Geronimo, most famous and controversial of all Apaches, died at Fort Sill, Okla., on Feb. 17, 1909. Thus, 2009 marks the centennial of his passing.

He has been much in the news lately owing to a lawsuit filed by one Harlyn Geronimo, a great-grandson of the warrior.

The suit seeks to recover the old Apache leader's skull and other remains, supposedly stolen from his grave in 1918 by student members of the secret Order of Skull and Bones at Yale University. Allegedly, the "social club" continues to use these relics in one of its arcane rituals.

The legend of the theft has been around for years, periodically resurfacing. Harlyn's lawsuit gives the matter new life by naming as defendants Yale, Skull and Bones, and certain federal officials, including President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The affair provides me a timely opportunity to say a few words about this historical figure's life and death.

Geronimo, in fact, was a native New Mexican, thought to have been born in the wilderness near today's Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument north of Silver City. He was from the Chiricahua division of the tribe.

In 1850, Geronimo's family was massacred near Janos, Chihuahua. That pivotal event left him with an undying hatred of Mexicans. Historians believe it led to his brutality shown later toward all enemies, including Americans.

Over the next 35 years, Geronimo rose in importance as the ongoing Apache wars with the U.S. Army moved toward a climax. Contrary to popular belief, he was never a chief, as Apaches to this day will acknowledge.

Instead, he was a successful organizer and leader of war parties, who was also recognized as a medicine man with supernatural powers, which caused many fellow tribesmen to fear him.

Recent press stories quote Harlyn's lawsuit as stating that Geronimo "fought for his homeland and freedom." Maybe so, but there is no evidence in the record that any 19th-century Apache thought that way or was motivated by those sentiments, as conceived at present by white men and assigned after the fact to the Indians.

Over the centuries, the nomadic Apaches lived by raiding their neighbors, seizing booty and captives. Indeed, that was what Geronimo did best. Theirs was a warrior society.

By the mid-1880s, most of the Apache bands had been settled on reservations and were beginning the transition to a sedentary way of life. Only the outlaw Geronimo with a handful of fellow raiders held out to the end, surrendering on Sept. 4, 1886.

Worried that Geronimo might jump the San Carlos reservation in southeast Arizona, the government decided to exile to Florida not only him and his men, but all the Chiricahuas as well. Much of the tribe blamed Geronimo for their terrible fate.

From Florida, the prisoners of war — men, women and children — were later moved to Alabama and then in 1894 to Fort Sill, Okla. At the latter place, an aging Geronimo became an accomplished self-promoter.

The old warrior fancied the role of a celebrity and he profited by the sale of his homemade bows and arrows and pictures of himself crudely autographed.

Arizona historian Frank C. Lockwood wrote in 1938 that Geronimo was pleased by all the attention. He added: "As for mawkish white sentimentalists, male and female, nothing gave them more enjoyment than to shake hands with one so notorious for deeds of infamy and bloodshed."

Geronimo had confessed to such crimes after he got religion and joined the Dutch Reformed Church in 1903. When asked what he regretted most about his past behavior on the warpath, he replied: "The killing of little children."

Historian Eve Ball of Ruidoso recorded that aging warrior Ace Kaklugie had told her in the early 1950s: "It was terrible to see small children killed. At times I hated Geronimo for that."

Nearing age 90, Geronimo on a cold February night rode into nearby Lawton to sell a bow and arrows. With the money earned, he got liquored up.

While returning to Fort Sill, he fell off his horse and lay all night partly in a creek. Found at dawn, he quickly developed pneumonia and died. His funeral was hugely attended.

In its lengthy obituary of Geronimo, The New York Times described him as "crafty, ferocious, and incredibly cruel, a man who murdered hundreds of men and women."

In modern times, Geronimo's reputation has been considerably sanitized. This past February, the U.S. House of Representatives honored him with a resolution that depicted the Chiricahua dignitary as "a spiritual and intellectual leader who led his people in a war of self-defense."

As for the theft of Geronimo's skull by Yale students, it now appears, according to Apache specialist Gene Peach, that the story was a fraud, hatched first back in 1918 as a typical college boy prank. But perhaps the final word is not written on that point.

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.