2024.04.43

Excerpts from the notice: "History and description of the remains On an unknown date after 1929, human remains representing, at minimum, three individuals were removed from the Saugatuck site (20AE1) in Allegan County, MI. Workers encountered the burials while constructing the foundation for Saugatuck City Hall. Sometime prior to 1964, the human remains were transferred to the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology (UMMAA) to be reposited. In 1935, George Quimby, an undergraduate student of Archeology studying at UMMAA, recorded in an unpublished report that several post-contact period objects were found in association with the burials. The objects were never transferred to the UMMAA and their current whereabouts are unknown. The human remains are of one child, 2-4 years old, indeterminate sex; one child, approximately 5 years old, indeterminate sex; and one adolescent, under 16 years old, indeterminate sex. No known individuals were identified. No associated funerary objects are present. The human remains have been determined to be Native American based on dental traits, burial treatment, and diagnostic artifacts. A relationship of shared group identity can be reasonably traced between the Native American human remains from this site and the Potawatomi and Ottawa based on multiple lines of evidence. The associated funerary objects noted from the site were typical of the types of goods traded in the region in A.D. 1700-1800. Quimby suggested that, based on a gorget with the American eagle emblem noted at the site, the burials slightly postdate the British monopoly on trade that lasted from 1780 to 1815. Additionally, records of the Saugatuck Historical Society and the UMMAA note that the Potawatomi and Ottawa were the predominant Indian Tribes in the area at the time these three individuals were buried, and that they used the area of the Saugatuck site as a cemetery until the 1860s." "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 under the control of the City of Saugatuck, Saugatuck, MI. The human remains were removed from the Saugatuck site (20AE1) in Allegan County, MI." As of August 2024, the online version of this document (2022-15547) was viewed 136 times.

0001 Anishinabek/Ojibwe/Odawa/Bodéwadmi

Winthers, Sally

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/21/2022-15547/notice-of-inventory-completion-city-of-saugatuck-saugatuck-mi

08/05/2024

08/05/2024