2012 State of the Indian Address

Jefferson Keel (Chickasaw), president of the National Congress of the American Indians (NCAI), and Jacqueline Johnson Pata (Raven/Sockeye Clan of the Tlingit Tribe), NCAI executive director, during the presentation of the 2012 State of the Indian address. Photo by Molly Stephey, NMAI.

Washington, DC—The 2012 State of the Indian address was delivered today by Jefferson Keel (Chickasaw), president of the National Congress of the American Indians (NCAI), before a live audience of tribal leaders, national American Indian organization leaders, and U.S. Congressmen. Approximately 300 people witnessed the address inside the Newseum’s Knight Studio, located in downtown Washington, D.C. This address is the National Congress of the American Indians' response to President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

“President Obama outlined a clear path for the economic future of America in the State of the Union. We support these efforts as Indian Country is integral to revitalizing the American economy. We call on the Administration and Congress to free our economies and create a more flexible government that honors the ability of tribal nations to determine our own future,” said President Keel. “Members of both parties in the House and Senate have shown that issues affecting tribes are nonpartisan. The president has shown outstanding support of tribes. The time to act is now; in our national address we will outline legislation and action the federal government can take, right now, to make Indian Country even stronger.”

In the State of the Union address, President Obama referenced American Indians by highlighting Native Americans' record of military service—the highest record of service per capita of any group of Americans, currently and throughout the 20th century. Prior to his address, President Keel was introduced by Lt. Col. T. Jay Hunting Horse (Kiowa–Choctaw), a U.S. Marine on assignment in the Pentagon. “Very few Americans know the story of the hundreds of thousands of tribal members who have served in the United States military, as far back as the Revolutionary War. As a war veteran myself, I want to thank Lt. Col. Hunting Horse and 24,000 active-duty American Indian and Alaskan Native service members serving today to protect the sovereignty of the United States and the tribal nations of North America,” acknowledged Keel.

Highlighted topics in this year’s address, with brief excerpts, include:

• Strong Indian nations: “I am honored to speak to you all, but especially to address representatives of the more than 5 million Native people and the 566 tribal nations in Indian Country.”
• The Native vote in this election year: “Indians don’t just vote ‘D’ for Democrat or ‘R’ for Republican. For us, it’s ‘I’ for Indian!”
• Opportunities for Congressional action: “For all of the partisan challenges of the past year, the Congress has found common ground for Indian policy.”
• Government flexibility: “We need the federal government to put decision-making power back in the hands of the people who live in Indian Country—the people who know best because these are our homelands, these are our people.”
• A moment of opportunity: “This message comes directly from tribal leaders: ‘We need freedom at the local level to best use our limited resources. We know what’s best because we live in Indian Country.’”
• A new era for the trust relationship: “Enforceable consultation means we must talk about another idea: tribal consent. There would be a public outcry if the federal government tried to impose policy on a state without its consent.”
• Our America: “As the oldest governments in America, tribal nations understand what is required to overcome stark economic conditions. Perhaps more than any other time in our history, our nations must stand together, empowered to make profound and permanent improvements in the lives of our people. Our nations are committed to the success of the United States of America. Let us realize that future together so that our nations thrive today and forever.”

Representative Tom Cole (R-OK), an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation, provided the official Congressional response. “The first Americans in the country are the last Americans. This needs to change. We are symbolically on a long walk back to returning our sovereignty,” said Representative Cole.

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), Vice Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, added, “I believe the message today is to tear down barriers and remove obstacles for success [in Indian Country].”

The purpose of State of the Indian address—which usually takes place each year shortly after the State of the Union—is to highlight critical issues facing tribal nations while outlining Indian Country's vision for the year and beyond.

Jefferson E. Keel was re-elected President of the NCAI in November 2011; he previously served two terms as NCAI’s First Vice-President. He is also serving his fourth term as the Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. President Keel describes himself as firmly committed to the service of Indian Country and to actively supporting the self-reliance of Indian people. His goals for the NCAI include establishing a clear path for tribal leaders, citizens, advocates, and political leaders to improve tribal communities, enhance Native culture, and protect tribal sovereignty.

For more information, and to view a rebroadcast of the 2012 State of the Indian address when it is posted, please visit the National Congress of American Indians website.

—Dennis Zotigh, NMAI

Heritage Month & StoryCorps: Do American Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?

The Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers, 2011. Salt Pond, Cape Cod National Seashore. Courtesy of the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers

In thinking about my earliest memories of elementary school, I remember being asked to bring a brown paper sack to class so that it could be decorated and worn as part of the Indian costume used to celebrate Thanksgiving. I was also instructed to make a less-than-authentic headband with Indian designs and feathers to complete this outfit. Looking back, I now know this was wrong.

The Thanksgiving Indian costume that all the other children and I made in my elementary classroom trivialized and degraded the descendants of the proud Wampanoags, whose ancestors attended the first Thanksgiving popularized in American culture. The costumes we wore bore no resemblance to Wampanoag clothing of that time period. Among the Wampanoag, and other American Indians, the wearing of feathers has significance. The feathers we wore were simply mockery, an educator’s interpretation of what an American Indian is supposed to look like.

The Thanksgiving myth has done so much damage and harm to the cultural self-esteem of generations of Indian people, including myself, by perpetuating negative and harmful images to both young Indian and non-Indian minds. There are so many things wrong with the happy celebration that takes place in elementary schools and its association to American Indian culture; compromised integrity, stereotyping, and cultural misappropriation are three examples.

Jennie A. Brownscombe (1850–1936), The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth (1914). Oil paint on canvas. Courtesy of Pilgrim Hall Museum.

When children are young, they are often exposed to antiquated images of American Indians through cartoons, books, and movies. But Thanksgiving re-enactments may be their most active personal encounter with Indian America, however poorly imagined, and many American children associate Thanksgiving actions and images with Indian culture for the rest of their lives. These cultural misunderstandings and stereotypical images perpetuate historical inaccuracy.

Tolerance of mockery by teachers is a great concern to Native parents. Much harm has been done to generations of Indian people by perpetuating negative and harmful images in young minds. Presenting Thanksgiving to children as primarily a happy time trivializes our shared history and teaches a half-truth. And while I agree that elementary-school children who celebrate the first Thanksgiving in their classrooms are too young to hear the truth, educators need to share Thanksgiving facts in all American schools sometime before high school graduation.

Let’s begin with Squanto (aka Tisquantum), a Patuxet, one of more than 50 tribes who formed the Wampanoag Confederacy. Around 1614, when he was perhaps 30, Squanto was kidnapped along with others of his people and taken across the Atlantic Ocean to Malaga, Spain, where they were sold into slavery. Monks in Spain bought Squanto, shared their faith with him, and made it possible for him to find his way to England in 1615. In England he worked for shipbuilder John Slany and became proficient in English. In 1619 Squanto returned to his homeland by joining an exploring expedition along the New England coast. When he arrived at the village where he has been raised, all his family and the rest of his tribe had been exterminated by a devastating plague.

What about the Pilgrims? Separatists who fled from England to Holland seeking to escape religious persecution by English authorities, and who later booked passage to North America, are now called "Pilgrims," though Americans did not widely use the term until the 1870s. In November, 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor in present-day Provincetown Harbor. After exploring the coast for a few weeks, the Pilgrims landed and began building a permanent settlement on the ruins of Squanto’s Patuxet village, now renamed New Plymouth. Within the first year, half of the 102 Pilgrims who set out from Europe on the Mayflower had perished. In desperation the Pilgrims initially survived by eating corn from abandoned fields, raiding villages for stored food and seed, and robbing graves at Corn Hill.

Squanto was introduced to the Pilgrims in the spring of 1621, became friends with them, and taught them how to hunt and fish in order to survive in New England. He taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn by using fish as fertilizer and how to plant gourds around the corn so that the vines could climb the cornstalks. Due to his knowledge of English, the Pilgrims made Squanto an interpreter and emissary between the English and Wampanoag Confederacy.

What really happened at the first Thanksgiving in 1621? The Pilgrims did not introduce the concept of thanksgiving; the New England tribes already had autumn harvest feasts of thanksgiving. To the original people of this continent, each day is a day of thanksgiving to the Creator.  In the fall of 1621, William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, decided to have a Plymouth harvest feast of thanksgiving and invited Massasoit, the Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag Federation, to join the Pilgrims. Massasoit came with approximately 90 warriors and brought food to add to the feast, including venison, lobster, fish, wild fowl, clams, oysters, eel, corn, squash and maple syrup. Massasoit and the ninety warriors stayed in Plymouth for three days. These original Thanksgiving foods are far different from the meals prepared in modern Thanksgiving celebrations.

Squanto died in 1622, but Massasoit outlived the era of relative peace in colonial New England. On May 26, 1637, near the present-day Mystic River in Connecticut, while their warriors were away, an estimated 400 to 700 Pequot women, children, and old men were massacred and burned by combined forces of the Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Saybrook (Connecticut) colonies and Narragansett and Mohegan allies. Colonial authorities found justification to kill most of the Pequot men and enslave the captured women and their children. Pequot slaves were sent to Bermuda and the West Indies. In 1975 the official number of Pequot people living in Connecticut was 21. Similar declines in Native population took place throughout New England as an estimated three hundred thousand Indians died by violence, and even more were displaced, in New England over the next few decades.

Looking at this history raises a question: Why should Native peoples celebrate Thanksgiving? Many Natives particularly in the New England area remember this attempted genocide as a factual part of their history and are reminded each year during the modern Thanksgiving. I turned to the Internet to find out what Native people think of Thanksgiving. Here are some of the responses:

I was infuriated when my daughter’s school had a mock feast complete with paper mache headdresses and pilgrim hats!

When they did that 2 my kids in elementary I TORE those items up and signed my kids out of school for that day.

For thanksgiving I was the Indian. Umm Go figure . . . .

 Someone took a picture of me in front of the class and to this day...it bothers me. Don't get the whole making a fest in school.   

Tonight I have to lead a children's Bible class, and they want me to theme it around Thanksgiving. I will, but it's not going to be about the happy pilgrims and all that stuff. Thankfulness to God is one thing, but elevating pilgrims to hero status is out of the question.  

 When my daughter Victoria was in grade school she had a teacher give them the assignment to write a report on Thanksgiving Dinner, and Victoria wrote hers as to why our family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. Victoria got an F on the paper, and I threatened to go to the school board if the principal didn't get it changed. Victoria got an A and the class got a lesson on Native American heritage. 

 Ignorance and not near enough education in the school systems! It is very sad that a majority of what is taught is very superficial and the dark aspects of our history are neatly tucked away. Very sad!

Considered a day of mourning in our house.

And,

For skins [American Indians], Thanksgiving should be The Last Supper.

The United American Indians of New England meet each year at Plymouth Rock on Cole's Hill for a Day of Mourning. They gather at the feet of a statue of Grand Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag to remember and reflect in the hope that America will never forget.

Do I celebrate Thanksgiving? No, I don’t celebrate. But I do take advantage of the holiday and get together with family and friends to share a large meal without once thinking of the Thanksgiving in 1621. I think it is the same in many Native households. It is ironic that Thanksgiving takes place during American Indian and Alaskan Native Heritage Month. An even greater irony is that more Americans today identify the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday than as National American Indian Heritage Day.

—Dennis W. Zotigh

Dennis W. Zotigh (Kiowa/San Juan Pueblo/Santee Dakota Indian) is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Clan and San Juan Pueblo Winter Clan and a descendeant of Sitting Bear and No Retreat, both principal war chiefs of the Kiowas. Dennis works as a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Will current blood quantum membership requirements make American Indians extinct?

Blood quantum is a term used to define bloodlines relating to ancestry. For example, a person with one Indian grandparent and three non-Indian grandparents has one-quarter Indian blood. For American Indians, intermarriage between tribes, however, reduces specific tribal blood quantum.

The concept of documented blood quantum began in Europe and surfaced in the Virginia Colony in 1705. However, Native blood quantum was not widely applied in federal law until the 20th century. In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act provided a means for federally recognized tribes to form constitutions and statutes to define their own membership criteria. As a result, the majority of federally recognized tribes began using set blood quantum requirements, lineal descendancy, or roll descendancy as criteria for tribal membership. Many non-federally recognized bands and tribes adopted blood quantum requirements to determine their tribal membership as well.

Tribes that use blood quantum criteria require tribal members be at least one-half to one-sixteenth blood of their tribe. A Certificate Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) is issued to tribal members as documentation of tribal membership. Tribes that use CDIB’s have the right to close membership or disenroll members because of lack of blood quantum. Tribes that use roll descendancy, established though treaties, may have tribal members on their rolls with no Indian blood at all—people who are tribal members, but who are not American Indian. Issues of roll descendancy, including closing membership and disenrolling tribal members, are currently being debated in the courts.

A colleague and I were discussing tribes that use blood quantum to determine their membership. She said, "Tribes that do this are setting themselves up for extinction. Eventually intermarriage will wipe fixed blood quantum out.” I totally agree with her: under the current blood quantum of my own tribal membership, my future grandchildren will not qualify to be members. As an American Indian and tribal member, this concerns me.

My colleague said her tribe recently opened up their membership for new members including new babies, people who moved out of state, etc. In order to become a new member each person seeking enrollment had to answer, historical, cultural, and family questions that pertained to the tribe's identity. For newborns, their parents had to answer these questions.

It was this tribe’s belief that if prospective members were connected to their community roots, they would know the answers to the tribe’s questions. Individuals who moved away and did not maintain any connection to their tribal community were not able to answer the questions and were refused membership, regardless of blood quantum. Perhaps this is one alternative that tribes will consider to replace blood quantum requirements.

During the NMAI Living Earth Festival this summer, I asked a Native Hawaiian woman how Native Hawaiians view blood quantum in their culture. She responded, "To the majority of Native Hawaiians, blood quantum is not an issue. We know our family bloodlines, and they are recognized by other Native Hawaiians. This is what makes us Native Hawaiian. I think blood quantum is an issue to Native Americans because of their relationship to the United States government. Native Hawaiians are not recognized by the United States the way federally recognized tribes are. Therefore, I think it is due to the government that Native Americans have to be concerned about blood quantum." To me there are many truths in my Hawaiian sister's feedback.

Do you think current tribal blood quantum requirements need to be amended or terminated? If so, or if there are other aspects of this topic that interest you, I hope you’ll be able to attend the symposium Quantum Leap: Does “Indian Blood” Still Matter tomorrow (September 16) at the museum in Washington, DC. If you can’t be here, please follow the discussion via live webcast. You can also submit questions via email to NMAISocialMedia@si.edu. One of my colleagues or I will make every effort to pose your questions to the panelists. If you can't join us tomorrow, you're welcome to continue the conversation here via the comments.

For more information on tomorrow's program, including the panelists taking part, please see the symposium guide.

—Dennis Zotigh, NMAI cultural specialist

Above: Three Nanticoke schoolboys, 1911–14. The boy in the center is from the Street family. Indian River Hundred, Delaware. Photo by Frank G. Speck. N01278

America's first urban myth?

 
"Sir Henry Hudson entering New York Bay, September 11, 1609, with Indian family watching on shore in foreground." Reproduction of a painting by Edward Moran (1829–1901). The Dutch East India Company had hired the English sailor to find a northeast passage to India. Failing to do so in the waters around Norway, he sailed west. Library of Congress.

One famous story in American history involves the sale of Manhattan. In this legend, Manhattan Island was sold by Indians in exchange for trinkets and beads. If it were true, it would arguably be one of the greatest real estate deals in history. To date, no deed of land transfer, formal title or bill of sale has ever surfaced to serve as proof of this purchase by the Dutch from the Indians.  So is this transaction legal?

Housed in the Rijksarchief (the Dutch National Archives) in The Hague, Netherlands, is a letter that references the sale of the Manhattes (Manhattan) written by the Dutch merchant Pieter Schagen, dated November 5, 1626. (A copy of the letter and translation in both Dutch and English can be accessed here.) In this letter Schagen wrote, “They have purchased the Island of Manhattes from the savages for the value of 60 guilders.” Schagen’s letter does not verify either the date of sale or who sold Manhattan on behalf of which tribe of Indians. Further, historians and scholars cannot agree on which tribe actually received payment in exchange for Manhattan. Included in historical references associated with the sale of Manhattan are the Lenape, Manahatin, Canarsie, Shinnecock, and Munsee Indians. The Manahatin, Lenape, and Munsee Indians were all indigenous to lower Manhattan according to their respective histories.

Absent from the letter is the mention of trinkets and beads. Also absent is the name of the individual who actually made the purchase. Many pieces to this historical assumption are missing. Is Schagen’s letter, without a bill of sale, sufficient legal evidence to establish title for the transfer of Manhattan from its original inhabitants to the Dutch?

In one 1626 account, Peter Minuit, appointed director-general of New Netherland by the Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie (the Dutch West India Company), purchased Manhattan from the Lenape, or Delaware Indians, for $24-worth of trade goods. Other accounts state that Minuit made the deal with the Canarsie, who were actually based in Long Island yet accepted gifts in exchange for land that was not theirs. The Canarsie allegedly accepted the gifts and continued on their journey home. Another account contends that it was the Munsee Indians who received the trinkets, and claimed Manhattan as their ancestral homelands at the time.

In 1613, the Dutch established a fur-trading outpost in what is now lower Manhattan. Construction was started in 1625 on Fort Amsterdam, also in southern Manhattan. Ironically, the site of Fort Amsterdam is now occupied by the old U.S. Custom House building, which houses the NMAI’s George Gustav Heye Center.  A deed for Manhattan later surfaced, signed in Fort Amsterdam on July 14, 1649. However, the Dutch had formally been occupying Manhattan since 1613, a period of 36 years. In the 1649 deed Petrus Stuyvesant, Director General of New Netherland, declared three Indians—Megtegichkama, Oteyochque, and Wegtakockken—to be “the right owners of the land.” These three Indians put their mark on this agreement. This deed provokes the questions, If Manhattan was already sold to Peter Minuit on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1626, wouldn’t Minuit be the owner? Or did the Indians somehow still hold title?

 
Johannes Vingboons (?), Manatus gelegen op de Noot Rivier, 1639. The earliest known European map of Manhattan. From the description by the Library of Congress: "This map, possibly done to encourage Dutch settlement, depicts plantations and small farms. These widely dispersed settlements are keyed by number in the lower right-hand corner to a list of land occupants. The list of references includes a grist mill, two sawmills and 'Quarters of the Blacks, the Company's Slaves.' Also delineated are a few roads represented by dashed lines and four Indian villages situated in what is now Brooklyn." Library of Congress. 

Complicating this legend is the ideological difference between two contrasting cultures regarding the sale of land. To American Indians of this period, it was proper protocol for gifts to be exchanged for safe passage through their lands or for temporary occupation by visitors. Foreign to Native thinking was the sale of land through written documentation, or the sale of land and other natural resources in perpetuity. In contrast, written title was primary to land ownership in European thinking. Once title was established, landowners built fences, walls and other barriers to bar trespassing by others. Were the terms of contractual land sale mutually understood by both cultures at the time?

Another consideration to explore is that more than one tribe was living on Manhattan Island during this time period. If the Manhattan land transaction was made by one tribe, did this sale include another tribe’s land? The Reckgawanc people, whose territory was in the upper half of Manhattan, deny the sale of their homelands through the lower Manhattan transaction. Is this a legitimate claim?

The word Manhattan originates from the Lenape description manna-hata, which means “hilly island.” Without written evidence of its sale, would it stand up in a court of law, or is it America’s first urban legend?

Please comment and turn this blog into a conversation.

“Geronimo” Code Name Sparks Controversy

 


The media, politicians, tribal leaders and Indian Country were swift to react to the news of the code name “Geronimo” used in conjunction with the killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden.

CBS 60 Minutes—Interview with President Barak Obama. Steve Croft conducts a riveting 30-minute interview with the president as he describes the weekend that made history. PRESIDENT OBAMA: “There was a point before folks had left, before we had gotten everybody back on the helicopter and were flying back to base, where they said Geronimo has been killed. And Geronimo was the code name for bin Laden. And now obviously at that point these guys were operating in the dark with all kinds of stuff going on so everybody was cautious." The link above provides a transcrips, as well as video.

BBC—Osama bin Laden: Why Geronimo? The code name for the operation to capture Osama bin Laden was Geronimo. Why was it named after one of the best-known Native Americans, Geronimo? The Apache warrior's name conjures up an image of the American Wild West, the world over. The fact that bin Laden had been killed by US Special Forces was reported to President Barack Obama on Sunday with the words "Geronimo EKIA" (Enemy Killed in Action). US officials have not commented on why the name Geronimo was chosen—and may never do so. Referring to US military possibilities in the tribal areas of Afghanistan's mountainous regions, Allan R. Millet, a retired Marine Corps colonel and Ohio State University professor, said in 2001: "It's like shooting missiles at Geronimo. . . you might get a couple of Apaches, but what difference does that make?"

Reuters—Bin Laden, Geronimo link angers Native Americans. The reported use of "Geronimo" as a codeword in the operation that led to Osama bin Laden's killing has angered some Native Americans and threatens to become an embarrassment for the Obama administration. It has been widely reported that U.S. forces said "Geronimo EKIA (Enemy Killed in Action)" to confirm bin Laden's death. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs discussed 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.

CNN—Native Americans object to linking Geronimo to bin Laden. In light of reports that linked the name "Geronimo" with the operation that took down Osama bin Laden, Native Americans expressed disappointment Thursday and pointed to the sacrifices they have made in the service."To associate a Native warrior with bin Laden is not an accurate reflection of history and it undermines the military service of Native people," said Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians. "It's critical that military leaders and operational standards honor the service of those who protect our freedom." "Whether it was intended only to name the military operation to kill or capture Osama bin Laden or to give Osama bin Laden himself the code name Geronimo, either was an outrageous insult and mistake," he said. To use the name is "such a subversion of history that it also defames a great human spirit and Native American leader," he said.

Fox News—Indian Tribe Seeks Apology for Use of Code Name Geronimo for Bin Laden. The Fort Sill Apache Tribe leader is demanding that President Obama apologize for the government's use of the code name Geronimo for terrorist Osama bin Laden. Tribal Chairman Jeff Houser asked for the apology in a letter sent Tuesday to the president. "We are grateful that the United States was successful in its mission against bin Laden, but associating Geronimo's name with an international terrorist only perpetuates old stereotypes about Apaches," Houser wrote. "In the 1800s, Geronimo and the Chiricahua Apache people were portrayed as savages," he added. "This portrayal was used as justification for the forced removal from their homelands and their subsequent imprisonment. Linking Geronimo's name to an infamous terrorist only reinforces this false and defamatory stereotype." Houser says equating Geronimo or any other Native American figure with a "mass murderer and cowardly terrorist" is painful and offensive.  

Washington Post—American Indians object to “Geronimo” as code for bin Laden raid. “I was celebrating that we had gotten this guy and feeling so much a part of America,” Tom Holm, a former Marine, a member of the Creek/Cherokee nations and a retired professor of American Indian studies at the University of Arizona, said by phone Tuesday. “And then this ‘Geronimo EKIA’ thing comes up. I just said, ‘Why pick on us?’ Robert E. Lee killed more Americans than Geronimo ever did, and Hitler would seem to be evil personified, but the code name for bin Laden is Geronimo?” Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute, a Native American advocacy group based in Washington, has long fought against the use of Indian imagery in American life (including as the mascot of the Washington Redskins). She sighed when asked about the latest iteration of Geronimo. “It’s how deeply embedded the ‘Indian as enemy’ is in the collective mind of America,” she said. “To this day, when soldiers are going into enemy territory, it’s common for it to be called ‘Indian Country.’”

Time— Why ‛Geronimo’? For Some, Bin Laden Code Name Holds Anti-Native American Implications. In the situation room Sunday, President Obama waited to hear if Geronimo was dead. Then word came. “We’ve IDed Geronimo,” said a voice. Updated on May 4, 2011: He was dead. He was also Osama bin Laden. So why nickname the operation to kill America's most-hated terrorist with the name of a famous Native American freedom fighter? Good question.

Yahoo—Native Americans offended by code name ‘Geronimo.’ The top staff member on the US Senate's Indian Affairs Committee also criticized the code name, adding that insensitive use of Native American names and symbols would be the subject of an upcoming congressional hearing. "These inappropriate uses of Native American icons and cultures are prevalent throughout our society, and the impacts to native and non-native children are devastating," Loretta Tuell, the committee's chief counsel, said in a statement Tuesday. "Concerns over the linking of the name of Geronimo, one of the greatest Native American heroes, with the most hated enemies of the United States is an example of the kinds of issues we intended to address at Thursday's hearing," she said, adding that the hearing was scheduled before the raid that killed bin Laden. Since this information hit the news stands through out the nation, NAJA has received numerous call of complaints from our fellow colleagues and tribal members who were upset to find out that again, our Native People are being equated to a terrorist/murderer/enemy number one.

USA Today—Indian leaders cry foul over bin Laden Geronimo’ nickname. “This victory has otherwise united our country,” Indian Affairs Chairman Daniel Akaka (D–Hawai`i), said of bin Laden's killing. “It is unfortunate that this code name was chosen.” Akaka said the insult, unintended as it may have been, only demonstrated the need for greater cultural sensitivity. Indian leaders agreed, saying professional and college team nicknames, such as Braves, Chiefs, and Redskins, and their clownish mascots, continue to demean American Indian culture and leave a lasting effect that can be seen in the down-and-out reservations that dot the United States. 

KOAT-TV—NM Senator Denounces Geronimo Connection to Bin Laden. A New Mexico senator is denouncing the military's decision to use the code name "Geronimo" in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. During a hearing Thursday to address Native American stereotypes, Sen. Tom Udall (D– New Mexico) said the issue has already sparked a storm of emotion. Udall stressed that he is not critical of those who carried out the heroic mission in Pakistan, but he's concerned about the implications of using the Native American warrior in that context. Udall said he's reaching out to the White House and the Department of Defense to figure out why Geronimo's name was used.

Indian Country Today Media Network—San Carlos Apache Tribe Seeks Apology from President Obama. May 6, 2011, Dear President Obama: On behalf of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, we vehemently object and oppose the designation of the name of our Apache leader, Geronimo, as a military euphemism for an evil man, Osama bin Laden, by the United States. The San Carlos Apache Tribal Council has thoughtfully and carefully consulted on this extremely sensitive issue and respectfully request that you do the following: (1) Immediately issue a formal apology for equating the name of Geronimo with Osama bin Laden as part of the military exercise; (2) Immediately issue an Executive Order, as Commander in Chief, that the name “Geronimo” never be used disparagingly and in association with a known enemy of the United States; (3) Promote Federal Indian Policy that seeks to uplift and recognize Native American contributions to society, such as that of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and implement policies to improve the way of life for the Apache people. Respectfully, Terry Rambler, Chairman, San Carlos Apache Tribe.

Democracy Now—Use of "Geronimo" as Code for Osama bin Laden: "The Continuation of the Wars against Indigenous People. We get reaction from Native American activist and writer, Winona LaDuke. "The reality is that the military is full of native nomenclature,” says LaDuke. "You’ve got Black Hawk helicopters, Apache Longbow helicopters. You’ve got Tomahawk missiles. The term used when you leave a military base in a foreign country is to go 'off the reservation, into Indian Country.' So what is that messaging that is passed on? It is basically the continuation of the wars against indigenous people."

Indian Country Today—Think about Your Legacy, Mr. President. Tina Marie Osceola, historic resource officer for the Seminole Tribe of Florida wrote, “Regardless of the context in which ‘Geronimo’ was used, we were disappointed that our March message concerning the comparison of the Seminole to Al Qaeda terrorists by the Department of Defense was not taken seriously by the White House and has continued on to this day with the death of bin Laden.” Chairman Mitchell Cypress wrote, “In 2008, I listened to your promises to our people and was assured that you would be an advocate for Indian country. As leaders of our nations, you and I have the opportunity to be the faces of change that all Americans can believe in and the example of true government to government relations.”

National Museum of the American Indian—NMAI Statement on Geronimo by Associate Director Tim Johnson. “One could hardly think of a more egregious insult than to be compared or linked to Osama bin Laden. But this is what happened when the otherwise exacting military operation that brought bin Laden to justice gave him, or the operation, the code name Geronimo. Like millions of people in this country and around the world, American Indians greeted news of the successful tactical strike with a great sense of pride, satisfaction, and relief, as well as ongoing sorrow for the thousands of innocent people who died due to bin Laden's pervasive violence. So it came as a painful surprise and disappointment when, as details emerged of the chronology of the operation, the first report of bin Laden's death from the Navy SEAL Team Six was "Geronimo EKIA" (enemy killed in action).”

Native American Journalists Association—Statement by Rhonda LeValdo, NAJA president. “The information distributed to multiple-media sources across the nation, on the U.S. government’s behalf, has proved to the Native Nations across the board that the American people in addition to the U.S. government still don’t understand that we, the Native People of this land, are not here for constant public humiliation. In the New York Times article, ‘Clues Gradually Led to the Location of Osama Bin Laden,’ Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, narrated ‘We have a visual on Geronimo,’ he said. A few minutes later: ‘Geronimo EKIA.’ Enemy Killed In Action. Regardless, the U.S government has a responsibility to the people of this country, Native people are very much a part of and for that reason, utilizing the name Geronimo was an unacceptable choice of words.”

United Methodist Church—Osama Bin Laden was no “Geronimo.” The Native American Task Force of the United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) added its voice to the dismay expressed by Native populations at the U.S. Armed Forces use of the name “Geronimo” as its code word for Osama bin Laden. “While we decry terrorism in any form, we refute the notion that our Native leaders, past and current, be paralleled in any way with persons who unashamedly destroy life,” said the Rev. Chebon Kernell, a Seminole who co-chairs the GBCS Native American Task Force. “We are all articulating the disappointment, concern and frustration with the use of the name of this iconic Native American hero,” Kernell emphasized. He said the hope is that persons throughout the church, country and world will continue to work to erase stereotypical misunderstandings that create false images of people and communities.

Associated Press via Forbes—Indian Country Network calls for Geronimo support. A media network aimed at Native Americans is urging social network users to change their profile pictures to an image of Geronimo in honor of the legendary Apache warrior. Geronimo profile pictures started popping up at the beginning of the week, after details of the raid that killed bin Laden came to light. The code name also prompted statements of disapproval from tribes, a call for President Barack Obama to apologize and scores of angry comments on social network sites.

Images of Goyathlay (Geronimo, ca. 1825–1909, Chiricahua Apache):

Goyathlay and Naiche (Natchez, 1857–1921) on horseback; standing next to them are Geronimo's second cousins, Perico who is holding a baby, and either Fun or Tsisnah. Cañon de los Embudos, Sonora, Mexico; March 1886, during negotiations for the band's surrender to Gen. George Crook. Photo by Camillus Fly. P08410

Chiricahua Apache prisoners, including Goyathlay (front row, 3rd from right) and Naiche (first row, 4th from right), at a rest stop along the Southern Pacific Railroad, en route to Fort Marion, Florida. Nueces River, Texas; September 10, 1886. Photo by A. J. McDonald. P07009

Studio portrait, southern Arizona; ca. 1890. Photo by A. Frank Randall or G. Ben Wittick. P6842

Fort Sill, Indian Territory (present-day Comanche County, Oklahoma). Photo by Dagle's Studio, Murphysboro, Illinois; May 14, 1905. P23236