FR Doc 05-3321
[Federal Register: February 22, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 34)]
[Notices]               
[Page 8633]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22fe05-123]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

 
Notice of Inventory Completion: U.S. Department of the Interior, 
Fish and Wildlife Service, Great Lakes and Big Rivers Region, Fort 
Snelling, MN

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 
U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Great 
Lakes-Big Rivers Region, Fort Snelling, MN. The human remains were 
removed from the area of Ottawa, La Salle County, IL.
    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 these 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 U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service professional staff in consultation with 
representatives of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago 
Tribe of Nebraska.
    In the 1920s, human remains representing one individual were 
removed from an unspecified site near Ottawa, La Salle County, IL. The 
remains consist of the frontal portion of a skull, including the upper 
and lower jaws. No known individual was identified. No associated 
funerary objects are present.
    U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents seized the human remains as 
part of an investigation of illegal trafficking of Native American 
human remains [18 U.S.C. 1170 (a)]. Subsequent examination by an 
anthropologist and testing of the human remains revealed that they are 
of an approximately 24-year-old Native American female that 
lived sometime between A.D. 1030 and 1290. On July 25th, 2002, U.S. 
District Court Magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan ordered that control of 
the human remains be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
for purposes of repatriation.
    Consultation with representatives of the Ho-Chunk Nation of 
Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska indicate that the area of 
Ottawa, IL, was occupied by Winnebago people from A.D. 500 to 1600. The 
present-day Indian tribes most closely associated with the 
Winnebago people are the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and 
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.
    Officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 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 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service 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 Ho-Chunk 
Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.
    Representatives of any other Indian tribe that believes itself to 
be culturally affiliated with the human remains should contact Mary 
Jane Lavin, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
P.O. Box 45, Federal Building, Fort Snelling, MN 55111-4056, 
telephone (612) 713-5320, before March 24, 2005. Repatriation of 
the human remains to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska may begin after 
that if no additional claimants come forward.
    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for notifying the 
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska that 
this notice has been published.

Sherry Hutt,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 05-3321 Filed 2-18-05; 8:45 am]

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