Colorado 
Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College is responsible for sending 
a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes 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 
and 10.11.

    Dated: August 16, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-18132 Filed 8-22-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P