Geronimo's heirs sue to free Apache chief's spirit

[David]

AP


WASHINGTON (AFP) – On the 100th anniversary of the death of legendary Apache warrior Geronimo, 20 of his descendants filed suit Tuesday in a US federal court, asking that his spirit and remains be freed.

"It's been 100 years since the death of my great-grandfather in 1909. It's been 100 years of imprisonment," Geronimo's great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo told reporters after the suit had been filed in the district court in Washington.

The suit, which names US President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates among the defendants, seeks "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."

The remains would be returned to Geronimo's wilderness birthplace in the western United States for a true Apache burial, a key facet of the native American tribe's culture.

"The spirit is wandering until a proper burial has been performed," Harlyn Geronimo said.

"The only way to put this into closure is to release the remains, his spirit, so that he can be taken back to his homeland in the Gila Mountains, at the head of the Gila River," in what is today the state of New Mexico, Geronimo said.

"Hopefully, the people we have named in our suit will take this seriously ... Hopefully, they will seriously consider our request to release the remains and perform a correct burial in the Gila wilderness," said Geronimo, stressing that the burial ritual is one of the most sacred rites in the Apache culture.

In addition to Obama and Gates, the complaint cites as defendants Army Secretary Pete Geren, Yale University, and the Order of the Skull and Bones, a "secret society" at Yale.

In around 1918, members of the Order of the Skull and Bones allegedly took Geronimo's skull, other bones and items buried with him from the warrior's tomb at Fort Sill. They are believed to still hold them at the organization's premises on the campus of Yale, a prestigious Ivy League university.

Among the Skull and Bones members accused of stealing the bones and possessions of Geronimo is Prescott Bush, the grandfather of former US president George W. Bush and father of former president George H. W. Bush.

Harlyn Geronimo said he had written to George W. Bush to ask that his great-grandfather's remains be returned to his Apache homeland for burial, but never got a reply.

Geronimo died in 1909 at nearly 90 years of age at Fort Sill.

He had been held as a prisoner of war for more than 20 years after surrendering to the US military on the understanding he would be allowed to return to his homeland and people.