BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Part of a human skull found by a kayaker along the Big Blue River in southeastern Nebraska has been identified as that of an early American Indian.

The remains are being turned over the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Gage County Sheriff Millard Gustafson says the discovery was made northwest of Beatrice on a river sandbar the evening of June 27. Gustafson says the kayaker first believed it was a turtle shell, but upon closer inspection, thought it might be part of a human skull and called sheriff’s officials.

The item was sent to the Forensic Anthropological Consultants Laboratory in Manhattan, Kansas and was identified as a human frontal bone.