[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16013-16014]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04663]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037530; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Milwaukee Public Museum, 
Milwaukee, WI

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 Milwaukee Public Museum 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 Marinette County, WI.

DATES: Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary 
objects in this notice may occur on or after April 5, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Dawn Scher Thomae, Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 W Wells 
Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233, telephone (414) 278-6157, 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 
Milwaukee Public Museum. 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 Milwaukee 
Public Museum.

Description

    Human remains representing, at minimum, one individual were removed 
from Marinette County, WI. In 1964, historic burials were excavated at 
the Potato Rapids site (47-MT-79) located along the Peshtigo River just 
upstream of the Highway-64 Bridge near the town of Peshtigo and the 
Potato Rapids power plant in Porterfield Township,

[[Page 16014]]

Marinette County, WI. Members of the Wisconsin Archaeological Society 
conducted the excavations under the supervision of Robert J. Hruska, 
then Curator of Anthropology at the Oshkosh Public Museum. The 
individual was then donated to the Milwaukee Public Museum by Hruska 
and the Wisconsin Archaeological Society on June 6th, 1967. The 
individual is a complete female that has associated funerary objects in 
a suspended matrix within a plaster jacket and two metal poles attached 
along the length serve as handles for transport. The 12 associated 
funerary objects include birch bark fragments, two silver brooches, one 
lot of black glass beads (>50), fabric fragments, a metal cup, a belt 
buckle, a knife handle or pocketknife, a saucer or plate, brooch or 
gorget, metal fragments, and fur fragments.
    The Potato Rapids Burial site (47-MT-79) is located within the 
ancestral territory of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and 
within the area occupied by the Menominee during the early to mid-19th 
century. According to the Treaty with the Menominee of 1836, a section 
of land including the site was ceded by the Menominee to the United 
States Federal Government. Additionally, a map of Indian Villages c. 
1830 in the Wisconsin Region of Michigan Territory from Helen Hornbeck 
Tanner's book, ``Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History'', shows several 
Menominee villages located in the vicinity of the site. In 2000, a 
burial from the same site was affiliated with and repatriated to the 
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin by the Oshkosh Public Museum.

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: geographical information, historical information, and 
expert opinion.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the Milwaukee Public Museum has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of one individual of Native American ancestry.
     The 12 objects described in this notice were 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 Menominee Indian Tribe of 
Wisconsin.

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 April 5, 2024. If 
competing requests for repatriation are received, the Milwaukee Public 
Museum 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 Milwaukee Public Museum 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 27, 2024.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2024-04663 Filed 3-5-24; 8:45 am]
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