Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector-The Skull, And Skull And Bones | Mon, 16 Aug 2004 12:23:08 -0400 Several trophies are reportedly stowed inside the Tomb, including Elihu Yale's gravestone, Adolf Hitler's silverware and Pancho Villa's skull. Of all the rumors, Robbins said, the one involving Geronimo may have the most validity.
A nonprofit group, the Russell Trust Association, owns the society's forbidding brownstone building, around the corner from the Yale University Art Gallery. RTA holds $3.4 million in real estate and investments, according to its 2002 tax returns. It claims tax-exempt status because of its "educational" mission. Yale insists the group is wholly independent.
~~~~~~~~~
The Skull, And Skull And BonesTale Of Yale Society And Geronimo Won't Die
August 16, 2004
By KIM MARTINEAU, Courant Staff Writer
NEW HAVEN -- One "Tomb" is a symbol of the establishment. It has turned out presidents, Supreme Court justices and captains of industry. The other tomb is a symbol of resistance - the spot where the last great Apache warrior is buried.
More than a thousand miles apart, the two tombs may hold the secret to an old legend that has plagued several presidential elections. Did Prescott Bush, the president's grandfather, lead a foray into Geronimo's tomb in Fort Sill, Okla., take the leader's skull back to New Haven and stash it inside the Skull and Bones Tomb - a windowless building on High Street - as a trophy? Is the skull there now? Was it ever?
For the first time in history, two members of Yale's secretive Skull and Bones Society are running for president. Neither of the candidates - Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and President Bush - will talk about the elite club. But instead of putting the question to rest, their silence has only given conspiracy theorists more fodder.
Though he personally doubts the rumors are true, an anthropology professor at the University of Tulsa is now asking the federal government for an investigation. Garrick Bailey, a member of the board that oversees the return of Indian remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, asked the National Park Service last month to look into the allegations.
"If I really thought that was Geronimo's skull I'd be outraged," he said. "But I don't think it is. I think it's like many fraternities - I think they just found a skull and put Geronimo's name on it."
"It's an interesting story that can't be ignored," he added. "It needs to be dealt with."
The story emerged as Vice President George H.W. Bush was running for president in the 1980s. It has resurfaced in later elections, including this one. Alexandra Robbins, a Yale graduate who wrote the 2002 book "Secrets of the Tomb," talked about it on "60 Minutes" last fall, triggering a new round of questions.
In 1986, a disgruntled Skull and Bones member contacted the head of the San Carlos Apaches in Arizona at a time when the tribe was seeking to move Geronimo's remains from Fort Sill to a spot near the tourist center on the San Carlos reservation. Ned Anderson, chief at the time, received a letter.
"What you're seeking is not at Fort Sill," it read, he recalls. "It's in New Haven."
The informant sent Anderson pictures of a glass display case containing bones, stirrups, a horse bit and what the informant claimed to be Geronimo's skull. Anderson also received a diary-like account of the raid: "An axe pried open the iron door of the tomb and ... Bush entered and started to dig. ...The Skull was fairly clean, having only some flesh inside and a little hair."
According to Anderson, he arranged to meet with Jonathan Bush, the president's uncle, in New York City. Anderson said Bush indicated he could get the skull. Bush ultimately presented the skull, bridle and stirrups. But the skull looked too small to be Geronimo's.
Once Anderson was told the skull belonged to a 10-year old boy, he refused to accept it. "We left and said we'd pursue it further," he said. He sought help from Arizona Sen. John McCain and members of the Clinton administration, he said, but his efforts led nowhere.
Geronimo, whose name is now a familiar battle cry, was born Gokhlayeh, "One who yawns," in 1829. As news of his raids on settlers and soldiers spread, the Mexicans gave him a new name, "Geronimo," or Jerome. One by one, the tribes around him abandoned their nomadic ways for the reservation. But Geronimo kept up the fight. 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.
The dirt on his grave had barely settled when rumors spread that he might not really be there. 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. Worried that Geronimo's grave might be next, the Apaches started a false rumor that they had moved his remains to a secret location. 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.
In 1928, the Army tried to end the debate by pouring concrete over Geronimo's grave and crowning it with a pyramid of stones. But the story refused to go away. When Vice President Bush, a Bonesman, ran for president, news reporters from around the world started to call. The calls haven't stopped.
Spivey said there's no evidence that Prescott Bush - or anyone else -touched Geronimo's grave. 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. The iron door, he added, is a common image in popular folklore, reminiscent of stories about Spanish gold buried in the mountains.
"I'm not a Republican but I find myself having to defend the Bushes on this all the time," he said. "Simply because there's no proof."
The Fort Sill Apaches have been reluctant to get involved. They don't like to talk about the dead, and believe that disturbing an ancestor's grave brings bad luck.
"My focus is on taking care of my people," said tribal Chairman Jeff Houser. "While this is interesting, it doesn't have any concrete benefits."
Apache historian Henrietta Stockel believes the skull of an even more revered Apache leader, Mangas Colorados, may be inside the Skull and Bones Tomb. Mangas Colorados was tricked into surrender by the Army in New Mexico, then killed and decapitated. His skull has never been accounted for.
"I think it's a disgrace regardless of whose skull it is - even if it's a white man's skull," she said.
Outlandish stories have trailed Skull and Bones since William Russell, a Yale student, founded the club in 1832. Each spring, 15 promising members of Yale's junior class are tapped. 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.
It may be one of the most powerful social networks in history. President Taft, Time magazine founder Henry Luce and banker diplomat Averell Harriman have all passed through its doors.
Women weren't admitted until 1991 - and only after a narrow alumni vote. The old guard, led by conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr., tried to block the change in court, arguing it would lead to date rape, Robbins writes.
Several trophies are reportedly stowed inside the Tomb, including Elihu Yale's gravestone, Adolf Hitler's silverware and Pancho Villa's skull. Of all the rumors, Robbins said, the one involving Geronimo may have the most validity.
A nonprofit group, the Russell Trust Association, owns the society's forbidding brownstone building, around the corner from the Yale University Art Gallery. RTA holds $3.4 million in real estate and investments, according to its 2002 tax returns. It claims tax-exempt status because of its "educational" mission. Yale insists the group is wholly independent.
Skull and Bones member Coit Liles, a 1950 graduate who earns $41,000 a year overseeing the club, could not be reached for comment. A recent board director, James Nondorf, an undergraduate admissions officer at Yale, did not return repeated calls for comment.
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. 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.
But even the Apaches, including Fort Sill tribal historian Michael Darrow, are skeptical. "The Indians have learned over time," he said, "just because a white man says it, doesn't mean it's true."http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-skullbones0816.artaug16,1,1635191.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers!
Please let us stay on topic and be civil.-Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org
OM
| Yahoo! Groups Sponsor | |
|
|
Yahoo! Groups Links
- To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- End Message ---
