THE University of Edinburgh has completed a historic repatriation of ancestral remains to the United States.

Skulls of six people from the Muscogee Nation were in 1858 gifted to Edinburgh’s Phrenological Society — adherents to pseudoscience promoting racial superiority based on skull measurements — before being passed to the university’s Department of Anatomy in 1886.

Welcoming the return, principal chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, David Hill, said: “We had to travel more than 4,000 miles and cross an ocean to receive the kind of dignity and decency that we still cannot find here at home.

“There are ancestors still not whole that are kept by institutions here in America. 

“We can only hope that this incredible gesture will inspire these institutions to do the same, and move these continuing injustices in the right direction and on the right side of history.”

Anatomy chair at the university Professor Tom Gillingwater said: ”Caring for and addressing the history of our collections is a key responsibility for the university.

“I am honoured to have been able to play a part in returning these ancestral remains to the Muscogee Nation.”