[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 38 (Monday, February 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14092-14093]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03798]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037454; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: SUNY, Broome Community College, 
Binghamton, NY

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), SUNY Broome Community College has completed 
an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects and has 
determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the human 
remains and associated funerary objects and Indian Tribes or Native 
Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The human remains and associated 
funerary objects were removed from the region of Fort Ancient 
archeological culture (the Upper Ohio River drainage) including parts 
of the current states of Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

DATES: Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects in this notice may occur on or after March 27, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Harold Koster, Ph.D., SUNY Broome Community College, 
Professor Emeritus, NAGPRA Coordinator, SUNY Broome Community College, 
907 Front Street, Binghamton, NY 13905, telephone (607) 692-4232, 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 SUNY 
Broome Community 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 SUNY Broome 
Community College.

Description

    Human remains representing, at minimum two individuals, were

[[Page 14093]]

removed from the region of Fort Ancient archeological culture (the 
Upper Ohio River drainage), including parts of the current states of 
Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
    The collection was donated to the Susquehanna River Archaeological 
Center (SRAC), Waverly, New York in 2012. The collection was 
subsequently donated to SUNY Broome Community College by SRAC to be 
used as a teaching collection. Deb Twigg, the co-founder, and executive 
director of SRAC, identified the human remains as being a donation 
collected in the 20th century in the Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, or West 
Virginia region. The collection, which was referred to as the Les 
Rolfe/Libold Collection, was reportedly donated to SRAC by the family 
of unidentified deceased collectors. No provenience or location 
information was provided with the collection, nor was any notice 
included of any human remains present in the collection. The collection 
was received in 31 buckets with slips of paper marked ``Lee'' or 
``Davis.''
    The collection includes, at minimum, the human remains of two 
Ancestors, a juvenile of undetermined sex, aged 7-10 years, based on 
dentition, and an adult of undetermined sex. No known individuals were 
identified. There are 13 teeth, one foot, and two hand phalanges 
associated with the juvenile. There are five teeth, a maxillary 
fragment, one foot, and three hand phalanges associated with the adult. 
Identifications were made by professional anthropologists at SUNY 
Broome Community College and by a professional osteologist at 
Binghamton University.
    The 3,514 associated funerary objects are 949 pottery sherds and 
assorted ceramics; 964 lithic tools, flakes, cores and assorted stone; 
three unidentified minerals; 683 freshwater bivalve shells; six shell 
hoes with drilled holes; five modified bones/shells; 19 turtle 
carapaces/fragments; one elk cranium; 775 large and small mammal bones; 
76 fish bones; nine bird bones; three pieces of charcoal; 10 lots of 
carbonized maize cobs, seeds, nuts and wood; one nut; one piece of 
unidentified wood; three pieces of glass; one metal buckle; two broken 
metal spoons; one large metal nail; one metal spike; and one 
unidentified metal fragment.

Cultural Affiliation

    The human remains and associated funerary objects 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: anthropological information, archeological information, 
geographical information, biological information, historical 
information, and oral tradition.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, SUNY Broome Community College has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of two individuals of Native American ancestry.
     The 3,514 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.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the human remains and associated funerary 
objects described in this notice and the Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; 
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin; Little Traverse Bay 
Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan; Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of 
Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan; Miami Tribe of Oklahoma; Prairie Band 
Potawatomi Nation; Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and 
Indiana; Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan; and the Shawnee 
Tribe.

Requests for Repatriation

    Written requests for repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects 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 and associated funerary objects 
in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after March 27, 2024. If 
competing requests for repatriation are received, SUNY Broome Community 
College must determine the most appropriate requestor prior to 
repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the human remains and 
associated funerary objects are considered a single request and not 
competing requests. SUNY Broome Community College is responsible for 
sending a copy of this notice to the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations identified in this notice.
    This notice was submitted before the effective date of the revised 
regulations (88 FR 86452, December 13, 2023, effective January 12, 
2024). As the notice conforms to the mandatory format of the Federal 
Register and includes the required information, the National Park 
Service is publishing this notice as submitted.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.10.

    Dated: February 16, 2024.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2024-03798 Filed 2-23-24; 8:45 am]
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