LOGAN (KYW Newsradio) — At its meeting on Thursday, the Philadelphia School Board is expected to authorize the return of a Native American skull found among the teaching resource materials at Central High School back in July 2021.
Back when the skull was found, the district called Dr. Kim Williams, chair of the anthropology department at Temple University, who determined that the skull was Native American.
She told KYW Newsradio that it wouldn’t have been unusual for Central High, founded in 1836, to have had skulls back then for research purposes.
"In Philadelphia in particular in the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, scientists around the world were collecting skulls," she said.
Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the district is required to repatriate the skull. It reached out to more than 100 tribal representatives, but none claimed the remains.
The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes eventually agreed to accept the skull for burial despite being unaffiliated with the remains.
Williams said an inventory of district high schools turned up no other remains.