'"Geronimo—ekia." With this coded message, sent on May 1, a U.S. Navy SEALs commando squad signaled the death of Osama bin Laden, the "enemy killed in action." The mission was pulled off without a hitch, but in the week since then, debate has raged in some circles about the code name.

The administration hasn't explained why the operation targeting Bin Laden used the name of one of the nation's best-known Native Americans, saying the selection process of names for such missions is confidential. But the use of Geronimo's name speaks to the powerful, if unexamined, hold that the nation's "Indian wars" continue to have on our popular consciousness.

Indian peoples have long played an odd role in American popular culture, seen at once as primitives who are dangerously savage but also authentic, brave and connected to nature. In U.S. military culture, this view has led to Indians being seen as the embodiment of warrior culture. U.S. paratroopers, after watching the 1939 movie "Geronimo," (a film advertised at the time as featuring images of "war-maddened savages terrorizing the West"), began shouting the Apache leader's name as they jumped from airplanes to bolster their courage. The military has often used Indian names for its helicopters (Kiowa, Cheyenne, Comanche, Blackhawk and, yes, Apache). And now, there is this latest use of Geronimo."

Get the Story:
Karl Jacoby: Operation Geronimo dishonors the Indian leader (The Los Angeles Times 5/10)

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