Onondaga Nation Leaders Blast 'Geronimo' Codename for Bin Laden

by Charles McChesney
The Post Standard
May 3, 2011

Onondaga Nation Territory -- Leaders of the Onondaga Nation blasted as “reprehensible” the code name used for Osama bin Laden in the commando assault that killed him: “Geronimo.”

“We’ve ID’d Geronimo,” U.S. forces reported by radio Sunday to the White House. Later, word came that “Geronimo” was dead.

Geronimo in 1887

Geronimo was an Apache leader in the 19th century who spent many years fighting the Mexican and U.S. armies until his surrender in 1886.

“Think of the outcry if they had used any other ethnic group’s hero,” the Onondaga Council of Chiefs said in a release Tuesday. “Geronimo bravely and heroically defended his homeland and his people, eventually surrendering and living out the rest of his days peacefully, if in captivity.”

“Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world,” the chiefs said, “and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our people.”

Read the article here.

Related links:

Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chief offended by Bin Laden code name 'Geronimo' [The Post and Courier]
Bin Laden code-name “Geronimo” is a bomb in Indian country [Indian Country Today]
More on Geronimo [Legends of America.com]

Comment: The US can't untangle itself from its inherent racism even with a black man in the crack house.

I wonder just how many white Americans are even aware of the racist use of Geronimo's name in this context?

Onward!