[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16016-16017]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04669]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0037541; 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

[[Page 16017]]

in this notice. The human remains were removed from Crawford County, 
AR.

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

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, one individual were removed 
from Crawford County, AR. The individual (VM-079) was collected on an 
unknown date and was obtained by Raymond C. Vietzen (1907-1995). 
Vietzen, an avocational archeologist, collector, 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 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, linguistics, 
and oral tradition.

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 one individual 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 Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and The Osage 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 April 5, 2024. If competing requests for repatriation 
are received, Mercyhurst University must determine 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 Tribes 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. 2024-04669 Filed 3-5-24; 8:45 am]
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