[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 38 (Monday, February 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14095-14096]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03804]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037462; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Ohio History Connection, 
Columbus, OH

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Ohio History Connection 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 Neilson Site (20-MR-501) in 
Monroe County, Michigan.

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

ADDRESSES: Nekole Alligood, NAGPRA Specialist, Ohio History Connection, 
800 E. 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43211, telephone (614) 297-2300, 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 the 
Ohio History Connection. 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 the Ohio 
History Connection.

Description

    On an unknown date the 20 individuals were removed from the Neilson 
Site by a private collector and put on temporary loan to the University 
of Toledo for ``study and analysis.'' The University of Toledo 
described them as Culturally Unidentifiable Inventory in 1995. At some 
point, the individuals were returned to the private collector and on an 
unknown date, the individuals were transferred to the Firelands 
Archaeological Research Center (FARC). In 2021 FARC transferred the 20 
individuals to Ohio History Connection. It was determined by the 
University of Toledo and Ohio

[[Page 14096]]

History Connection in April 2023 that legal control of the 20 Ancestors 
lays with the Ohio History Connection. The 96 associated funerary 
objects are six pre-contact ceramic sherds along with faunal remains, 
debitage (stone flakes), charcoal, and debris from the soils.

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: archeological information, geographical information, and 
indigenous knowledge from the consulting Tribes.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Ohio History Connection has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of 20 individuals of Native American ancestry.
     The 96 objects describe 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 Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of 
Indians of Oklahoma; Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of 
Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin; Bay Mills 
Indian Community, Michigan; Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's 
Reservation, Montana; Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern 
Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma; Forest County Potawatomi Community, 
Wisconsin; Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, 
Michigan; Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan; Keweenaw Bay Indian 
Community, Michigan; Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa 
Indians of Michigan; Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa 
Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin; Lac Vieux 
Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan; Little River 
Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan; Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa 
Indians of Montana; Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, 
Michigan; Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of 
Michigan; Miami Tribe of Oklahoma; Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota 
(Six component reservations: Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake); Fond du Lac 
Band; Grand Portage Band; Leech Lake Band; Mille Lacs Band; White Earth 
Band); Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan; Ottawa 
Tribe of Oklahoma; Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians; Michigan and 
Indiana; Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation; Red Cliff Band of Lake 
Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin; Red Lake Band of Chippewa 
Indians, Minnesota; Sac & Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and 
Nebraska; Sac & Fox Nation, Oklahoma; Sac & Fox Tribe of the 
Mississippi in Iowa; Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan; Sault 
Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan; Seneca Nation of 
Indians; Seneca-Cayuga Nation; Shawnee Tribe; Sokaogon Chippewa 
Community, Wisconsin; St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin; 
Tonawanda Band of Seneca; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of 
North Dakota; and the Wyandotte Nation.

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, the Ohio History 
Connection 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. The Ohio History Connection 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 after the effective date of the revised 
regulations (88 FR 86452, December 13, 2023, effective January 12, 
2024) but in the older format. 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. 2024-03804 Filed 2-23-24; 8:45 am]
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