Notice2023-06477
Notice of Inventory Completion: New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
March 29, 2023
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the New Jersey State Museum 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 in this notice. The human remains were removed from Monmouth County, NJ.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 60 (Wednesday, March 29, 2023)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 60 (Wednesday, March 29, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18582-18583]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06477]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035564; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Inventory Completion: New Jersey State Museum, Trenton,
NJ
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the New Jersey State Museum 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 in this notice. The human remains were removed
from Monmouth County, NJ.
DATES: Repatriation of the human remains in this notice may occur on or
after April 28, 2023.
ADDRESSES: Dr. Gregory D. Lattanzi, New Jersey State Museum, 205 West
State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625, telephone (609) 984-9327, email
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#adcadfc8cac2dfd483c1ccd9d9ccc3d7c4eddec2de83c3c783cac2db"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="8deaffe8eae2fff4a3e1ecf9f9ece3f7e4cdfee2fea3e3e7a3eae2fb">[email protected]</span></a>.
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
New Jersey State 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
[[Page 18583]]
in the inventory or related records held by the New Jersey State
Museum.
Description
Human remains representing, at minimum, one individual were removed
from Monmouth County, NJ. In May of 2020, the Executive Director of the
New Jersey State Museum received a package mailed from Tennessee.
Inside the package were a letter and a partial cranium. At the time,
the State Museum was shut down because of Covid-19, and the package
remained secure in the director's office. Close to two years later,
when the State Museum reopened, the Executive Director presented Dr.
Gregory Lattanzi with both the ancestral remains and the accompanying
letter. These ancestral remains had been discovered and identified in a
residential homeowner's backyard in 1964, during construction in the
Town of Keansburg, in Monmouth County, NJ. After the homeowner
contacted the Geology Department at Rutgers University (the
Anthropology Department had not yet been established), Dr. Bennett
Smith and students from Rutgers excavated the ancestral remains. One of
the students kept the partial cranium until May of 2020, when he mailed
it to the New Jersey State Museum.
Further communication with the individual who had mailed the letter
and the ancestral remains revealed that, initially, a complete skeleton
had been uncovered along with associated funerary objects and that this
collection had been brought back to Rutgers University but that, once
back at the University, almost all the ancestral remains were discarded
except for the partial cranium now located in the New Jersey State
Museum. No known individual was identified. 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: archeological and
historical.
Determinations
Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian
organizations, the New Jersey State Museum has determined that:
<bullet> The human remains described in this notice represent the
physical remains of one individual of Native American ancestry.
<bullet> There is a relationship of shared group identity that can
be reasonably traced between the human remains described in this notice
and the Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of Indians; and the
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin.
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 28, 2023. If competing requests for
repatriation are received, the New Jersey State Museum 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. The New Jersey State Museum 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, 10.10,
and 10.14.
Dated: March 22, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-06477 Filed 3-28-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on March 29, 2023.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.