Notice2025-10018
Notice of Inventory Completion: University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Primary source
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Published
June 3, 2025
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) 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.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 105 (Tuesday, June 3, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 3, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23542-23543]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-10018]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0040181; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Inventory Completion: University of Florida, Florida
Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
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 University of Florida, Florida Museum of
Natural History (FLMNH) 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.
DATES: Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary
objects in this notice may occur on or after July 3, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Megan Fry, NAGPRA Coordinator and Bioarchaeologist,
University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, 1659 Museum
Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, telephone (352) 273-1921, email
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fc91999b9d92d29a8e85bc9a90938e95989d91898f998991d2899a90d2999889"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="274a424046490941555e67414b48554e43464a525442524a0952414b09424352">[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
FLMNH, and additional information on the determinations in this notice,
including the results of consultation, can be found in its inventory or
related records. The National Park Service is not responsible for the
determinations in this notice.
Abstract of Information Available
Human remains representing, at least, 281 individuals have been
identified from across the Amelia Island North Cemetery and Ossuary,
the Amelia Island South Cemetery, and the Harrison Homestead/Dorian
sites (8NA61/8NA41d). There are a total of 2,341 associated funerary
objects including beads, shell, daub, fauna, flora, ceramic, soil, and
other objects. These collections were excavated in the 1970s and in the
late 1980s. In the early 1970s, excavations were performed at Harrison
Homestead through a museum expedition by E. Thomas Hemmings. Then, in
the late 1980s, archaeologists from the FLMNH in conjunction with Dr.
Clark Larsen of the University of North Carolina excavated the Ossuary,
the North Cemetery, and South Cemetery.
The Amelia Island North Cemetery and Ossuary, also called the
Mission Santa Catalina de Guale de Santa Maria (Acc. 89-6), was
excavated by the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) under the
direction of Jerald Milanich and Rebecca Saunders, in 1989. There were
approximately 98 inhumations and an Ossuary. Of the 98 inhumations, 94
were reinterred in 1993 at the site of the Harrison Family Cemetery,
approximately 300m from the original burial location. Those which were
reinterred are not counted in this Notice and have never been reported
to National NAGPRA on an inventory. The Ossuary produced an additional
80 individuals as well as two coffin burials (labelled ``Primary A''
and ``Primary B''). The human remains obtained from the backfill/spoil
(MNI=10) were also not part of the 1993 reburial. The Ossuary (MNI=80),
backfill (MNI=10), coffin burials (MNI=2), and four inhumations from
the North Cemetery are included in this notice (total MNI=96). There
are 447 associated funerary objects including beads, bone tools, faunal
bones, shells, and glass objects, pottery fragments and soil found
within the cemetery boundaries
[[Page 23543]]
(22N to 38N and 50W to 66W) split between the Florida Archaeology
(n=275) and Environmental Archaeology (n=172) divisions.
The Amelia Island South Cemetery, also called Santa Maria de los
Yamassee (Acc. 89-5; FM EAP 0477), was excavated in 1989. The catalog
record notes that the excavation occurred partially under the direction
of the Piper Archaeological Research, Inc. of St. Petersburg, Florida
and partially under the direction of Jerald Milanich and Rebecca
Saunders of the FLMNH. All material was transferred to FLMNH. The human
remains were loaned to Clark Larsen of the University of North Carolina
prior to 1992, and at some unknown date, were returned to FLMNH. The
cemetery houses at least 183 Ancestors across 118 burial numbers (or
139 with A and B notations), as well as one burial labelled ``Bluff
Burial'' which came from the bluff just outside of the cemetery
context. The total MNI for the South Cemetery is 184 Ancestors. Burials
sheets from the time of excavation indicate some artifacts were found
with the burials. These primarily include objects like brass aglet,
shell beads, glass beads, glass objects. There are 1,876 associated
funerary objects including the above-mentioned artifact types as well
as soil from the cemeteries found within the cemetery boundaries (120S
to 102S and 66W to 77W) and split between the Florida Archaeology
(n=1,584) and Environmental Archaeology (n=292) divisions.
The Harrison Homestead site, also called the Dorian (or Darian)
site (Acc. 74-42; 73-20; 4113; FM EAP 0115) is listed as 8NA41 on the
Amelia Island Plantation. In 1971, test excavations in shell middens at
the site (south of the mission churches) were carried out by E. Thomas
Hemmings of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the request of
Amelia Island Plantation (Hemmings and Deagan 1973). Human skeletal
remains (accession 73-20) were found (one fragment of tibia and
fragmentary bones from a second individual). It was concluded that the
context of the remains was pre-mission and could ``be as old as some
Orange Incised sherds (1650-1000 B.C.) found a few feet further to the
south at a slightly higher elevation'' (Bullen in Hemmings and Deagan
1973:77). A Bullen et al. (1973) report notes that the Ancestor was
found 1.3 feet below a later St. Augustine Period shell midden. They
surmise that the Ancestor was deposited during the Orange Period. They
note ``no artifacts were present with the burial, but Feature 11, a
group of Orange Incised sherds, was also exposed in the wall of Trench
B, a few feet south and a slightly higher level than the grave floor.''
The site has an MNI of one (listed as FS19 and FS21) based on catalog
records. There are no repeating elements and no indication that they
were of different ages or sex. Burial 19 appears to be an adult male.
Burial 21 is represented by a single element (tibial midshaft) with a
periosteal reaction, indicative of osteomyelitis. Note found with
burial reads: ``FS#19 Burial 1- exposed in a backhoe trench and
partially removed by the machine, but also may not have been originally
undisturbed and complete as little other bone was recovered in the
backhoe backdirt . . . FS#21 one tibia frag[ment] from backdirt, Trench
B.'' This indicates that they were likely one individual that was
recorded as FS19 and FS 21 but labeled as ``Burial 1'' and were later
renumbered using the FS numbers, although the original excavators did
not indicate two separate burials. There are 18 associated funerary
objects including the ceramic sherds, shells, florals, and stones from
the site split between the Florida Archaeological (n=12) and
Environmental Archaeology (n=6) divisions.
It is also important to note that sometime between 1989 or 1992,
Ancestors from both the North and South Cemeteries were sampled for
isotopic analysis and sent to the University of California, San Diego.
Those samples were not in the possession or control of FLMNH at the
time of this notice and are housed at the University of California, San
Diego.
The FLMNH undertook building wide fumigation with Vikane (sulfuryl
fluoride) several times since this collection has entered the museum.
No other exposure to potentially hazardous substances is known to
FLMNH.
Cultural Affiliation
Based on the information available and the results of consultation
cultural affiliation is reasonably identified by the geographical
location of the human remains described in this notice.
Determinations
The FLMNH has determined that:
<bullet> The human remains described in this notice represent the
physical remains of 281 individuals of Native American ancestry.
<bullet> The 2,341 objects described in this notice are reasonably
believed to have been placed intentionally with or near individual
human remains at the time of death or later as part of the death rite
or ceremony.
<bullet> There is a connection between the human remains and
associated funerary objects described in this notice and the Seminole
Tribe of Florida and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
Requests for Repatriation
Written requests for repatriation of the human remains and
associated funerary objects in this notice must be sent to the
authorized representative identified in this notice under 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 an Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with
cultural affiliation.
Repatriation of the human remains and associated funerary objects
described in this notice to a requestor may occur on or after July 3,
2025. If competing requests for repatriation are received, the FLMNH
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 FLMNH is responsible for sending a copy of this notice to
the Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations identified in this
notice.
Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act,
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.10.
Dated: May 13, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-10018 Filed 6-2-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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