Name:   lotowner - Subject:   What Code Name Can Be Used? Date:   5/3/2011 9:41:57 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The staff director for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is objecting to the U.S. military's use of the code name "Geronimo" for Osama Bin Laden during the raid that killed the al-Qaida leader.

Geronimo was an Apache leader in the 19th century who spent many years fighting the Mexican and U.S. armies until his capture in 1886.

The staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Loretta Tuell, says it is inappropriate to link whom she calls "one of the greatest Native American heroes" with one of the most hated enemies of the United States.

Tuell is a member of the Nez Perce tribe and grew on the tribe's reservation in Idaho. The Indian Affairs panel has scheduled a hearing Thursday on racial stereotypes of native people.