GERONIMO (jer-AHN-ah-moe), 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. Geronimo was a medicine man and great warrior of the Apache. He entered the Nednhi Council as a full WARRIOR at the age of 17. He left the council to marry Taz-ayz-Slath and had 3 children. She was a member of the Nednhi band of the Chiricahua Apache.
When the American settlers began arriving in the area, the Spanish had been there long enough to have well established comunities. The Spanish had two major plans of deployment for the American Indians who were in the area first.The Indians were considered good material for slaves and to convert them from "HEATHENS" to Christians. 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.
During a Vison Quest he heard a voice call him name 4 times and state "No one can ever kill you, I will take the bullets from the guns of the Mexicans, so they will have nothing but powder."
It is believed that the name "Geronimo" came from the mexican word for Saint Jerome. This may or may not be true. Another theory is that the Spanish people he was attacking prayed freverently to their Saint Jerome and Geronimo found a certain amount of satisfaction in taking the name as his own.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.
In the early 1870s, Lieutenant COLONEL GEORGE F. CROOK, commander of the Department of ARIZONIA., had succeeded in establishing relative peace in the territory. The management of his successors, however, was disastrous.
1870s, Geronimo and Juh at this time, were leading a quiet life in their sanctuary.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. Geronimo became
In 1874, some 4,000 Apaches were forcibly moved by U.S. authorities to a reservation at SAN CARLOS, a barren wasteland in east-central Arizona.
Deprived of traditional tribal rights, short on rations and homesick, they revolted. Spurred by Geronimo, hundreds of Apaches left the reservation to resume their war against the whites.In 1882, Crook was recalled to Arizona to conduct a campaign against the Apaches. Geronimo surrendered in January 1884, but took flight from the San Carlos reservation in May 1885, accompanied by 35 men, 8 boys and 101 women. By the time he broke out he hated whites so much he would attack any indian who aided them.He caused an uprising amoung the prisoners. Once again he escaped San Carlos.
Crook, along with scouts Al Sieber, Tom Horn and Mickey Free (the white child Cochise was falsely accused of abducting) set out in pursuit, and 10 months later, on March 27, 1886, Geronimo surrendered at Ca�on de Los Embudos in Sonora, Mexico. Near the border, however, fearing that they would be murdered once they crossed into U.S. territory, Geronimo and a small band bolted.
Due to Crooks inefectuallity, the U.S. goverment sent
GENERAL NELSON MILES to try hunt down Geronimo and get his to surrender. When Nelson caught up with the small band on Sept. 4, 1886, it only consisted of 16 warriors, 12 women, and 6 children of the original 144. Upon their surrender, Geronimo his small band were combined with other Apaches from San Carlos to form a group of around 300 and 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. The women, children and elderly were sent to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Geronimo encouraged his family to go away with a promise from his captors that he would join them in a few weeks. The promise was never kept. Geronimo and his fellow prisoners were put to hard labor, and it was May 1887 before he saw his family. Geronimo attempted to take "The White Man's Road".He became a rancher and farmer, and joined the Dutch Reformed Church, which expelled him because of his inability to resist gambling. In 1904 he appeared at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, sold Geronimo souvenirs, and rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 inaugural parade. Geronimo died on Feb. 17, 1909, a prisoner of war, unable to return to his homeland. He was buried in the Apache cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.Before he died Oklahoma, he dictated to S.S. Barrett his autobiography, "Geronimo: His Own Story."
Geronimo's final surrender in 1886 was the last significant Indian guerrilla action in 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 Apaches, Geronimo embodied the very essence of the Apache values, agressiveness, courage in the face of difficulty.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.
The Words Of Geronimo
"I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good feeling.
The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians. We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other.
I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.
When a child, my mother taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection. Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us... and to Usen.
I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures."
"I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good feeling.
The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians. We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to scheme against each other.
I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.
When a child, my mother taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection. Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us... and to Usen.
I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures."
