GERONIMO
Geronimo {jur-ahn'-i-moh}, or Goyathlay ("one who yawns"), was
born in 1829 in what is today western New Mexico, but was then
still Mexican territory. He was a Bedonkohe Apache (grandson of
Mahko) by birth and a Net'na during his youth and early manhood.
His wife, Juh, Geronimo's cousin Ishton, and Asa Daklugie were
members of the Nednhi band of the Chiricahua Apache.
He was reportedly given the name Geronimo by Mexican soldiers,
although few agree as to why. As leader of the Apaches at Arispe
in Sonora, he performed such daring feats that the Mexicans
singled him out with the sobriquet Geronimo (Spanish for
"Jerome"). Some attributed his numerous raiding successes to
powers conferred by supernatural beings, including a reputed
invulnerability to bullets.
Geronimo's war career was linked with that of his
brother-in-law, Juh, a Chiricahua chief. Although he was not a
hereditary leader, Geronimo appeared so to outsiders because he
often acted as spokesman for Juh, who had a speech impediment.
Geronimo was the leader of the last American Indian fighting
force formally to capitulate to the United States. Because he
fought against such daunting odds and held out the longest, he
became the most famous Apache of all. To the pioneers and
settlers of Arizona and New Mexico, he was a bloody-handed
murderer and this image endured until the second half of this
century.
To the Apaches, Geronimo embodied the very essence of the Apache
values, agressiveness, courage in the face of difficulty. These
qualities inspired fear in the settlers of Arizona and New
Mexico. The Chiricahuas were mostly migratory following the
seasons, hunting and farming. When food was scarce, it was the
custom to raid neighboring tribes. Raids and vengeance were an
honorable way of life among the tribes of this region.
By the time American settlers began arriving in the area, the
Spanish had become entrenched in the area. They were always
looking for Indian slaves and Christian converts. One of the
most pivotal moments in Geronimo's life was in 1858 when he
returned home from a trading excursion into Mexico. He found his
wife, his mother and his three young children murdered by
Spanish troops from Mexico. This reportedly caused him to have
such a hatred of the whites that he vowed to kill as many as he
could. From that day on he took every opportunity he could to
terrorize Mexican settlements and soon after this incident he
received his power, which came to him in visions. Geronimo was
never a chief, but a medicine man, a seer and a spiritual and
intellectual leader both in and out of battle. The Apache chiefs
depended on his wisdom.
When the Chiricahua were forcibly removed (1876) to arid land at
San Carlos, in eastern Arizona, Geronimo fled with a band of
followers into Mexico. He was soon arrested and returned to the
new reservation. For the remainder of the 1870s, he and Juh led
a quiet life on the reservation, but with the slaying of an
Apache prophet in 1881, they returned to full-time activities
from a secret camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
In 1875 all Apaches west of the Rio Grande were ordered to the
San Carlos Reservation. Geronimo escaped from the reservation
three times and although he surrendered, he always managed to
avoid capture. In 1876, the U.S. Army tried to move the
Chiricahuas onto a reservation, but Geronimo fled to Mexico
eluding the troops for over a decade. Sensationalized press
reports exaggerated Geronimo's activities, making him the most
feared and infamous Apache. The last few months of the campaign
required over 5,000 soldiers, one-quarter of the entire Army,
and 500 scouts, and perhaps up to 3,000 Mexican soldiers to
track down Geronimo and his band.
In May 1882, Apache scouts working for the U.S. army surprised
Geronimo in his mountain sanctuary, and he agreed to return with
his people to the reservation. After a year of farming, the
sudden arrest and imprisonment of the Apache warrior Ka-ya-ten-nae,
together with rumors of impending trials and hangings, prompted
Geronimo to flee on May 17, 1885, with 35 warriors and 109
women, children and youths. In January 1886, Apache scouts
penetrated Juh's seemingly impregnable hideout. This action
induced Geronimo to surrender (Mar. 25, 1886) to Gen. George
CROOK. Geronimo later fled but finally surrendered to Gen.
Nelson MILES on Sept. 4, 1886. The government breached its
agreement and transported Geronimo and nearly 450 Apache men,
women, and children to Florida for confinement in Forts Marion
and Pickens. In 1894 they were removed to Fort Sill in Oklahoma.
Geronimo became a rancher, appeared (1904) at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, sold Geronimo souvenirs, and
rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inaugural parade.
Geronimo's final surrender in 1886 was the last significant
Indian guerrilla action in the United States. At the end, his
group consisted of only 16 warriors, 12 women, and 6 children.
Upon their surrender, Geronimo and over 300 of his fellow
Chiricahuas were shipped to Fort Marion, Florida. One year later
many of them were relocated to the Mt. Vernon barracks in
Alabama, where about one quarter died from tuberculosis and
other diseases. Geronimo died on Feb. 17, 1909, a prisoner of
war, unable to return to his homeland. |
