Notice2025-23025
Notice of Inventory Completion: Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex, Waco, TX
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
December 17, 2025
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentNational Park Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex (formerly Baylor University's Strecker Museum; formerly Baylor University Museum) has completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects and has determined that there is no lineal descendant and no Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with cultural affiliation.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 240 (Wednesday, December 17, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 240 (Wednesday, December 17, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58612-58613]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-23025]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[N6673; NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0041413; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]
Notice of Inventory Completion: Baylor University's Mayborn
Museum Complex, Waco, TX
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex
(formerly Baylor University's Strecker Museum; formerly Baylor
University Museum) has completed an inventory of human remains and
associated funerary objects and has determined that there is no lineal
descendant and no Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with
cultural affiliation.
DATES: Upon request, repatriation of the human remains and associated
funerary objects in this notice may occur on or after January 16, 2026.
ADDRESSES: Send written requests for repatriation of the human remains
and associated funerary objects in this notice to Anita L. Benedict,
Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex, One Bear Place #97154,
Waco, TX 76798-7154, email <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f89996918c99a79a9d969d9c919b8cb89a998194978ad69d9c8d"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="b2d3dcdbc6d3edd0d7dcd7d6dbd1c6f2d0d3cbdeddc09cd7d6c7">[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 Baylor
University's Mayborn Museum Complex, 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, one individual have been
identified. The five associated funerary objects are one animal tooth;
one mussel valve; one (possibly pumice) rock; one lot of snail shells;
and one small black, cone-shaped piece of wood. The human remains were
removed from Valley Mills, Coryell County, Texas, on an unknown date
and donated to Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex (formerly the
Strecker Museum) in 1995. Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex
has no knowledge or record of the presence of any potentially hazardous
substances used to treat the human remains and associated funerary
objects.
Human remains representing, at least, one individual have been
identified. The 19 associated funerary objects are one possible toe or
small animal bone; one fossil bivalve shell; one modern bivalve shell;
one calcite mineral; one animal cranium and mandible (small mammal);
one gypsum mineral; one piece of petrified wood; one lot of smoky
quartz crystals; eight stone tools; one boar tusk; one unknown mineral;
and one worked rock. The human remains were removed from an unknown
location in Texas on an unknown date and donated to Baylor University's
Mayborn Museum Complex (formerly the Strecker Museum) in 1995. Baylor
University's Mayborn Museum Complex has no knowledge or record of the
presence of any potentially hazardous substances used to treat the
human remains and associated funerary objects.
Consultation
Invitations to consult were sent to the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of
Indians of Oklahoma; Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas; Alabama-
Quassarte Tribal Town; Apache Tribe of Oklahoma; Caddo Nation of
Oklahoma; Cherokee Nation; Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma;
Comanche Nation, Oklahoma; Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana; Delaware
Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Eastern Shawnee
Tribe of Oklahoma; Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Arizona; Fort Sill
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma; Jena Band of Choctaw Indians; Jicarilla
Apache Nation, New Mexico; Kialegee Tribal Town; Kickapoo Traditional
Tribe of Texas; Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation
in Kansas; Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma; Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma;
Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico;
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind
River Reservation, Wyoming; Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern
Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana; Poarch Band of Creek Indians; San
Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona; Shawnee
Tribe; The Chickasaw Nation; The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; The
Muscogee (Creek) Nation; The Osage Nation; Thlopthlocco Tribal Town;
Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma; Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona;
Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe; United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
in Oklahoma; White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache
Reservation, Arizona; Wichita
[[Page 58613]]
and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco, & Tawakonie), Oklahoma;
Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, Arizona;
and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.
The following Indian Tribes responded to the invitation but did not
participate in consultation: the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma; Cherokee
Nation; Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians;
Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico; Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma;
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians; Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana; Shawnee Tribe; The
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; The Muscogee (Creek) Nation; White Mountain
Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona; Yavapai-Apache
Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, Arizona; and the Ysleta
del Sur Pueblo.
The Indian Tribes who participated in consultations include: the
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma; Comanche Nation, Oklahoma; Kiowa
Indian Tribe of Oklahoma; and the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.
Cultural Affiliation
The following types of information about the cultural affiliation
of the human remains and associated funerary objects in this notice are
available: geographical. The information, including the results of
consultation, identified:
1. No earlier group connected to the human remains or associated
funerary object.
2. No Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization connected to the
human remains or associated funerary objects.
3. No relationship of shared group identity between the earlier
group and the Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization that can be
reasonably traced through time.
Determinations
Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex has determined that:
<bullet> The human remains described in this notice represent the
physical remains of two individuals of Native American ancestry.
<bullet> The 24 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> No known lineal descendant who can trace ancestry to the
human remains and associated funerary objects in this notice has been
identified.
<bullet> No Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with
cultural affiliation to the human remains and associated funerary
objects described in this notice has been clearly or reasonably
identified.
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 any lineal descendant,
Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization 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.
Upon request, repatriation of the human remains and associated
funerary objects described in this notice to a requestor may occur on
or after January 16, 2026. If competing requests for repatriation are
received, Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex 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. Baylor
University's Mayborn Museum Complex is responsible for sending a copy
of this notice to the Indian Tribes or 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: November 24, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-23025 Filed 12-16-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on December 17, 2025.
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