Code name Geronimo controversy

[6] In the book No Easy Day, former SEAL Matt Bissonnette, who participated in the mission, states that "Geronimo" was the code name for bin Laden.

Channel 4 News said "According to some analysis today, the U.S. military chose the code name because bin Laden, like Geronimo, had evaded capture for years.

"It's how deeply embedded the 'Indian as enemy' is in the collective mind of America," said Suzan Shown Harjo, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Morning Star Institute, a Native American advocacy group.

[11] "There is little doubt [the] use of a leader like Geronimo to refer to bin Laden is ill-advised," wrote Keith Harper, an attorney and member of the Cherokee Nation, in an email with a reporter for The Washington Post.

The leaders of several American Indian tribes urged President Obama to retroactively rename the military code name "Geronimo" used by the SEALS during the killing of bin Laden.

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly told The Washington Times that "Even though the operation to capture or kill bin Laden is over...the name should be changed so that children don't encounter it in the history books.