Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Feb 9, 2007

History Nuggets: Geronimo

Arizona historical markers were hard to stop at. The warning signs didn’t warn early enough to slow down from 60mph onto what was usually a dirt pullout, and I blasted through many of them, tutting in annoyance but too lazy to do a u-turn.

Then I found one, just outside the small town of Geronimo on US-70 in Arizona. It was a bright desert day, the blue in stark contrast to the freshly ploughed fields alongside, and it pleased me no end to have found this marker dedicated to the most famous Apache Indian of all.

I grew up shouting “Geronimo!” without having the slightest clue what, or who, Geronimo was. He was, in fact, born to the Chiricahua Apache tribe in 1829. His birthplace is now in Arizona, but back then was still part of the Mexican territory. His real name, incidentally, was GoyaaÅ‚Ã©: “one who yawns.” Somehow, he doesn’t strike me as a man who had much time to relax and yawn.

Working alongside his brother, Juh, he was often mistaken for the leader himself because his brother, with a speech impediment, often left the talking to Geronimo. He was instead a medicine man, in charge of the spiritual health of his kin.

That time was one of conflict between the original inhabitants–the Apache–and the Spanish settlers. In 1858, returning from a trading excursion, he found that a raid on his home had left his wife, mother and children all murdered. That engendered a hatred that lead him to become a hero for freedom if you were Apache, and a pestilence on two legs if you were not. While never a chief, he became from that point onwards a military leader, which in the tradition of his people gave him the role of spiritual leader as well.

By 1875, all the Apache were rounded up into the San Carlos reservation. This was barren land where they could not survive using their traditional ways of life. Geronimo escaped three times, surrendering while at the same time eluding capture. Eventually he lead a band of his family into exile, avoiding capture for over a decade. At the height of the campaign, thousands of soldiers from the United States and Mexican armies were deployed to hunt him and his band down.

It all seemed to be over seven years later, when in May 1882 Geronimo was surprised in his mountain sanctuary. He agreed to bring his kin down to the reservation. But after hearing rumors of hangings and trials, instead he ran away again–with 35 warriors and 109 women and children. It was, nonetheless, the beginning of the end. He surrendered to General Nelson Miles on September 4th, 1886; his group had dwindled to 16 warriors, 12 women and 6 children and the surrender signaled the end of the last guerrilla action of the Indians.

The government broke its promise (now there’s a surprise) and sent 450 Apache people to be imprisoned in Florida, then later Alabama and finally Oklahoma. Geronimo later became a rancher, appearing in the parade for Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1905 and making other appearances with a kind of old-age celebrity.

He died in 1909, still a prisoner of war, and was buried far from his homeland at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.