“Geronimo!” The Ideologies of Colonial and Indigenous Masculinities in Historical and Contemporary Representations about Apache Men

Abstract

Too few Americans cared that the U.S. military used the name of Geronimo (Bedonkohe Apache) as code for alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden when he was killed in May 2011.1 They simply were glad almost a decade after the horrendous attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, that Osama bin Laden was dead. “Justice has been done,” President Obama told the nation and world.2 Amid exuberance over the kill, Rhonda LeValdo (Acoma Pueblo), then president of the Native American Journalists Association, courageously took public exception to the phrase “Operation Geronimo,” insisting that the misrepresentations of American Indians be recognized and stopped.3 The implication of naming the mission “Operation Geronimo” seemed to be that Osama bin Laden had been like Geronimo, in that he had hidden in the mountains and was the enemy of the United States. This conflation of people and issues has raised concerns. Michael Yellow Bird (Arikara [Sahnish] and Hidatsa) claims the New York Post had attempted to equate Geronimo and other indigenous peoples with terrorists.4 Pauline Wakeham suggests that indigenous resistance in Canada and New Zealand can be examined in the context of national security during the War on Terror.5 John A. Wickham warns of what he sees as a “new Manifest Destiny” after September 11, which could have a deleterious effect on federal Indian policy.6 “Geronimo!” the Ideologies of Colonial and Indigenous masculinities in historical and Contemporary Representations about apache men