Geronimo's Ancestors Have a Bone to Pick with a Yale Secret Society
JUNE 22, 2009 TAGS:
The Justice Department today is seeking to quash a lawsuit filed by the Apache Native American tribe in federal court in February seeking punitive damages and the return of Geronimo’s skull and other body parts, supposedly stolen from the former Apache chief’s gravesite in Fort Sill, Texas.
Legend has it that the Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society, raided Geronimo’s tomb in 1918 (future U.S. Senator of political progenitor, Prescott bush, is rumored to have been among the thieving party) and that Geronimo’s skull still resides in the group’s New Haven, Conn. clubhouse. The lawsuit named members of the administration, including President Obama, as co-defendants as the remains were taken from land owned by the federal government.
The tribe is also suing Yale and the Skull and Bones claiming that the groups violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA), which safeguards the right of Native American to their family’s remains against federally funded institutions like museums or in the case of Yale, institutions of higher learning.
Yale claims no affiliation with the secret society and the corporate entity of the Skull and Bones denies the allegation that they have the skull in the first place. The federal government finds fault with the Apache tribe’s claim that NAGRPA applies, as Geronimo’s gravesite has not been excavated (or pillaged) since the law took affect in 1990.
With layers of denial both factual and jurisprudential, the question remains: Do the Bonesmen actually have the bones?
Author and Yale Alum, Alexandra Robbins’ 2003 book, Secrets of the Tomb, offers some credence to the Apache tribe’s claim. Robbins cites authentic documents detailing the heist and installation of the skull at S&B headquarters. She also interviews anonymous members who claim there is a skull at the High Street tomb called Geronimo.
This could be wishful thinking on the part of members of the society. Is it just some skull stolen from the bio lab and called Geronimo as the calcification of age-old lore? A prank within a prank? (Alas, poor Geronimo, I knew him well). Perhaps.
But if they do have it, it seems the boys from New Haven have figured an age-old method of consecrating power into their practices. As icons, the body parts of saints grant supposed spiritual power to the cathedrals and monasteries that hold them. It's rumored that the Bonesmen possess the skull of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa as well.
Either that, or they are mixing consecration with collegiate hijinx. An act that only seems funny to them. It certainly doesn’t to members of the Apache tribe, who deserve to have the remains of their former leader back, if indeed it was stolen.
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From the BBC
Legend has it that the Skull and Bones, the Yale secret society, raided Geronimo’s tomb in 1918 (future U.S. Senator of political progenitor, Prescott bush, is rumored to have been among the thieving party) and that Geronimo’s skull still resides in the group’s New Haven, Conn. clubhouse. The lawsuit named members of the administration, including President Obama, as co-defendants as the remains were taken from land owned by the federal government.The tribe is also suing Yale and the Skull and Bones claiming that the groups violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA), which safeguards the right of Native American to their family’s remains against federally funded institutions like museums or in the case of Yale, institutions of higher learning.
Yale claims no affiliation with the secret society and the corporate entity of the Skull and Bones denies the allegation that they have the skull in the first place. The federal government finds fault with the Apache tribe’s claim that NAGRPA applies, as Geronimo’s gravesite has not been excavated (or pillaged) since the law took affect in 1990.
With layers of denial both factual and jurisprudential, the question remains: Do the Bonesmen actually have the bones?
Author and Yale Alum, Alexandra Robbins’ 2003 book, Secrets of the Tomb, offers some credence to the Apache tribe’s claim. Robbins cites authentic documents detailing the heist and installation of the skull at S&B headquarters. She also interviews anonymous members who claim there is a skull at the High Street tomb called Geronimo.
This could be wishful thinking on the part of members of the society. Is it just some skull stolen from the bio lab and called Geronimo as the calcification of age-old lore? A prank within a prank? (Alas, poor Geronimo, I knew him well). Perhaps.
But if they do have it, it seems the boys from New Haven have figured an age-old method of consecrating power into their practices. As icons, the body parts of saints grant supposed spiritual power to the cathedrals and monasteries that hold them. It's rumored that the Bonesmen possess the skull of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa as well.
Either that, or they are mixing consecration with collegiate hijinx. An act that only seems funny to them. It certainly doesn’t to members of the Apache tribe, who deserve to have the remains of their former leader back, if indeed it was stolen.
--
From the BBC
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