Geronimo's descendants sue secret society at Yale
The descendants of Geronimo have sued Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University with ties to the Bush family, charging that its members robbed his grave in 1918 and have kept his skull in a glass case ever since.
The claim is part of a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of Geronimo's death.
The Apache warrior's heirs are seeking to recover all his remains, wherever they may be, and have them transferred to a new grave at the headwaters of the Gila River in New Mexico, where Geronimo was born and wished to be interred.
Geronimo died a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909. A longstanding tradition among members of Skull and Bones holds that Prescott Bush - father of President George H.W. Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush - broke into the grave with some classmates during World War I and made off with the skull, two bones, a bridle and some stirrups, all of which were put on display at the group's clubhouse in New Haven, known as the Tomb.
The story gained some validity in 2005, when a historian discovered a letter written in 1918 from one Skull and Bones member to another saying the skull had been taken from a grave at Fort Sill along with several pieces of tack for a horse.
Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general who is representing Geronimo's family, acknowledged that he had no hard proof that the story was true. Yet he said he hoped the court would clear up the matter.
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The claim is part of a lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday, the 100th anniversary of Geronimo's death.
The Apache warrior's heirs are seeking to recover all his remains, wherever they may be, and have them transferred to a new grave at the headwaters of the Gila River in New Mexico, where Geronimo was born and wished to be interred.
Geronimo died a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909. A longstanding tradition among members of Skull and Bones holds that Prescott Bush - father of President George H.W. Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush - broke into the grave with some classmates during World War I and made off with the skull, two bones, a bridle and some stirrups, all of which were put on display at the group's clubhouse in New Haven, known as the Tomb.
The story gained some validity in 2005, when a historian discovered a letter written in 1918 from one Skull and Bones member to another saying the skull had been taken from a grave at Fort Sill along with several pieces of tack for a horse.
Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general who is representing Geronimo's family, acknowledged that he had no hard proof that the story was true. Yet he said he hoped the court would clear up the matter.