Geronimo (1829-1909)

Geronimo (1829-1909)

Apache war leader

Sources

A Living Legend. Geronimo was one of the most famous Native American leaders of the late nineteenth century. He has earned a reputation in American history as the ultimate holdout, a renegade willing to fight for his freedom long after many of his people had accepted defeat. His tribe, the Apache, lived in present-day Arizona and New Mexico. A group of nomadic bands that relied upon hunting for their subsistence, they were considered one of the most warlike tribes in the Southwest. In fact, the tribe’s name was derived from the Zuni word apachu, meaning “enemy.”

Early Life. Geronimo was born near present-day Clifton, Arizona, in 1829. His Indian name was Gokhlayeh or “One Who Yawns.” Why the Mexicans called him Geronimo (Spanish for Jerome) is not certain. Some believe it was a Spanish attempt to pronounce the name Gokhlayeh. Others maintain that his enemies prayed aloud to Saint Jerome whenever the Apache leader struck. In 1846 he gained admittance into the warriors’ council of the Chiricahua Apache and started to lead raids on Mexican and American settlers, stealing their horses. He quickly became known for his cunning and ferocity. A fellow warrior observed that “Geronimo seemed to be the most intelligent and resourceful as well as the most vigorous and farsighted. In times of danger he was a man to be relied upon.” When Mexican soldiers killed his mother, wife, and three children in 1858, Geronimo swore vengeance and for the next nineteen years conducted many raids into Mexico. In April 1877 American authorities apprehended the Apache leader and placed him on the San Carlos Indian Reservation.

Reservation Life. The United States had acquired the Apache homeland by treaties with Mexico in 1848 and 1853. In 1872 the federal government established the San Carlos Reservation on the banks of the Gila River in eastern Arizona. The five-thousand-square-mile tract became known as “Hell’s Forty Acres” by all who resided there. Sandstorms blew frequently across a landscape of cactus, mesquite, and cottonwood trees. The temperature in the summer regularly reached 110 degrees. By the 1880s the government had forcibly placed on this barren wasteland approximately five thousand Apache, hoping to turn these people into self-sufficient farmers. The Apache, however, refused to plow the fields or to dig irrigation trenches. Instead, they relied on weekly food rations of flour and beef from the U.S. Army and the Office of Indian Affairs. Civilian contractors who distributed beef for the government cheated the Indians out of fifteen hundred pounds per week. Reservation authorities made the Apache organize a police force and set up courts. Traditional ceremonies and practices were banned, including the brewing of tiswin, a beer made from corn. The greatest hardship on the reservation, however, proved to be boredom. Women and children tried to keep busy by gathering bundles of hay that they sold at a penny a pound for cavalry horses. The men, meanwhile, had little to do except play traditional games and brood.

Flight. In 1880 white squatters and miners started to appear on reservation lands, where deposits of copper, coal, and silver had been discovered. The next year an Apache shaman named Noch-ay-del-klinne began to preach that dead Apache leaders would arise and reassert the tribe’s greatness. When reservation police tried to arrest the mystic, he was shot and killed in a scuffle. Fearing that he, too, would be arrested, Geronimo fled to Mexico with seventy-four followers. For the next two years his band eluded capture and raided American territory. In March 1883 the renegades killed three white men outside of Tombstone, Arizona; a few days later they killed a federal judge and his wife. Meanwhile, the American and Mexican governments negotiated an agreement whereby soldiers of either nation could cross the border when pursuing the renegades. Believing that he needed an Apache to capture an Apache, American Gen. George Crook enlisted 193 Apache scouts who tracked down Geronimo in May. Crook convinced him to return to San Carlos, but the Apache leader again became disenchanted with reservation life. In May 1885 he went on a spree of drinking corn beer in direct defiance of reservation policy and then decamped with forty-two men and ninety-two women and children. Throughout the winter 1885-1886 Crook gave chase with three thousand troops. In March 1886 he found the fugitives, but this time they were not so willing to return to the reservation. Crook observed that “they were in superb physical condition, armed to the teeth, fierce as so many tigers.” On a dark and rainy night Geronimo slipped away with twenty warriors and eighteen women and children.

An Emissary. After an immense public outcry against him, Crook resigned. His replacement, Gen. Nelson Miles, had orders to “capture or destroy.” Miles had five thousand troops and built thirty heliograph stations consisting of large mirrors to flash Morse code messages across southeastern Arizona and into northern Sonora, Mexico. Troops guarded the springs and passes of the Sierra Madre to prevent the renegades from moving about. Miles, like Crook, found his Apache adversary to be an elusive foe. (An Apache warrior could travel as far as seventy miles per day over rough terrain.) In April 1886 the renegades killed some ranchers and ambushed an army detachment. Miles became so exasperated that he tried a different strategy. He dispatched Lt. Charles Gatewood by himself to find Geronimo and convince him to return to the reservation. Gatewood, who had served at San Carlos for two years, had met Geronimo on several occasions. In late August Gatewood found Geronimo, who was impressed by the officer’s poise and courage. When Gatewood told the Apache war leader that his remaining family members had been exiled to Florida, Geronimo lost all heart and surrendered.

Exile. Geronimo never saw his homeland again. From 1886 until 1888 he was imprisoned in Pensacola, Florida. In 1894 federal authorities allowed him to take up residence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he spent his time making and selling bows and arrows and peddling photographs of himself. In 1901 Geronimo marched in the parade of President Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration, and three years later he appeared at the World’s Fair in Saint Louis. In 1906 he dictated his autobiography. Following a drinking spree in 1909, Geronimo fell from his horse, lay on the chilled ground all night, and died of pneumonia shortly thereafter.

Sources

S. M. Barrett, ed., Geronimo’s Story of His Life (New York: Duffield, 1906);

Benjamin Capps, The Great Chiefs (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1975);

Robert M. Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891 (New York: Macmillan, 1973).