One-time Albany mascot skull turned over to tribe

ALBANY, Ore. (AP) — A human skull that once served as a college mascot in Albany has been turned over to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

KGW-TV reports the tribes received the skull Tuesday and planned a ceremony to bury it.

Linn County sheriff’s detectives re-examined a cold case last year, contacting a man who had taken the skull to his Sweet Home grade school when he was a boy in 1984 for show-and-tell.

The investigation traced the skull back to Albany College, which used a skull and crossbones for its Pirate mascot. The school moved to Portland in 1943 and is now Lewis and Clark College.

Anthropologists at the University of Oregon who examined the skull last year said it was from a woman, possibly Native American.

___

Information from: KGW-TV, http://www.kgw.com/