Skull and Bones Tomb
A letter from 1918, found in a Yale library and published in 2006, says the skull of "the worthy Geronimo the Terrible" is safe inside the Tomb of the Skull and Bones society. The writer was not at Fort Sill, a federal suit by Geronimo's descendants was dismissed in 2010, and the court did not decide whether the society holds any remains.
Field Guide Entry
The society and the Tomb
Skull and Bones was founded at Yale in 1832 by William Huntington Russell, with Alphonso Taft. The Russell Trust Association, incorporated in Connecticut in 1856, holds its property. The Tomb at 64 High Street was completed that year and first occupied on March 13, 1856. It is a windowless block with 12-foot iron doors, and Yale Alumni Magazine names Alexander Jackson Davis as the architect while noting that many suggest Henry Austin. A second block was added in 1903, with a new entrance between the two.
About 15 seniors are tapped each year, and Author Alexandra Robbins estimated about 800 living members in 2003. Documented members include William Howard Taft, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and John Kerry. In 1991, the senior class tapped seven women. Alumni won a temporary restraining order, and a second vote that October admitted the class of 1992. Theories that the society directs world affairs rest on Antony Sutton's America's Secret Establishment, which is built on Yale yearbooks and membership rosters, and nothing in the records described here supports them.
The Geronimo letter
Geronimo died at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909. In 2006, Yale Alumni Magazine published a 1918 letter by Winter Mead that the historian Marc Wortman had found in Yale's archives. It says: "The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club ... is now safe inside the (Tomb) together with his well worn femurs, bit & saddle horn." Mead was not at Fort Sill, and Wortman told NBC News: "Historically, it may be impossible to prove it's Geronimo's."
The suit and the newer letters
On February 17, 2009, Geronimo's great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo and others sued in federal court in Washington. The complaint ran 32 pages and gave Skull and Bones one paragraph. Their lawyer, Ramsey Clark, called the Army "the main entity." Yale said the society is legally independent of the university. The court dismissed the case in July 2010. Press reports give the grounds as sovereign immunity for the federal defendants and, for Yale and the society, that the federal repatriation law covers only remains excavated after 1990. The court did not decide whether the society holds any remains.
In May 2023, CT Insider reported two further 1918 letters in the same Yale collection suggesting members believed the skull had been taken. The report also quotes Ned Anderson Sr., then chair of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, as saying he received a document alleging the theft in the late 1980s. Tomb leadership denies the claims.
Visiting Information
The Tomb is a private society's headquarters, and the interior is closed to everyone but members. It can be seen from the sidewalk on High Street, and the building is private property.
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