Reply #15: It's fairly accepted that it's an urban myth.

[Xithras]

The Apache tribe itself says it's untrue. The S&Boners may have had a skull they called Geronimo's, but it wasn't the real deal. It's a story that sounds great until you look at the facts (like the fact that Geronimo's grave was unmarked when Bush was there, and that only the Apache tribal elders knew which grave was his).

There's a fairly real possibility that they may have stolen a skull from a random grave in the cemetary, but there's no way to know for sure. It's also been brought up that the Yalies would have faced real punishment if they'd been caught in the graveyard, and even their names & family connections wouldn't have kept them out of at least a brief stay in the base prison. That would have been a huge risk to take for a bunch of bored frat boys, especially when there were so many OTHER less risky methods to obtain skulls. Heck, in the early 1900's you could legitimately buy Native American skulls on the open market, for only a few dollars, from people who simply found burial sites in the countryside.

It's far more probable that they just bought a skull, and lied to all of their frat buddies about where they got it.