Skull and Bones Geronimo Saga Continues Apace
“The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club and Knight Haffuer is now safe inside the T- together with is well worn femurs, bit and saddle horn,” Mead wrote.
Mead was not at Fort Sill and Wortman said Monday he is skeptical the bones are actually those of the famed Indian fighter.
“What I think we could probably say is they removed some skull and bones and other materials from a grave at Fort Sill,” he said. “Historically, it may be impossible to prove it’s Geronimo’s. They believe it’s from Geronimo.”
Wortman said he found the letter in Yale’s archives while researching Davison, a member of a group of wealthy Yale students who founded a flying squadron.
Harlyn Geronimo, the great grandson of Geronimo, said he has been looking for a lawyer to sue the U.S. Army, which runs Fort Sill. Discovery of the letter could help, he said.
“It’s keeping it alive and now it makes me really want to confront the issue with my attorneys,” said Geronimo, of Mescalero, N.M. “If we get the remains back … and find that, for instance, that bones are missing, you know who to blame.”
Wortman said that the letter is a great find, regardless of the letter’s claim.
“I was stunned and I felt a little bit like I had stumbled on an illicit treasure and something that does not belong to me and something the world should know about,” he said.
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It’s been rumored for decades that Yale University’s secretive Skull and Bones group has been in possession of a famous Native American warrior’s remains. Members of the group are suspected of stealing Geronimo’s skull from a plot in Fort Sill, Okla.
It’s never been proven, but a recently discovered 1918 letter written by a Skull and Bones member has brought some credence to the suspicion. If so, Skull and Bones and its reported high-profile members, including President Bush, Sen. John Kerry, members of Congress and plenty of others in academia and corporate America, should know what’s needed to make amends.
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What, exactly, can George W Bush and Senator John Kerry do to make amends for their forebears of an elite club grave-robbing a Native American burial ground and stealing the corpse of a Native American chief and Icon? Maybe it’s one more slap in the face for a vanquished culture, but somehow an “I’m sorry for… um… that” does not cut it.
There’s a certain frustration with regards to Skull and Bones. When asked about it, Bush shuts up. When asked about it, Kerry shuts up. Or so went the Meet the Press interviews. The charade of Skull and Bones commences through adulthood, and is taken more seriously than it seemingly deserves.
The rub comes in with, say, Gary Trudeau. He will float in a Skull and Bones satire from time to time. Why is it that the politicians who are or would be president go dead serious on the topic, and the cartoonist behind a comic strip can pass over the ludicrousness of… (ahem)
… the world’s most socially irredemable Fraternity.
Regarding Geronomo’s Skull. Does it just sit there, in a dark cavern? Locked away or prominently displayed? More importantly, wouldn’t it smell after a while? I am aware that the members of Skull and Bones, being the elite and being of the upper-most class of our nation, with wealthy alumni tossing whatever money is needed for the upkeep of Skull and Bones, means that they can afford any and all preservatives to keep the skull from rotting, but isn’t there only so much you can do before it goes from being this “oh so cool” object to being something you just kind of wish you never had?
I think Daniel Pinkwater wrote about what that must be like.