A long-standing rumor about the Smithsonian is that they’ve hidden skeletal remains, specifically giant-sized skeletons. While the media has been quick to jump on such claims as baseless, new reports from the mainstream show the Smithsonian does have a dubious history regarding mass quantities of human remains in storage. Dubious unless you think a “racial brain collection” sounds right.

Of course, it’s correct to shut down obviously fake social media posts that imply some kind of intentional conspiracy to conceal something. Still, much of the massive collection is indeed mysterious. And how the skeletons and brains got there is deeply disturbing.

Meanwhile, there are many articles about skeletons of Unique Physical Types (UPT), such as “gigantic humanoid skeletons with hyper elongated or high-vaulted crania,” found all over the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Some 30,700 Human Remains in Storage

Two recent Washington Post reports indicate the Smithsonian has held many thousands of human remains with no public inventory record. Not that this necessarily points to unusually large or otherwise unusual skeletons. But it does indicate we don’t know the full extent of what’s there.

“The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History holds more than 30,700 human remains in storage but has never publicly released a full inventory,” the Washington Post reported on Dec. 15.

While the Post has created the most comprehensive database to date about what’s in the collection, they stated, “The Post is not sharing the complete accession files because of the sensitivity of these materials. Some files, for example, could expose the location of undisclosed burial sites. Other files may include graphic descriptions of body parts, photographs of the remains or the deceased person’s name, though the vast majority of the body parts in the collection are unidentified.”

Almost certainly, many of the remains will remain in the collection because those with the legal right to them have to file a formal repatriation request. Yet, they may often not know such remains exist to begin with. Until 2020, such claims have only been applicable to “federally recognized Native American, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian communities.”

“In 2015, the museum created policies that would facilitate repatriation of human remains to foreign countries, and in 2020 to tribes that are not federally recognized,” the Post reported.

Skeltons from the United States, Egypt, Peru, and Mexico

After a yearlong investigation, the Post has released a public database of human remains, three-fourths of which were from the United States. But others were from places like Egypt, Peru, and Mexico.

If family members search the database for family names, they won’t find the record and must use more general terms. Only after requesting an “accession file number” from the Smithsonian can whole files be read. Would such records indicate Unique Physical Types without first-hand inspection? And how likely would that be?

“The Smithsonian requires people with a personal interest or legal right to the remains to issue a formal request, a virtual impossibility for many would-be claimants, since they are unaware of the collection’s existence,” the Post reported.

A White Supremacist Anthropologist/ Bone Doctor

Disturbingly, one of the main people behind acquiring the remains for 40 years was a known white supremacist, Ales Hrdlicka (hurd-lich-kuh). In his day, his colleagues considered him an expert on race and human variation. Even as recently as the 2000s, some museum employees celebrated his birthday each year.

And surprisingly, the American Association of Biological Anthropologists awarded the Ales Hrdlicka Prize until 2020. Today, a page on the Smithsonian still calls him “one of the world’s most prominent anthropologists.”

Keep in mind, Hrdlicka was active in eugenics, an immoral and racist theory about planned human breeding and involuntary sterilization. Yep, he wanted people who weren’t white sterilized.

It’s also known that he took part in exhuming indigenous graves for bones. For example, he shipped over 1,000 remains from Alaska, paying 10 cents to Alutiiq children to find bones.

“Ales Hrdlicka, a Smithsonian anthropologist, repeatedly traveled to this small community on Kodiak Island in the 1930s to exhume Indigenous graves. In what amounted to industrial-scale pillaging, he and a small team disinterred the remains of about 1,000 people and shipped them back to the Smithsonian’s U.S. National Museum, the precursor to the National Museum of Natural History,” the Post reported.

On another trip to Peru, Hrdlicka collected over 2000 skulls. Could any of them have been unusual?

Related: DNA Suggests Native Americans Arrived in Americas First – Or Did They?

Hrdlicka’s Name with Giant Skeletons

As Ancient Origins reported, Hrdlicka’s name is associated with some alleged giant skeletons in the Smithsonian’s U.S. National Museum. Yet he denied such skeletons existed. Did he have the motive to deny or cover up unusually tall Native American skeletal remains? Would white supremacists prefer not to acknowledge indigenous people with superior height? Probably, but then, the question remains why would such knowledge stay hidden long after Hrdlicka passed on?

Another Ancient Origins article states there are over 1000 accounts of skeletons over seven feet tall found all over the United States. Some of the accounts were documented in Smithsonian ethnology reports, while others were found in scientific journals, newspapers, and diaries.

Nevertheless, such unusual skeletons, described in newspapers as over seven and up to eighteen feet tall with large jawbones, have remained missing. In some examples, they were kept on public display but then removed after being repatriated by the NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act). 

Video about reports of giants by the HISTORY Channel:

Over 280 Human Brains in a ‘Racial Collection’

Another Washington Post report details a former Smithsonian employee, Karen Mudar, who came forward about over 280 brains in the collection. Once again, these remains were collected by the Smithsonian’s “bone doctor,” Ales Hrdlicka, for a “racial brain collection.”

He also had a “racial collection of pelvises.” Why? Hrdlicka wanted to find anatomical differences between human beings of different “races” and, of course, did not. Humans are humans, of one species but have evolved to suit various climates.

“Most of the brains were removed upon death from Black and Indigenous people and other people of color,” the Post reported.

Since her job was returning human remains to Native American tribes, it concerned Mudar when “decision makers” didn’t act to return the brains. Indeed, Mudar and other former employees have alleged they encountered resistance and even efforts to slow down their work. Here, we’re not talking about long ago, but in recent times.

“Five former employees who worked in the office in its early years told The Washington Post they encountered resistance from physical anthropologists at the Natural History Museum who wanted to keep some of the skeletal remains so they could continue conducting research on them.”

Given all this news, it makes you wonder what skeletons Hrdlicka may have put into permanent storage. Could some of them really be unusually large, even giant size? And, will any of them see the light of day again? Or will they stay hiding in dark closets, subjects of speculation forever?

Video by the Washington Post about the Smithsonian’s ‘Racial Brain Collection’

Featured image of Ales Hrdlicka via Wikipedia with a screenshot of large skulls from the Lovelock, Nevada Museum/YouTube