Geronimo was an
Apache warrior leader who fought for tribal lands against US and Mexican forces
in the 19th century and who, like Bin Laden, evaded capture for many years. He
was held as a US prisoner of war from the time he was captured in 1886 until
his death in 1909.
Bin Laden, the
Al-Qaeda leader who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States,
was shot in the head by US forces who stormed his compound in Pakistan on
Monday after a decade-long manhunt.
It has been widely
reported that US forces said "Geronimo EKIA (Enemy Killed in Action)"
to confirm Bin Laden's death.
The Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs was to discuss on Thursday concerns raised over
"the linking of the name of Geronimo, one of the greatest Native American
heroes, with the most hated enemy of the United States," said the
committee's chief counsel Loretta Tuell.
While the Geronimo
codeword for the Bin Laden operation has been widely reported, the Pentagon has
not confirmed it.
Pentagon officials
did not immediately respond to requests for reaction to the objections by
Native Americans.
"To equate
Geronimo or any other Native American figure with Osama Bin Laden, a mass
murderer and cowardly terrorist, is painful and offensive to our tribe and to
all native Americans," wrote Jeff Houser, chairman of the Fort Sill Apache
Tribe, in a letter to President Barack Obama.
Houser said that
while he was certain the naming of the operation was based on
"misunderstood and misconceived historical perspectives of Geronimo and
his armed struggle," he demanded a formal apology from Obama.
"What this
action has done is forever link the name and memory of Geronimo to one of the
most despicable enemies this country has ever had," he wrote.
"Unlike the
coward Osama Bin Laden, Geronimo faced his enemy in numerous battles and
engagements," Houser said.
Geronimo is also a
motivational catchcry of US Army paratroopers after a member of the first
experimental parachute unit yelled "Geronimo" in 1940 as he leaped
from a plane, inspired after watching a 1939 movie about the Apache warrior,
historians said.
Chester Rodriguez,
55, an Apache descendant of Geronimo in Bisbee, Arizona, said it was not right
to use Geronimo's name for the Bin Laden operation.
"Geronimo
wasn't a terrorist, he was a good man, he spoke the truth about the white man
and what they did to his people ... He wasn't like that (Bin Laden) at
all," said Rodriguez, whose Apache name is Eagle Bone.
The Onondaga
Nation Council of Chiefs in New York state said that using Geronimo as the code
name for the Bin Laden mission was "reprehensible."
"To compare him
to Osama Bin Laden is illogical and insulting," the Council of Chiefs said
in a statement.
"The name
Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world, and
this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our
peoples. The US military leadership should have known better," the
statement said.
The US Senate
committee needs to look at the prevalence in American society of "these
inappropriate uses of Native American icons and cultures," said Tuell.
"The impacts
to Native and non-Native children are devastating," she said.
The US government
recognizes 565 Native American tribes whose members lived on the land for
centuries before the United States, Canada and Mexico existed, speaking their
own languages and following beliefs centered on the natural world.
But there has long
been problems with the use of American Indian symbols, particularly by sports
teams. In 2009 the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by six American Indians in
their long-running legal challenge of the Washington Redskins' football team
name, which they find racially offensive.
