Geronimo ’s life account often curve from his fable : He was limn in U.S. and Mexican culture as a frighteningly fierce warrior and as a representative of braveness for theWorld War II paratrooperswho squall his name as they jumped from airplane . He was call " the most famous North American Indian of all fourth dimension , " by one of his biographers .
But in realness , Geronimo was less of a mythical figure to his people . In fact , he was comparatively nameless outside theChiricahua Apacheuntil he reached mediate age , according toThe Washington Post .
" In our tribe , Geronimo was not a very important soul , " saysMichael Darrow , Fort Sill Apachetribal historiographer . " He was not a chief . " A hundred ago , Geronimo would n’t have been a big deal to the tribe .
Yet to many Americans in the 19th century , Geronimo epitomized the figure of the fierce warrior Indian . He correspond the grandiosity that could be used to justify " protect " colonist by moving Indians onto reservation . And that rhetoric was apply to the Apache more generally .
" One of the things that is very vulgar in writing about Apache is to use the term warriors , " Darrow read . However , the Apache oral communication does n’t have a full term that translates to warrior . " account books , and as a result , the popular enactment of Apache in books and movies , are that Apache are fierce and militant . "
Geronimo ’s own telling of his puerility offers a dissimilar level .
Geronimo’s Early Life
There are two fib about when and where Geronimo was born . According toRobert M. Utley , historian and author of " Geronimo , " it was in 1823 in the upper Gila River Valley in what is now New Mexico . But when Geronimo told his liveliness story as an octogenarian in " Geronimo ’s Story of His Life : As Told to S.M. Barrett , he say he was born in what ’s now Arizona in 1829 . Either way , the territory would have been part of Mexico until the 1848 Mexican Cession following the Mexican - American War and the 1854Gadsden Purchase .
What ’s not dispute is that Geronimo was have a bun in the oven into the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe and was named Goyahkla , which means the " one who yawns . " He was the quaternary child of a mob with four boys and four girls . In " Geronimo ’s Story of His Life : As Told to S.M. Barrett , " he described his motherland around the headwaters of the Gila River :
Geronimo recount a childhood spent tame crops , harvesting uncivilized - growing tobacco plant , cranch edible corn , and taking trips to gather nuts and Chuck Berry . Around the eld of 8 or 10 , he link up in " the Salmon Portland Chase , " huntingbuffalo , cervid , antelope and elk , mow down only those the kindred needed . He reported having shoot down many bears with a fizgig and mass lions with arrows .
significantly , Geronimo says that as a youth , he never saw a missionary or a priest . " We had never seen a blank man . "
Tragedy and Revenge
In 1858 , the Bedonkohe Apache went south to Old Mexico , camp just outside a townspeople the Indians phone Kaskiyeh , and depart in each daylight to trade in . woman and children remained at the camp . One good afternoon , upon returning , the tribesmen learned that Mexican troops had attack the camp , killed all of the guards , captivate the ponies and weapons , and vote out many of the women and children . Among the victims were Geronimo ’s mother , his married woman Alope and their three tike . From his biography :
A few days later , the tribe deliver to its own colonisation . Chief Mangus - Colorado ( or Mangas Coloradas ) , called a council . The Bedonkohe were determined to " take the warpath " against Mexico . Geronimo was send to ask neighboring tribes to help , receiving it from the Chokonen Apache led by Cochise and the Nedni Apache led by Whoa .
Geronimo spent the next quarter - century " attacking and evading both Mexican and U.S. troops , vowing to kill as many white man as he could , " according toSmithsonian mag .
But it would be a error to think of Geronimo as a patriot chief fighting for the preservation of his fatherland , Utley explains in an email . " Wrong on all reckoning . He was n’t a patriot , or a chief or fighting for his homeland . " He was fighting for his own grounds .
Resisting the White Man
During the second half of the 19th 100 , with the putsch of the American Southwest andAmerican westward expanding upon , the U.S. government forced Apache onto reservations . Geronimo leave the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona to which he had been assigned multiple multiplication , stand firm capture by and fighting against U.S. soldiers and Mexican likewise .
" Geronimo ’s action stay fresh the Chiricahuas constantly nark up as long as he was on the San Carlos Reservation , " Utley says . " If I were to indulge in modern politics , I would equate him to a national drawing card who keep the public pot boiling . The Chiricahua trajectory was altered to the effect that they were all commit to Florida because of Geronimo , but did n’t deserve it . "
For many yr , Geronimo and the Apache " violently resisted the influx of the white settler , " according toHistory . Legend has it that he earn his sobriquet from Mexican soldiers cry out to St. Jerome when confront him . In fact , his ill fame among white settlers was such that they wouldthreaten their childrenthat Geronimo would come for them if they were spoiled .
During his years eluding the U.S. government , Geronimo reach significant reportage in newspapers . " Some were mere rumors or fabrications , but the stories were bad enough to brand this man a flaming butcher who shoot , lanced or knifed scores of victims throughout his grownup life story , " Utley writes in his Word of God . " [ T]he public at heavy know the name to stand for dreaded atrocities . "
Treaty Negotiation Not Surrender
Before the U.S. government ’s conclusion to move all Native Americans in the Southwest to reservations in the 1870s , Geronimo aver thegreatest haywire ever doneto his tribe was in 1863 when chief Mangus - Colorado check to a serenity treaty with the U.S. General Joseph Rodman West at Apache Tejo , New Mexico , ( Fort McLane ) in exchange for viands for his people . Mangus - Colorado train about half of the kin to New Mexico , where , instead of peace , they were take into custody . West set up the chieftain ’s execution and he was torment and kill that dark for judge to take to the woods .
Geronimo and his following fled for the peck out of veneration . U.S. troop continually attacked their camps until he was contain as a captive of war on the San Carlos Reservation . But in 1885 , Geronimo and 135 follower , including men , women and children , violate out and avoided capture for nearly a year .
They were pursued for month by as many as 5,000 U.S. soldiers and 3,000 Mexicans led by U.S. General George R. Crook . However , they escaped once again . The quest was taken up again by General Nelson Miles , who eventually forced Geronimo to turn himself in near Fort Bowie on Sept. 4 , 1886 . By that time , the Apache were simplyexhausted and outnumbered . His " giving up " is suppose to have terminate theAmerican - Native American Wars .
But in Geronimo ’s nous , he had encounter with Miles to negotiate a treaty , not cede . For Miles , claim to be the military drawing card who got Geronimo to surrender offer more prestigiousness . " It was certainly not an flat surrender as it had been portrayed , " Darrow say .
After the surrender , Geronimo and 400 Apache were sent to Fort Pickens , Florida , on Sept. 8 , 1886 . After a few years , they were moved to Alabama and finally to Fort Sill , Oklahoma , in 1894 .
" Before the imprisonment , Geronimo does n’t seem to have done much to seek to benefit the federation of tribes as a whole , " explain Darrow . Once the tribe was incarcerate , he did utilise what influence he had to endeavor to get them released . Initially , the Apache had been promised they would not be gaol more than two years and would be given their own reserve and homeland . But when Darrow ’s grandmother was born in 1892 , she was a prisoner of war in Alabama .
Geronimo’s Death and Legacy
Geronimo lived at Fort Sill from 1894 until his decease Feb. 17 , 1909 . During his years on the Oklahoma booking , Geronimo give for involution inPawnee Bill ’s Wild West show , bill as " The Worst Indian That Ever Lived . " He take up part in the St. Louis World ’s Fair in 1904 and participated in President Theodore Roosevelt ’s inauguration , where he was put on presentation even though his requests for the payoff of Chiricahua land were denied .
In February 1909 , Geronimo come off his horse on the way back to Fort Sill from Lawton , Oklahoma , at night . He was found the keep an eye on morning and developed a cold , which turn into pneumonia . Within the week , he was deadened . Still a captive of war , Geronimo was forget at Fort Sill .
His legend was a sort of exculpation for continue the kin as POWs for nearly 30 year , according to Darrow .
" Nobody was uncoerced to risk their reputation allowing Geronimo to be free , " he says . It was in the political sake of the United States government to keep them imprisoned and limn them as a ferocious , fast-growing people who were potentially grave .
