diff --git a/.github/workflows/unittests.yml b/.github/workflows/unittests.yml
index 5ac24eb20..c56bb5055 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/unittests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/unittests.yml
@@ -69,7 +69,6 @@ jobs:
 
           geodatasets.fetch("nybb")
           geodatasets.fetch("geoda liquor_stores")
-          geodatasets.fetch("eea large_rivers")
           geodatasets.fetch("geoda groceries")
           geodatasets.fetch("geoda guerry")
           libpysal.examples.fetch_all()
diff --git a/libpysal/graph/_utils.py b/libpysal/graph/_utils.py
index 411779479..bed5ed368 100644
--- a/libpysal/graph/_utils.py
+++ b/libpysal/graph/_utils.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ def _neighbor_dict_to_edges(neighbors, weights=None):
                 FutureWarning,
             )
             idxs = idxs.fillna(pd.Series(idxs.index, index=idxs.index))  # self-loops
-    heads, tails = idxs.index.values, idxs.values
+    heads, tails = idxs.index.to_numpy(), idxs.to_numpy()
     tails = tails.astype(heads.dtype)
     if weights is not None:
         with warnings.catch_warnings():
diff --git a/libpysal/graph/base.py b/libpysal/graph/base.py
index dce9ef605..d9e7bb588 100644
--- a/libpysal/graph/base.py
+++ b/libpysal/graph/base.py
@@ -1853,8 +1853,13 @@ def asymmetry(self, intrinsic=True):
                 zip(np.arange(self.unique_ids.shape[0]), self.unique_ids, strict=True)
             )
             focal, neighbor = np.nonzero(wd)
-            focal = focal.astype(self._adjacency.index.dtypes["focal"])
-            neighbor = neighbor.astype(self._adjacency.index.dtypes["focal"])
+            dtype = (
+                self._adjacency.index.dtypes["focal"]
+                if self._adjacency.index.dtypes["focal"] != "str"
+                else "object"
+            )
+            focal = focal.astype(dtype)
+            neighbor = neighbor.astype(dtype)
             for i in i2id:
                 focal[focal == i] = i2id[i]
                 neighbor[neighbor == i] = i2id[i]
diff --git a/libpysal/graph/tests/test_base.py b/libpysal/graph/tests/test_base.py
index 3b3ff3392..92cd36026 100644
--- a/libpysal/graph/tests/test_base.py
+++ b/libpysal/graph/tests/test_base.py
@@ -56,7 +56,8 @@ def setup_method(self):
             self.weight_dict_str_binary.values(),
             name="weight",
             index=pd.MultiIndex.from_arrays(
-                [self.index_str, self.neighbor_dict_str.values()],
+                # list() to allow pandas to coerce the data to its StringDtype
+                [list(self.index_str), self.neighbor_dict_str.values()],
                 names=["focal", "neighbor"],
             ),
         )
@@ -457,7 +458,8 @@ def test_from_dicts(self):
         pd.testing.assert_series_equal(
             g._adjacency,
             self.adjacency_str_binary,
-            check_dtype=False,
+            check_dtype=True,
+            check_index_type=False,
         )
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("y", [3, 5])
@@ -617,7 +619,6 @@ def test_cardinalities(self):
             [3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 2, 0],
             index=pd.Index(
                 ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j"],
-                dtype="object",
                 name="focal",
             ),
             name="cardinalities",