2 groups of Geronimo descendants fighting over where remains should be buried

2 groups of Apache descendants fight over remains

MESCALERO, N.M. — A group of descendants of the Apache leader Geronimo is suing to stop another descendant from moving the American Indian icon’s bones from Oklahoma to New Mexico.

Philip Thompson, an attorney for the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, says his group and 18 members of a man claiming to be a great-grandson of Geronimo filed motions Tuesday to request that the remains be undisturbed.

The move comes in response to a lawsuit filed in February by Harlyn Geronimo, who also claims to be a great-grandson of Geronimo. He wants to ship the remains from Fort Sill — where Geronimo died in 1909 — to southwestern New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness.