The act, signed into law by the elder President Bush in 1990, requires the return of artifacts and human remains, but applies only to institutions that receive federal funding.īut even the Apaches, including Fort Sill tribal historian Michael Darrow, are skeptical. If the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act review board decides that further investigation into Geronimo's skull is warranted, the society's status could become important. A recent board director, James Nondorf, an undergraduate admissions officer at Yale, did not return repeated calls for comment. Skull and Bones member Coit Liles, a 1950 graduate who earns $41,000 a year overseeing the club, could not be reached for comment. Yale insists the group is wholly independent. It claims tax-exempt status because of its "educational" mission. RTA holds $3.4 million in real estate and investments, according to its 2002 tax returns. Of all the rumors, Robbins said, the one involving Geronimo may have the most validity.Ī nonprofit group, the Russell Trust Association, owns the society's forbidding brownstone building, around the corner from the Yale University Art Gallery. Several trophies are reportedly stowed inside the Tomb, including Elihu Yale's gravestone, Adolf Hitler's silverware and Pancho Villa's skull. Buckley Jr., tried to block the change in court, arguing it would lead to date rape, Robbins writes. The old guard, led by conservative commentator William F. Women weren't admitted until 1991 - and only after a narrow alumni vote. President Taft, Time magazine founder Henry Luce and banker diplomat Averell Harriman have all passed through its doors. It may be one of the most powerful social networks in history. Once admitted, they forge lifelong bonds through rituals that include recounting their sexual histories in front of a painting called Connubial Bliss, Robbins writes in her book. Each spring, 15 promising members of Yale's junior class are tapped. Outlandish stories have trailed Skull and Bones since William Russell, a Yale student, founded the club in 1832. "I think it's a disgrace regardless of whose skull it is - even if it's a white man's skull," she said. Mangas Colorados was tricked into surrender by the Army in New Mexico, then killed and decapitated. "While this is interesting, it doesn't have any concrete benefits."Īpache historian Henrietta Stockel believes the skull of an even more revered Apache leader, Mangas Colorados, may be inside the Skull and Bones Tomb. "My focus is on taking care of my people," said tribal Chairman Jeff Houser. They don't like to talk about the dead, and believe that disturbing an ancestor's grave brings bad luck. The Fort Sill Apaches have been reluctant to get involved. "I'm not a Republican but I find myself having to defend the Bushes on this all the time," he said.
The iron door, he added, is a common image in popular folklore, reminiscent of stories about Spanish gold buried in the mountains. Although the written account of the raid on the grave refers to an "iron door," Spivey said nothing but dirt and a wooden headstone covered Geronimo's grave until 1928. Spivey said there's no evidence that Prescott Bush - or anyone else -touched Geronimo's grave. When Vice President Bush, a Bonesman, ran for president, news reporters from around the world started to call. In 1928, the Army tried to end the debate by pouring concrete over Geronimo's grave and crowning it with a pyramid of stones. The legend persisted through the short period that Prescott Bush, a 1917 Yale graduate and future Connecticut senator, was stationed at the fort after World War I. Worried that Geronimo's grave might be next, the Apaches started a false rumor that they had moved his remains to a secret location. Two years after his death, the grave of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, nearby, was disturbed by robbers looking for gold, according to Fort Sill historian Towana Spivey, a Chickasaw Indian. The dirt on his grave had barely settled when rumors spread that he might not really be there. He was forced into exile after his final surrender, in 1887, and died more than 20 years later, at 82, a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Okla. One by one, the tribes around him abandoned their nomadic ways for the reservation. As news of his raids on settlers and soldiers spread, the Mexicans gave him a new name, "Geronimo," or Jerome. Geronimo, whose name is now a familiar battle cry, was born Gokhlayeh, "One who yawns," in 1829.
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