Code of Colorado Regulations
1504 - Department of Higher Education
1504 - Historical Society
8 CCR 1504-7 - HISTORICAL, PREHISTORICAL, AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES
Section 13 - Unmarked human graves
Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 5, March 10, 2024
A. On all nonfederal lands in Colorado, the discovery of unmarked human graves more than 100 years old shall cause the procedures defined in part 13 of the Act to take effect. Disinterment of human remains from such graves will require an excavation permit as provided for in Sections 4 through 8 of these regulations.
B. Upon notification of suspected human skeletal remains, the coroner, sheriff, police chief and/or land managing agency official shall coordinate their actions and share information.
C. Whenever possible, on-site inquiries under 24-80-1302(2) shall proceed in a manner which does not remove the human skeletal remains from the ground.
D. In the event that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I.) is requested to determine the forensic value of skeletal remains, C.B.I. shall report its findings to the county coroner, who shall notify the state archaeologist if the remains are human but of no forensic value.
E. Any concerned individual may notify the state archaeologist of a discovery, but it is the coroner's responsibility to determine forensic value.
F. Upon notification that human remains are Native American, the state archaeologist or his/her designee should determine the wishes of the landowner and the commission, and document this consultation with an official form to be signed by the concerned parties. The landowner's desires regarding his ability to protect the remains in situ, arrangements for exhumation when appropriate, and ultimate disposition shall be documented.
G. Pursuant to 24-80-1302(4)(e), the physical anthropological study of human remains shall be conducted by a qualified physical anthropologist with credentials comparable to those required for principal investigators, as set forth in Section 5 of these regulations.
H. The provisions of 24-80-1303 allow an anthropologist to expedite his/her work by arranging for the necessary permit in advance. In the case of planned anthropological investigations, a person applying for a permit under provisions of 24-80-1303 must agree to bear the costs of scientific study of human remains as a condition of such permit.
I. The criminal violation specified in 24-80-1303(1) pertains to knowingly disturbing unmarked human burials as defined in 24-80-1301, and not to inadvertent actions affecting human remains.
J. The state archaeologist, in consultation with the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, will determine if, when, and how Native American human remains and associated funerary objects collected under state permit are reinterred or repatriated in keeping with CRS 24-80-1302 and 1304 and the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (P.L. 101-601, 104 Stat. 3048).
