Geronimo! The mention of that name in the late 19th Century could spark fear or anger in the hearts of many Americans and Mexicans. Who was this Apache leader who caused people to react in terror until after his capture when he was transformed into a world-renowned celebrity?
June 1829, Geronimo was born into the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apaches who lived along the Gila River headwaters in the Mogollon Mountains in present-day western New Mexico and eastern Arizona, and who would range into Mexico to raid and trade.
His parents named him Goyahkla, which in English means One Who Yawns.
How did Goyahkla come to be called Geronimo?
The Meaning Of A Name
There are a couple theories. Geronimo is the Spanish form of the English Jerome, the name of an early Christian saint who translated the Bible into Latin. When the Mexicans gave the Apaches food rations, they gave them Spanish names, and it’s possible that is how he got his name.
There is also the story that during one fight Goyahkla and his Apache warriors surrounded Mexican soldiers who called on Saint Jerome for help and the name was transferred to Goyahkla.
Geronimo trained as other Apache boys for endurance, raiding, and war. He ran through the desert and over rough terrain, not eating, not drinking. While holding water in his mouth he was disciplined not to swallow.
To be a warrior he had to participate in four raids. He learned of the Apache gods, Chiricahua tales, dances, and rituals. He was taught to pray to the supreme god Usen, who gave strength, health, and wisdom.
Power Of A Leader
He was not a chief. Chiefs were hereditary. But he was a powerful leader and people listened to him because of his power. People believed he had power to heal, power to predict the future, and power to know what was happening at long distances.
Geronimo’s sister Ishton was in desperate straits during childbirth. Many believed she would die. Alone, Geronimo climbed a mountain to pray to Usen.
He fasted, praying four days and nights for the lives of Ishton and the baby. On the fifth day, an unseen Power spoke to him saying they would live. The Power then told him no weapon would kill him, and he would live to an old age. Ishton recovered and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and Geronimo lived to an old age.
Geronimo’s father died when he was a young boy. His mother never remarried; and he cared for her for the rest of her life. At age 17, Geronimo was admitted to the warrior’s council which meant he could join other men on the warpath.
Geronimo and the beautiful Alope had been in love for a long time and now he could marry her, but first her father required many ponies for her hand in marriage. Geronimo disappeared from the village returning days later with a large pony herd that he gave to Alope’s father.
The couple made a home together and had three children. “We followed the traditions of our fathers,” Geronimo said, “and were happy.”
The Spanish and later the Mexicans fought the Apaches for years.
Apache Raiders
Mexicans were known to make overtures of peace and trade, inviting Apaches to feasts while offering strong drink. Once the Apaches were drunk, the Mexicans would attack killing as many men as possible and carrying off women and children to sell into slavery.
The Mexican States of Sonora and Chihuahua suffered the most from Apache raids. Even so, from time to time, Mexicans and Apaches made peace to trade.
The great Chiricahua chief Mangas Coloradas led his band including Geronimo’s family into Chihuahua, camping outside the town of Janos. The people of Janos wanted peace and trade with the Apaches. So, for several days the townspeople provided them food and strong drink.
The Sonoran military commander José María Carrasco, leading four hundred troops, entered Chihuahua searching for Apache raiders. They found Mangas Coloradas’ camp outside Janos.
On March 5, 1851, while most of the men including Geronimo were in town trading, eating, and drinking, Carrasco’s troops attacked the camp killing the guards and many women and children while capturing others to be sold into slavery.
When Geronimo returned to camp, he found Alope, their three children, and his mother dead. From that time forward, he hated Mexicans to his dying day.
Revenge For His Family
He led revenge attacks against Sonoran military and towns. For the rest of his life most of his raids and attacks were against Mexicans in Mexico although in later years he attacked Americans in New Mexico and Arizona.
Apache relations with Americans started on cordial terms, but deteriorated over time until exploding into all-out war after the army’s attempted hostage taking of Cochise and the hanging of his brother, two nephews, and three others.
The humiliating whipping of Mangas Coloradas and later his deceptive capture and murder by the army drove Apaches to full scale war. Geronimo was soon in the thick of the fighting.
Through the efforts of people such as Tom Jeffords, Apaches began to return to a wary coexistence with Americans.
In 1872, President Ulysses Grant sent General Oliver O. Howard to make peace with the Apaches, which he did with Cochise and the Chiricahuas. Howard had the President’s authority to give them a reservation in their traditional homeland. Cochise asked that Jeffords be their agent and Howard agreed.
Geronimo said of Howard, “He always kept his word with us and treated us as brothers. … We could have lived forever at peace with him.”
Apache raiding continued in Mexico. Many claimed the Chiricahuas were the raiders using their reservation as a base of operation. In March 1876, Chiricahua raiders did return from Mexico.
Using gold and silver, they bought whiskey from Nick Rogers, a trader on the reservation. In a drunken stupor, one of them killed two of his own sisters. Returning to Rodgers’ post, they demanded more whiskey. When Rogers replied he had none, they shot and killed him and his cook.
Many Arizonans and army officers disliked Jeffords and using this incident, they called for his removal as the Chiricahua agent in June 1876.
The Move To San Carlos
John Clum, agent for the San Carlos Apache reservation, who would later become a leading figure in Tombstone, Arizona, was instructed to relieve Jeffords of his duties. Clum was told to shut down the Chiricahua reservation, and move them to the San Carlos reservation with other Apaches.
Clum claimed Geronimo agreed to go to San Carlos, but Geronimo and other Chiricahua leaders did not want to and instead leading their people they fled across the border into Mexico.
Clum was angry believing Geronimo had duped him. Clum became obsessed with capturing and punishing the tribal leader.
During the winter of 1877, Geronimo drove a herd of livestock across the border to the Warm Springs agency in New Mexico.
Learning of Geronimo’s return, Clum traveled to Warm Springs with over one hundred Apache police.
Through Apache messengers Clum invited Geronimo to come in for a talk. Geronimo believed it would be a peaceful talk as the messengers seemed friendly. When Geronimo and his men arrived, Clum surrounded them with Apache police and arrested him.
Clum shackled Geronimo and six of his men in leg irons and transported them by wagon to San Carlos. They were followed to the reservation by over 450 people who had been with Geronimo. Geronimo and his six men were kept shackled in the guardhouse for two months.
No charges were brought against Geronimo, he never stood trial, and was finally released.
This Climate Stinks, Time To Go
Geronimo lived for a time at San Carlos, but he and the other Chiricahuas did not like the climate or the area. Adding to their disgruntlement, they were given shoddy supplies and short-changed food allotments through mismanagement and contractor greed.
On April 4, 1878, Geronimo participated in a drinking spree during which he criticized a nephew who killed himself. Remorseful, Geronimo left for Mexico, but returned to San Carlos in 1880.
In 1881, an Apache holy man Nock-ay-det-klinne, the Dreamer, prophesied that dead Apache leaders would return and the white men would vanish.
The government believed the Dreamer was dangerous and sent troops to arrest him. A fight broke out and the Dreamer was killed.
A month after the Dreamer’s killing, Geronimo and over 70 men, women, and children fled to Mexico. The army was increasing troop numbers in response to the Dreamer’s death and Geronimo believed rumors he was to be arrested.
Crook’s Attempt To Stop The Raiding
On September 4, 1882, General George Crook returned to command the Department of Arizona after serving in the northern plains Sioux Wars. The United States and Mexico had made a treaty allowing each other’s troops to cross into the other country if pursuing marauding Indians.
In May 1883, Crook crossed into Mexico. His army captured Geronimo’s women and children forcing him to talk.
Geronimo and Crook held several parlays and agreed Geronimo and his people would return to San Carlos. Geronimo said he would stay behind to gather the rest of his people in the mountains and bring them in and Crook agreed with Geronimo’s plan.
When Geronimo did return after eight months, he brought a herd of Mexican horses and cattle that he had gathered. Crook sold Geronimo’s livestock and gave the proceeds to the Mexican government to distribute to the livestock’s owners. Geronimo never forgave Crook for that action.
The Apaches brewed an alcoholic beverage made from corn called tiswin. On May 17, 1885, Geronimo and others fled San Carlos for Mexico after a tiswin drinking spree.
Geronimo said, “Sometime before I left, an Indian named Wadiskay had a talk with me. He said, ‘They are going to arrest you,’ but I paid no attention to him, knowing I had done no wrong; and the wife of Mangas [son of Mangas Coloradas], Huera, told me that they were going to seize me and put me and Mangas in the guardhouse, and I learned from the American and Apache soldiers, from Chato, and Mickey Free, that the Americans were going to arrest me and hang me, and so I left.”
Escape To Mexico
Crook again chased the Chiricahuas into Mexico.
On March 25, 1886, Geronimo and the Apache chiefs met with Crook who told them they must surrender without condition and be sent as prisoners to Florida.
They bargained with him asking they be allowed to return to their reservation after two years. Crook agreed believing he could convince Washington; but alas, it was not to be. Washington refused their return after two years.
The Apaches did not know this as they returned to the United States. Near Fort Bowie, a trader plied Geronimo and others with whiskey telling them the citizens of Arizona planned to hang them.
Geronimo and Naiche, Cochise’s son, along with thirty men, women, and children fled back to Mexico.
Crook Is Out, Miles Takes Up Pursuit
Headquarters reprimanded Crook for losing Geronimo. He requested reassignment, which was given immediately. General Nelson A. Miles replaced Crook.
Miles’ troops relentlessly pursued Geronimo into Mexico during the summer. Government plans were in place to move all Chiricahuas to Florida, even those who had served the army as scouts.
Apache scouts and Miles’ troops found Geronimo and convinced him to return with them to meet with Miles. Miles told Geronimo all Chiricahuas including his family members had been sent to Florida.
“Lay down your arms and come with me to Fort Bowie and in five days you will see your families now in Florida with Chihuahua and no harm will come to you,” Miles told Geronimo. With this information and assurance, Geronimo agreed and surrendered.
Finally, Imprisonment
Earlier, 434 Chiricahua men women and children were sent to Florida in crowded railroad cars. Upon their surrender, Geronimo and his men were sent to Fort Pickens, Florida.
Nineteen months later they were reunited with their families and the rest of the Chiricahuas who had been moved from Fort Monroe, Florida, to Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama.
Living conditions in Florida and Alabama were not conducive to the Chiricahuas’ health and many died. They were finally sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in October 1894.
Geronimo dictated his memoirs and dedicated them to President Theodore Roosevelt writing, “…if I must die in bondage—I hope that the remnant of the Apache tribe may, when I am gone, be granted the one privilege which they request—to return to Arizona.”
Geronimo remained a prisoner of war to his dying day in 1909. After his death, his people were given the choice to stay at Fort Sill or return to the Southwest – many returned; but Geronimo’s bones remain at Fort Sill.
Bill Markley can be reached at markley@pie.midco.net
