US tries to stop Geronimo lawsuit
21 Jun 2009
US
officials have moved to block a legal bid by descendants of Apache leader
Geronimo to have his remains reburied. Geronimo's relatives say some body parts
were stolen almost 100 years ago by members of a society linked to Yale
University to keep in their clubhouse. The society, known as Skull and Bones,
is alleged to have stolen some of Geronimo's remains from a burial plot in
Oklahoma in 1918. The relatives want to rebury the warrior, who died in 1909, near
his birthplace in New Mexico. But the justice department has asked a federal
judge to dismiss their lawsuit.
Geronimo’s Heirs Sue Secret Yale Society Over His Skull
19 Feb 2009
Geronimo
died a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Okla., in 1909. A longstanding tradition
among members of Skull and Bones holds that Prescott S. Bush — father of
President George 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 United States attorney general who is representing
Geronimo’s family, acknowledged he had no hard proof that the story was true.
Yet he said he hoped the court would clear up the matter.
Yale Skull and Bones - Late 1800s
George W. Bush
No comments:
Post a Comment