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The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University. The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers. |
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Alum says Yale should speak out about Geronimo Yale seems reluctant to dig into the controversy over whether Skull and Bones has Geronimo's skull and bones. But the university's most prominent Native American alumnus wants his alma mater to take a stand. A federal lawsuit by Geronimo's great-grandson is on hold for now against the university and the secret society. Nonetheless, "I would like to see Yale say to Skull and Bones, 'Give them back whatever you have or you're finished at Yale,'" says Sam Deloria '64, recipient of the university's first Native Alumni Achievement Award in 2005. Deloria, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and director of the American Indian Graduate Center in New Mexico, recognizes that "that's not going to happen," thanks to what he calls "institutional cowardice" and the "powerful, powerful people" -- including both Bush presidents -- who belong to Skull and Bones. Still, he would like to see Yale take a public stand on the efforts of Geronimo's descendants to find out whether Skull and Bones really has any of the Apache warrior's remains. "An acknowledgment that the tribes and the families have some concern would be a start." Great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo and 19 other descendants filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., this year, seeking to recover all of Geronimo's remains, wherever they are. The main defendant is the U.S. government, which owns the Fort Sill, Oklahoma, cemetery where Geronimo was buried in 1909. Noting that Geronimo was a prisoner at Fort Sill, the descendants want to move his remains to his New Mexico homeland. (Further complicating the case, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe and a separate group of Geronimo descendants filed motions to intervene this week, the Silver City Sun-News reported from New Mexico. They dispute Harlyn Geronimo's status and oppose moving their ancestor's remains from Oklahoma.) The suit [PDF] acknowledges that it's not known whether Skull and Bones actually has Geronimo's remains. The Yale Alumni Magazine reported three years ago that in 1918, one senior Bonesman wrote proudly to another that a Bones group had broken into a Fort Sill grave, exhumed "the skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, . . . together with his well worn femurs," and taken them to the society's New Haven clubhouse. Since then, generations of Bones members have talked about Geronimo's skull. But some experts believe that even if the Bonesmen robbed a grave at Fort Sill, it couldn't have been Geronimo's; its location was unmarked at the time. Either way, Skull and Bones is complicit, in Deloria's view. "They either have his skull, and shame on them, or they're bragging about having his skull, and shame on them for that." As for Yale, it stressed when the descendants filed suit in February that it has no Geronimo relics and can't speak for Skull and Bones, an independent entity. But Deloria thinks the university should say something more. "I think that the characteristic response for them, which is silence, is perceived as disdain" -- the attitude that "you don't have to pay any attention to native peoples," he says. "It would be nice if Yale said, 'If Skull and Bones has Geronimo's remains, it should give them back.' Empty rhetorical gestures sometimes really do have an impact. If Yale said, 'This is a bad thing,' that would be significant." But Yale spokesman Tom Conroy argues that the university has responded appropriately. "When the plans for the litigation were first announced," says Conroy, "the university said that it did not possess the remains and that it was sympathetic to the concerns expressed by Geronimo's family." Beyond that, "our only comment is that we have not been served" with the lawsuit. That's by choice, not by oversight, says plaintiffs' attorney Ramsey Clark. Noting that Yale and Skull and Bones are "almost a footnote in the case," he says in an interview that he's holding off on serving them "until we find out what's in the grave in Oklahoma. When we get the remains, if they're missing parts, we would pursue against Skull and Bones." Until then, serving papers on the secret society would be " chasing a rumor." Clark says he met with Skull and Bones lawyers in New York and agreed to a 90-day extension "before any further proceedings between the parties." (Conroy says Yale didn't participate in the meeting.) Meanwhile, the court has also extended the Obama administration's deadline to respond to the suit, now due June 3. |
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Related Geronimo's great-grandson sues Skull and Bones for the return of his skull.
The story behind the Geronimo lawsuit: Ramsey Clark, Prescott Bush, Skull and Bones, and the Apache
Did Skull and Bones rob the grave of Geronimo during World War I?
Judith Ann Schiff's "Old Yale" column on the origins of Yale's secret societies. |
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