22 January 2010

Geronimo, maybe


Courtesy of my friend Esha, this about the Skull & Bones skull (reputed to be Geronimo's):
A human skull that apparently was turned into a ballot box for Yale's mysterious Skull and Bones society is going on the auction block. Christie's estimates the skull will sell for $10,000 to $20,000 when it is auctioned. Fittingly, the auction house has agreed to keep the seller's name a secret, describing the person only as a European art collector.
The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the famous society's meetings. The auction house said it also may have been displayed at the society's tomblike headquarters on Yale's campus in New Haven, Connecticut during the late 1800s. Skull and Bones, an elite society founded in 1832, has closely guarded its members' names and its activities since the early 1970s. Prior to that time, the group published an annual roster.
Publicly known members, known as Bonesmen, include President William Howard Taft, both presidents Bush, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, businessman and diplomat Averell Harriman, publisher Henry Luce, and author and commentator William F. Buckley Jr.
"I think it's a macabre artifact," Margot Rosenberg, head of Christie's American decorative arts department, said. "It's an intriguing story tied to America, tied to Yale. I think it will generate interest for people who are former Bonesmen, people who collect Americana, and people who are interested in history."
The skull is believed to have been owned by Edward T. Owen, who was graduated from Yale in 1872 and went to become professor of French and linguistics at the University of Wisconsin. The word THOR is etched into the skull; it may have been the nickname given to Owen or another society member. The skull is being sold with a black book, inscribed with Owen's name, the year 1872 and the numeral 322, a reference to the society's year of inception and to the death of the orator Demosthenes in 322 B.C. It contains the names and photographs of about fifty Bonesmen, including Taft, who became the 27th president of the United States; Morrison Remick Waite, who became Chief Justice in 1874; and William Maxwell Evarts, who served as Secretary of State and Attorney General.
Skull and Bones invites fifteen Yale seniors to join each year. Bonesmen swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its strange rituals, which include initiation rites such as confessing sexual secrets and kissing a skull. On Tuesday, the society's secrecy remained intact. Efforts to reach a society member or a representative of its business arm, the Russell Trust Association, through a Yale spokesman, were unsuccessful. The Ivy League school, which is not affiliated with the society, did not return this reporter's call.
Rico says the story doesn't even mention the Geronimo connection, but this one from CNN does:
The great-grandson of Apache warrior Geronimo argues in a lawsuit that a secretive society at Yale University holds the remains of his great-grandfather. Apache warrior Geronimo was buried in Oklahoma, but some say a secret society absconded with his remains. Harlyn Geronimo has sued Yale and the society, the Order of Skull and Bones, to try to recover the remains. "I think what would be important is that the remains of Geronimo be with his ancestors," he said. Skull and Bones, a collegiate society that's been around since 1832, includes alumni such as former President George W. Bush and his grandfather, Prescott Bush.
Author Alexandra Robbins said evidence backs up the younger Geronimo's claim that Skull and Bones has the Apache warrior's remains. "There's a Skull and Bones document that describes how Prescott Bush and other Bonesmen robbed the grave of Geronimo, and I spoke with several Bonesmen who told me that inside the tomb there's a glass display case containing human remains and the Bonesmen have always called it Geronimo," said Robbins, author of Secrets of the Tomb, a book that delves into secretive societies at Yale, with special attention to Skull and Bones and its paths to power.

CNN attempted to contact Skull and Bones, but no one returned calls. Yale said it does not have Geronimo's remains and that it does not speak for Skull and Bones. The controversy began in 2006, when a letter was found tucked into a book in the Yale library, according to an article published that year in Yale Alumni Magazine. According to the article, the letter, written on 7 June 1918 by one member of the society, Winter Mead, to another, F. Trubee Davison, said the secret society had Geronimo's bones, which had been dug up by other members of the group at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Marc Wortman, a writer and former senior editor of the magazine, said he was the one who discovered the letter in Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. "I found it and said, 'This is amazing. This is quite stunning to see this.' It was laid out so clearly in straightforward language saying we've got Geronimo's skull, femurs, and horse tack, and we've brought it back to the tomb, as they call the Skull and Bones house in New Haven, Connecticut," Wortman told CNN.
The robbing of Geronimo's remains fits into what Robbins calls "crooking", a competition among Bonesmen to steal valuable things, which were then hidden in the tomb, which has extremely limited access.
Geronimo is one of the many Chiricahua Apache leaders who fought to preserve the culture and the lifestyle of their people in the late 1800s. He fought both the Mexican and U.S. governments in the area of southern Arizona and New Mexico. His descendant said it's important to honor Geronimo's legacy. "Geronimo's legacy today is that he is looked to as one of the strong leaders of the Chiricahua people who fought to preserve homelands, cultural identity, to preserve their way of life," said his great-grandson. Harlyn Geronimo is offended by the alleged actions of the Bonesmen. "After a while it hurts you inside because you know this is your great-grandfather," he said. "It's just something that is uncivilized for people of this nature to do."
Geronimo died in 1909 of pneumonia while he was a prisoner at Fort Sill. The burial in the cemetery wasn't true to Apache tradition though, and his great-grandson wants to rebury his ancestor in accordance with Chiricahua ways. "They long for returning to their own homeland. They do not have their own reservation today. They are sharing a reservation with the Mescalero Apache," he said of the Chiricahua people.
Not everyone believes the Bonesmen found Geronimo's bones. Some researchers have concluded that the Bonesmen could not have even found Geronimo's grave in 1918.
In the Yale Alumni Magazine article, David H. Miller, a history professor at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, cites historical accounts that the grave was unmarked and overgrown until a Fort Sill librarian persuaded local Apaches to identify the site for him in the 1920s. "My assumption is that they did dig up somebody at Fort Sill," said Miller. "It could have been an Indian, but it probably wasn't Geronimo."
That isn't stopping Geronimo's great-grandson from pursuing what he believes are his ancestor's bones. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of the Army Pete Geren are listed as defendants in the 32-page lawsuit Harlyn Geronimo filed in the District of Columbia.
In 1990, a federal law was passed to protect Native Americans' rights to their family member's remains. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act addresses the rights of lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and native Hawaiian organizations to Native American human remains as well as cultural objects.
The lawsuit references the statute, asking the court "to free Geronimo, his remains, funerary objects, and spirit from 100 years of imprisonment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Yale University campus at New Haven, Connecticut, and wherever else they may be found."

No comments:

Post a Comment

No more Anonymous comments, sorry.