Geronimo, named Goyahkla by his parents, remains one of the best-known American Indian leaders. That fame continues to rest almost entirely on his reputation as a warrior. His military exploits struck fear into the hearts of settlers throughout the Southwest and of Mexicans south of the U. S. border. Reviled in his lifetime by Euro-Americans, and even by some fellow Apaches who blamed him for continuing to fight after resistance seemed hopeless, Geronimo lacked the multidimensional qualities that characterized such figures as Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph. His primary endeavor was war, with his dedication to combat embedded in him not only by historical circumstance but also by personal tragedy.
Such was the identification of the name “Geronimo” with daring, often violent action that U. S. paratroopers in World War II would shout it out as they leapt from planes. Euro-American children growing up in the decades following Geronimo’s death would call out his name as they jumped from a swing or engaged in some other type of derring-do.
Even as the twenty-first century dawned, Geronimo was to be found in news accounts amid the resurfacing of old rumors concerning his remains and the secret Yale fraternity, Skull and Bones, that includes such famous political figures as President George W. Bush and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. According to the story, the President’s grandfather was stationed as a young soldier at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1918, where the Apache leader had been buried less than a decade earlier. Prescott Bush and other youthful fraternity brothers supposedly dug up the grave and stole Geronimo’s skull and an assortment of bones for use in the fraternity’s exotic rituals. History tends not to give much credence to the story. Some of Geronimo’s descendants, however, believe that the theft did take place. They sued Skull and Bones (along with Yale University and the U. S. government) over the matter, filing their lawsuit in Washington, D. C., on February 17, 2009—the one hundredth anniversary of the war leader’s death. They demanded that the remains be returned for proper burial near Geronimo’s birthplace in New Mexico. If successful, the lawsuit would achieve what Geronimo had wanted for so long after his final surrender: to return home.
World History
