Notice of Inventory Completion: Bruce Museum, Inc., Greenwich, CT, 48559-48560 [2020-17487]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 155 (Tuesday, August 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48559-48560]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-17487]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0030597; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Bruce Museum, Inc., Greenwich, CT

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Bruce Museum has completed an inventory of human remains 
and associated funerary objects, in consultation with the appropriate 
Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, and has determined that 
there is a cultural affiliation between the human remains and 
associated funerary objects and present-day Indian Tribes or Native 
Hawaiian organizations. Lineal descendants or representatives of any 
Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this 
notice that wish to request transfer of control of these human remains 
and associated funerary objects should submit a written request to the 
Bruce Museum. If no additional requestors come forward, transfer of 
control of the human remains and associated funerary objects to the 
lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations 
stated in this notice may proceed.

DATES: Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or 
Native Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
request transfer of control of these human remains and associated 
funerary objects should submit a written request with information in 
support of the request to the Bruce Museum at the address in this 
notice by September 10, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Kirsten J. Reinhardt, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bruce Museum Inc., 
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830, telephone (203) 413-6770, email 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 and 
associated funerary objects under the control of the Bruce Museum Inc., 
Greenwich, CT. The human remains and associated funerary objects were 
removed from the Cobb Island Drive Site, Greenwich Municipal Building 
Site, and the Gravel Pit Old Greenwich Site, Fairfield County, CT.
    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 and associated funerary objects. The National 
Park Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice.

Consultation

    A detailed assessment of the human remains was made by the Bruce 
Museum professional staff in consultation with representatives of the 
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of Indians; Mashantucket 
Pequot Indian Tribe (previously listed as Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of 
Connecticut); Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut (previously 
listed as Mohegan Indian Tribe of Connecticut); and the Narragansett 
Indian Tribe (hereafter referred to as ``The Consulted Tribes'').

History and Description of the Remains

    In 1927, human remains representing, at minimum, seven individuals 
were removed from the Cobb Island Drive Site in Fairfield, CT, by Paul 
G. Howes. Howes, a curator at the Bruce Museum, examined local earth-
moving construction projects after the initial digging was complete, 
where ``unearthed in shallow ground 2\1/2\ feet deep, at Cos Cob, all 
pieces of bones and parts of several skulls, including infants and some 
deer bone were found together helter skelter'' (Bruce Museum accession 
card number 6795). Howes described an ``Extensive collection (four 
boxes) of badly deteriorated and incomplete human skeletal remains 
representing a woman and a child, possibly others, recovered from a 
shallow, 2'6'' to 4' deep pit that also contained crushed white-tailed 
deer bones'' (Bruce Museum exhibition label, c. 1927). Another label 
reads, ``This badly broken cranium was found two feet below the surface 
at Cos Cob Connecticut in May, 1927. A few of the fragments have been 
fitted together showing a long narrow skull, the shape of which is 
doubtless due in part to pressure after burial. The skull is that of a 
female considerably younger than the Old Greenwich (Gravel Pit, Old 
Greenwich Site) find and was possibly an Indian burial.'' It appears 
that Howes returned to the site ten years later. Another exhibition 
label, c. 1938 reads, ``The incomplete skeleton shown here is that of a 
woman. The bones were unearthed at Cos Cob in October 1937 and they are 
very old, so old indeed that it was necessary to especially treat them 
to prevent their eventual falling to pieces. They were in a shallow 
grave (four feet) and with them were other bones, some of the white-
tailed deer and other mammals; others were human remains from which the 
frontal part of a child's skull was reconstructed.''
    The seven individuals include one probable male, 30-40 years old; 
one probable female, 20-25 years old; one probable male, 20-30 years 
old; one female, 15-20 years old; one female, 18-22 years old; one 
infant, one-to-two years old; and one infant one-and-a-half to two 
years old of indeterminate sex. No known individuals were identified. 
No associated funerary objects are present.

[[Page 48560]]

    In 1959, human remains representing, at minimum, six individuals 
were removed from the Greenwich Municipal Building Site, in Fairfield, 
CT. The human remains were discovered and brought to the Bruce Museum 
by four boys, ages 12-15, Archie and Barry Walker, Eugene Angeley, and 
Charles Stumps. The exact location of burial site is unknown, but it is 
believed to be in the vicinity of the Town of Greenwich Department of 
Parks & Recreation storage facility building (built before 1951), 
located west of Indian Field Road and north of Davis Avenue, and in the 
public space known as Bruce Park. An accession record reads, ``These 
bones, evidently parts of at least two skeletons were found on a dump 
(in) back of Building Department Work Shop. Evidently a disturbed 
burying ground and probably Indian, pierced shells and worn end of 
stone pestle having been found close to the remains by these boys.'' 
Whether the human remains were unearthed elsewhere and dumped on this 
site, or were actually unearthed at the site is not clear. Although no 
record of a Town of Greenwich Building Department Work Shop exists, the 
Town of Greenwich Department of Parks & Recreation storage facility 
building in Bruce Park is still used as a dump site for soil.
    The human remains include one probable female, 20-25 years old; two 
adolescents 9-10 years old of indeterminate sex; one probable male, 18-
20 years old; one probable male, age unknown; and one possible female, 
9-10 years old. No known individuals were identified. The seven 
associated funerary objects are three pierced oyster shells, two 
pierced clam shells, one basalt adze fragment, and one granite cobble.
    In July 1936, human remains representing, at minimum, one 
individual were removed from the Gravel Pit Old Greenwich Site, in 
Fairfield County, CT. A steam shovel working in a gravel pit exposed 
the human remains of one partial human skull and possibly a kitchen 
midden or refuse pit. As reported by Bernard W. Powell (Bulletin of the 
Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 23, No. 2, January 1962, p. 
28): ``Workmen accidentally uncovered the burial while stripping gravel 
and turned the skull over to local police. After a lapse of some days, 
the find was brought to the attention of P.G. Howes, Curator of Bruce 
Museum. Together with P.T. Jones, (Bruce Museum custodian/caretaker) he 
went to the site and attempted to recover whatever else might be 
disclosed. Unfortunately, finds were minimal since most material had by 
then been removed . . . H.L. Shapiro of the American Museum of Natural 
History subsequently examined the cranium, and Howes quotes him as 
having said that such an angular, flat-sided skull with pentagonal 
shaped roof is characteristic of Indians, but Shapiro would not say 
positively that the find was Indian. The record concluded that the 
burial was evidently about 3\1/2\' deep in glacial sands and gravel, 
and was evidently a midden type interment.'' Howes reported on an 
accession card that ``the find was worked for days, but only the above 
items were recovered.'' Howes indicated that the shells and quartz 
chips were ``associated with the burial.''
    The human remains are of a probable male, 40-50 years old. No known 
individuals were identified. The six associated funerary objects are 
one lot of common slipper shells/fragments, one lot of scallop shells/
fragments, one lot of hard shell clams/fragments; one lot of softshell 
clams/fragments, one lot of oyster fragments, and one lot of quartz 
debitage.
    All the human remains in this notice were determined to be Native 
American by Connecticut State Archaeologist, Nicholas Bellantoni, who 
with Ed Sarabia, Tlingit, Indian Affairs Coordinator, Connecticut 
Commission on Indian Affairs, performed a skeletal and dentition 
analysis on October 25, 1995. The period associated with these three 
sites is unknown, as no reliable temporal indictors were recovered or 
recorded. An absence of pottery suggests a Late Archaic designation, 
but no other diagnostic artifacts were recovered to provide 
confirmation. Published site reports include historical references to 
Native American peoples in this area (Suggs 1956; Powell 1958; Wiegand 
1987; and Snow 1980:319-335).
    The historical presence of both the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan 
Tribes in the area now encompassed within the State of Connecticut is 
known. Also, geographical, folkloric, oral traditional, and historical 
information support a relationship of shared group identity which can 
be reasonably traced between the present-day Mashantucket Pequot and 
Mohegan Tribes and the pre-contact Eastern Lenni Lenape who inhabited 
the region which includes the present Town of Greenwich. As presented 
in The Lasting of the Mohegans Part I: The Story of the Wolf People 
(1995) by Melissa Jane Fawcett, a Mohegan Tribal Historian, tribal 
tradition recounts the origin story of the Mohegan as one of the three 
original Lenni Lenape clans. Recounted in the Tale of Chahnameed, the 
Wolf Clan (known as the Mohiksinug or Mohegans) eventually migrated to 
upstate New York, ``moved to the Connecticut coast, where they were 
named Pequotaug, translated as ``Invaders.'' The name was eventually 
shortened to Pequot and adopted by the Mohegans for regular use.''

Determinations Made by the Bruce Museum, Inc.

    Officials of the Bruce Museum, Inc. have determined that:
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(9), the human remains described 
in this notice represent the physical remains of 14 individuals of 
Native American ancestry.
     Pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(A), the 13 objects described 
in this notice are reasonably believed to have been placed with or near 
individual human remains at the time of death or later as part of the 
death rite or ceremony.
     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 associated funerary objects and the 
Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe (previously listed as Mashantucket 
Pequot Tribe of Connecticut) and the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of 
Connecticut (previously listed as Mohegan Indian Tribe of Connecticut), 
hereafter referred to as ``The Tribes.''

Additional Requestors and Disposition

    Lineal descendants or representatives of any Indian Tribe or Native 
Hawaiian organization not identified in this notice that wish to 
request transfer of control of these human remains and associated 
funerary objects should submit a written request with information in 
support of the request Kirsten J. Reinhardt, NAGPRA Coordinator, Bruce 
Museum Inc., 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830, telephone (914) 671-
9321, email [email protected], by September 10, 2020. After 
that date, if no additional requestors have come forward, transfer of 
control of the human remains and associated funerary objects to The 
Tribes may proceed.
    The Bruce Museum, Inc. is responsible for notifying The Consulted 
Tribes that this notice has been published.

    Dated: July 7, 2020.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2020-17487 Filed 8-10-20; 8:45 am]
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