Indian

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GERONIMO - A Warrior No More


Among famous Native American chiefs, Geronimo’s name is synonymous for

bloody raids and fierce battles. Although there were no records kept of his birth, he was

probably born in 1829 in the mountains of Arizona. His Indian name was Goyahkla [One

Who Yawns] and his early years were spent as a typical youth of the Apache tribe. As an

adult he married and started a family but when Mexican soldiers killed his wife and

children in 1858, he vowed revenge. His ferocious attacks earned him the nickname of

“Geronimo” and his vengeance continued for decades. When the Americans came to the

Southwest, they became his new enemy and he fought them until his surrender in 1886.

For the next twenty-three years, until his death in 1909, he remained a prisoner-of-war.

Geronimo’s life has been the subject of numerous books and a recent movie but

they rarely focus on his last decades as a prisoner-of-war of the American Army. When

he surrendered in 1886, the Americans promised to eventually return him and his people

to their home land. Instead, Geronimo spent the rest of his life in various military camps.

He tried to learn the ways of the Americans and he would, in his own way, become a

successful businessman. But he would never see his native Arizona again.

After Geronimo’s surrender in 1886, the army moved his Apache band to

Alabama, where they lived for several years. But the climate of the South, very unlike

the mountains and deserts of their native Arizona, was unsuitable for them and in 1894

they were relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This was considered a positive change

because the Apache people had expressed a desire for a drier climate and for land to

farm. [Martin, Geronimo, p.151]

Geronimo’s arrival in Oklahoma stirred considerable controversy because the
stereotype of the “savage Indian” was still co...