It was 90 years ago today - February 17, 1909- that the Apache Indian chief called Geronimo (for "Jerome" - his birth name was Goyakla, "Yawning One" ) died. He had lived under nominal "house arrest" for 23 years and during that time had dictated his life story and become a spokesperson for peaceful coexistence.
His memoirs, added to sensationalized press reports printed during his campaigns, so caught the imagination of a nation that decades later, paratroopers began using "Geronimo" as their shout when jumping into the skies.
He was a Chiricahau Apache man who had been born in 1829 in what is now Clifton, Arizona. This was a time when aggressiveness and courage in the face of difficulty were highly valued by his people - who, during his childhood, were a somewhat migratory group, hunting and farming as they followed the seasons. When food was scarce, they would raid neighboring tribes. Thus, in his culture, invasive attacks and retributive vengeance were considered normal aspects of life.
The sensational campaign Geronimo later mounted against the Spanish and Americans was entirely in line with these values. First of all, he saw them only as invaders and ravagers - after all, hadn't they raided his lodgings, looking for Indian slaves and Christian converts? And hadn't his young wife, children, and mother all been killed in 1858 as a result? He reportedly vowed to kill as many of these interlopers and assailants as he possibly could.
Thus began a period of great fear and vigilance for settlers in the areas of the American southwest we know as Arizona and New Mexico.
When, in 1876, the U.S. Army mounted a concerted campaign to move the Chiricahuas onto a reservation in San Carlos, New Mexico, Geronimo and his band didn't stay there, but fled southward into Old Mexico. For more than a decade, with a mixture of military strategy and raw courage, he eluded the cavalry and carried out intermittent raids against white settlements; it finally took more than 5,000 soldiers working with 500 scouts to track them down.
Finally, he yielded to the urging of his weary followers, and in March of 1886 surrendered to the American general, George Crook, with the understanding that after a certain period of time, they would be able to return to Arizona.
That never happened. Taken to St. Augustine, Florida, many of his people died from malaria or tuberculosis. Their leader quickly escaped, was recaptured by General Nelson Miles, and for the next two decades spent most of his days in a small prison yard in rural "Indian Territory" - now Oklahoma - where he would go and sit behind a mound of dirt to escape the fascinated eyes of young boys.
During the last years of his life, the annals show that Geronimo adopted Christianity, took part in the 1905 inaugural procession of President Theodore Roosevelt, and dedicated "Geronimo's Story of His Life."
Among other things, he said, "The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported [only] 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.
"When [I was] 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."
A dramatic retelling of the whole of Geronimo's life story is here: http://monte.k12.co.us/hsstudents/dank/geronimo.htm
You can read his dictated narrative, and view a photograph of the warrior as an old man, beginning at: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/geronimo/geronixx.htm
Other images of the man:
http://webuser.rhein-main.net/m.gath/geronimo.htm
and
http://www.gbso.net/Skyhawk/Geronimo.htm
and
a picture of his grave:
http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/387.html
More quotations from Geronimo:
http://www.uakron.edu/english/martin/geronimo.html
Geronimo
b. 1829. d. February 17, 1909.
Apache Shaman.
Apache Cemetery, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Cause of Death: Pneumonia.
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