Notice of Inventory Completion: Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, MI, 12767-12768 [2025-04616]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• National Park Service

[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 52 (Wednesday, March 19, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12767-12768]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-04616]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0039598; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Inventory Completion: Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand 
Rapids, MI

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 Grand Rapids Public Museum 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 April 18, 2025.

ADDRESSES: Alex Forist, Grand Rapids Public Museum, 272 Pearl Street 
NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 telephone (616) 929-1809, email 
[email protected].

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 
Grand Rapids Public Museum 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 14 associated funerary objects include one lot of bone 
and stone tools, one lot of shards, one lot of flint chips, and one lot 
of animal bones. The ancestral remains and related objects were 
acquired in 1878 from a burial mound in Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County, 
South Dakota excavated by Elliott H. Crane (b.1840-d. 1917). On July 
10, 1917, the Grand Rapids Public Museum purchased a substantial number 
of objects from the Crane Estate. Crane was a collector and proprietor 
of Crane's Museum in Grand Rapids who excavated mounds in the Midwest 
in the late 1800s. Thomas Porter (b. 1827-d. 1911) an artist in Grand 
Rapids made a sketch of the mound.

Cultural Affiliation

    Based on the information available and the results of consultation, 
cultural affiliation is reasonably identified by the geographical 
location or acquisition history of the human remains and associated 
funerary objects described in this notice.

Determinations

    The Grand Rapids Public Museum has determined that:
     The human remains described in this notice represent the 
physical remains of a minimum of one individual of Native American 
ancestry.
     The 14 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.
     There is a connection between the human remains and 
associated funerary objects described in this notice and the Cheyenne 
River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota; Crow 
Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota; 
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota; Lower Brule Sioux Tribe 
of the Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota; Lower Sioux Indian 
Community in the State of Minnesota; Oglala Sioux Tribe; Omaha Tribe of 
Nebraska; Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota; 
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota; 
Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska; Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of 
Minnesota; Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, 
South Dakota; Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota; Three 
Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North

[[Page 12768]]

Dakota; Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota; Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska; 
and the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.

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 April 18, 
2025. If competing requests for repatriation are received, the Grand 
Rapids Public Museum 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 Grand Rapids Public Museum 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: February 25, 2025.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2025-04616 Filed 3-18-25; 8:45 am]
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