[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 160 (Thursday, August 20, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42106-42107]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-19975]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service


Notice of Inventory Completion: New York University College of 
Dentistry, New York, NY

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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    Notice is here given in accordance with the Native American Graves 
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 25 U.S.C. 3003, of the 
completion of an inventory of human remains in the possession of the 
New York University College of Dentistry, New York, NY. The human 
remains were removed from Bronx County, NY.
    This notice is published as part of the National Park Service's 
administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA, 25 U.S.C. 3003 (d)(3). 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
museum, institution, or Federal agency that has control of the Native 
American human remains. The National Park Service is not responsible 
for the determinations in this notice.
    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by New York 
University College of Dentistry professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe 
(part of the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma); and Stockbridge Munsee 
Community, Wisconsin.
    In 1911, human remains representing a minimum of one individual 
were removed from a grave at Broadway and Isham Streets, Inwood, New 
York, NY, by Reginald P. Bolton. In 1917, the human remains were 
accessioned by the Department of Physical Anthropology at the Museum of 
the American Indian, Heye Foundation. In 1956, the human remains were 
transferred to Dr. Theodore Kazamiroff, New York University College of 
Dentistry. No known individual was identified. No associated funerary 
objects are present.
    Museum of the American Indian records identify the locality of 
origin of the human remains as ``Aboriginal burial, Broadway and Isham 
Streets, New York City.'' This location is in present-day Inwood, on 
the island of Manhattan, New York City, Bronx County. The cranial 
morphology of the human remains is consistent with an individual of 
Native American ancestry. Objects found at the Broadway and Isham 
Street location, but not in the museum's collection, suggest that the 
site dates to the late Late Woodland, Protohistoric or early Historic 
Periods, A.D. 1400-1650. The Inwood area is documented historically, 
archeologically and by tribal traditions as the territory of the Munsee 
Delaware-speaking people since at least the Late Woodland period. 
Manhattan was largely vacated by the Munsee during the late 17th and 
early 18th centuries, and the Munsee of Manhattan joined other Munsee 
communities to their north and west. Some Munsee people became part of 
the Stockbridge community that eventually settled in Wisconsin. Today, 
their descendants are members of the Stockbridge Munsee Community, 
Wisconsin. Other Munsee were integrated into Unami Delaware-speaking 
groups who moved through the Midwest and/or Texas before settling on 
reservation land in Oklahoma. Today, these groups are known as the 
Delaware Nation of Oklahoma and the Delaware Tribe of the Cherokee 
Nation, Oklahoma.

[[Page 42107]]

Consultation evidence supports the identification of the human remains 
from the Broadway and Isham Streets site as Munsee and their cultural 
affiliation with the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of the 
Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma; and Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin.
    Officials of New York University College of Dentistry have 
determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (9-10), the human remains 
described above represent the physical remains of one individual of 
Native American ancestry. Officials of New York University College of 
Dentistry also have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001 (2), 
there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably 
traced between the Native American human remains and the Delaware 
Nation of Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma; 
and Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Dr. 
Louis Terracio, New York University College of Dentistry, 345 East 24th 
St., New York, NY 10010, telephone (212) 998-9917, before September 21, 
2009. Repatriation of the human remains to the Delaware Nation of 
Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma; and 
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin, may proceed after that date if 
no additional claimants come forward.
    The New York University College of Dentistry is responsible for 
notifying the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of the 
Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma; and Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin 
that this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 24, 2009.
Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. E9-19975 Filed 8-19-09; 8:45 am]
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