Both were later shown through genetics to belong within Indigenous American ancestry.

Both were ultimately repatriated.

The pattern mattered because it revealed the limits of older attempts to infer deep population identity from skull shape alone.

Human cranial morphology can vary for many reasons.

Similarity in measurements does not necessarily map neatly onto genetic ancestry.

Ancient populations can look different from later populations without being unrelated to them.

Genomics provided a different line of evidence.

The consequences were enormous.

The old narrative of mysterious early Americans disconnected from Native peoples became much harder to defend.

For tribes, the cases also demonstrated the danger of allowing scientific uncertainty to become a permanent veto over repatriation.