Geronimo

by Robert M. Utley

  How does Geronimo compare with the Indian chiefs whose names he has overshadowed? For non-Apaches, the answer lies largely in the vast difference in cultures. Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Nez Perce, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Ute, and other plains and mountain tribes that confronted the white westward movement embraced a culture that mandated fending off enemy encroachment or warring with enemy tribes. Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Dull Knife, Quanah Parker, Satanta, and others who inscribed their names in the history of the American West contended with white people and their army until overwhelmed.

  Apache culture emphasized war and raid—war for revenge and raid for subsistence and other supplies when the land’s natural bounty could not sustain the people. The mission of the US Army was not to make war on the Apaches but to protect the settlers in their lives and property from Apache raiders. When that policy repeatedly failed, the army’s mission broadened to attempting to destroy the Apaches or force them to surrender and settle on a reservation. Geronimo made his name as a raider and as a talented expert in eluding pursuing soldiers and Apache scouts.

  Because of the cultural difference, therefore, Geronimo is hard to compare with other prominent chiefs. Two examples are notable.

  Sitting Bull of the Lakota Sioux enjoys name recognition approaching Geronimo’s. Sitting Bull was not a man of complexity and contradiction. He was an undeviating product of his culture. He steered a narrow path within the boundaries of his culture and excelled in every aspect. He never wavered, even when overcome by the white man.

  Geronimo’s culture gave him a wider margin within which to act. He deviated time and again. Unlike Sitting Bull, he often behaved selfishly, impulsively, deviously, mercilessly, egotistically, and at variance with the dictates of his culture. With Sitting Bull, his people came first. With Geronimo, he came first.

  At Fort Sill, Geronimo’s neighbor was the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. They rode together in Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. Before his surrender at the end of the Red River War of 1874–75, Quanah Parker was a great warrior. Afterward, he accepted the reality and transformed himself into the image of the white man. In his last years, Geronimo cultivated the soil and proudly raised melons and other crops. Quanah Parker, however, acquired status as a successful and prosperous cattle rancher. Both Geronimo and Quanah adapted to the new reality, but Quanah exhibited an adaptability far beyond Geronimo’s.

  Within the context of his own culture, Geronimo did not rise to levels of leadership of other Apaches whose names are not as well known. Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, Victorio, Nana, and Juh all led in war if not peace better than Geronimo. They also adhered more closely to their culture than Geronimo. Yet Geronimo’s name has overwhelmed them all.

  This happened because of the white man’s newspapers. All the formidable leaders, both Apaches and all other tribes, had faded from the scene by the time Geronimo emerged as the great Apache holdout. With his name a household word and his deeds appalling newspaper readers, he overshadowed all the other great leaders. His long life after surrender kept his name before the public. In modern times, few of the public know the names of any but Geronimo.

  Geronimo died a prisoner of war, leaving the other Chiricahuas as prisoners of war, although they lived much as other Indians interned on reservations. The opening of the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation to white settlement in 1900, however, clouded their future. The Fort Sill Military Reservation, owned by the Kiowas and Comanches and intended as the Chiricahua Reservation after the army abandoned the fort, became US property. Within two years, the army had second thoughts about abandoning the fort: better to retain the entire reservation for military purposes and let the Interior Department move the Chiricahuas to some other reservation. Interior did not want to be involved.

  Even before Geronimo’s death, the Chiricahuas began to sense another betrayal in the making. The army continued to insist on establishing an artillery school on the reservation, and that left no space for Chiricahua villages. So long as Geronimo lived, however, any scheme that moved the Chiricahuas farther west would encounter opposition. Such was the power the old man’s name continued to evoke. His death in 1909 freed the policy-makers to work more seriously to break the impasse.

  In 1911 an old friend showed up at Fort Sill with orders to resolve the dilemma: Colonel Hugh L. Scott, Third Cavalry. He investigated the Mescalero Apache Reservation of New Mexico and talked with the Mescaleros. They would readily welcome the Chiricahuas. Scott discovered, however, that not all the Chiricahuas wanted to move. Some would rather remain at or near Fort Sill, taking land allotments the same as the white settlers. After much bickering in Washington, those few who wanted allotments in Oklahoma were allowed to file for them. Most had become more acculturated or had married outside the tribe. They became the Fort Sill Apaches.1

  Beginning in 1913, most of the Chiricahuas moved to Mescalero and shed the label “prisoner of war.” There most remain today, originally living separately from the Mescaleros but leading a decent life. The old separate Chiricahua settlement on the Mescalero Reservation, at Whitetail, is now largely abandoned. The Mescalero, Chiricahua, and Lipan Apache people are blended on the Mescalero reservation. The individuals all know their ancestors, but few if any are “pure” Chiricahua.

  Two years after Geronimo’s surrender, General Miles’s pile of three stones finally took shape. The Chiricahuas remained as one people for sixteen years. Thanks to one government betrayal after another, the pile of stones had collapsed by 1914. But at long last, the Chiricahuas no longer bore the onus of being prisoners of war.

  Of Geronimo’s comrades, Naiche ultimately gained equal importance. As the second son of Cochise, he inherited the chieftainship of the Chokonen Chiricahuas. As he aged, he grew in stature and paired with Geronimo. In captivity Naiche often commanded more influence and respect than Geronimo. With three wives, fourteen children, and a bevy of well-connected relatives, Naiche lived a more contented and even-tempered life during the years of captivity. He remained the most influential leader in the last years at Fort Sill and led the faction that wanted to move to the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico. In 1913, with his one surviving wife, his mother, and six children, he made his new home in New Mexico, living contentedly until his death in 1921 at the age of sixty-five.2

  Chihuahua, independent and outspoken as ever, lived through all the years of captivity. At Mount Vernon, he lost two wives and two infant daughters to illness. At Fort Sill, he led one of the Chiricahua villages. Chihuahua died there in 1901 at the age of seventy-nine. His surviving wife, his son Eugene, and three grandchildren settled on the Mescalero reservation.

  Of all the Chiricahuas, Chatto led the most checkered career. From superb raider and war leader to close ally of a government that unconscionably betrayed him, he lived through Fort Marion, Mount Vernon, and Fort Sill as a prisoner of war and somewhat of an outcast because of his service to the army. He married three wives, one of whom abandoned him to marry a son of Chief Loco. At Fort Sill he headed one of the twelve Chiricahua villages. One of his sons died at Carlisle, and three sons, one daughter, a sister, and a granddaughter at Fort Sill. With two wives, he joined the others at Mescalero and died there in an automobile crash in 1934, aged eighty.

  Mangas, son of Mangas Coloradas and hereditary chief of the Warm Springs Chihennes, did not surrender with Geronimo but was caught and lodged with him at Fort Pickens. He, too, lived as a prisoner of war at Mount Vernon and Fort Sill, where he was leader of one of the Chiricahua villages. At Mount Vernon he married a daughter of Victorio, and together the two had six children. All had died before the end of the Fort Sill years, including Mangas. He died in 1901, fifty-five years old.

  Nana appears throughout this narrative, aged, wise, and opposed to all things white. He also, even in his older years, was one of the greatest fighting men of the Chiricahuas. Neither a chief nor a subchief, Nana was born a Mimbres Chihenne and remained with Geronimo’s followers until his death. He probably had an
unknown number of wives before he married Geronimo’s sister. He died at the age of ninety-six at Fort Sill in 1896.

  Loco, peace chief of the Warm Springs Chihennes, and his people were forced by Geronimo’s raiders to leave San Carlos in 1882 and join the Chiricahuas in Mexico. He refused to flee to Mexico when Geronimo broke out the last time and instead joined with Chatto in the trip to Washington and ultimately, via Fort Leavenworth, to Florida as prisoners of war. He lived quietly at Mount Vernon and Fort Sill. Married three times, he had children by each wife. He died at Fort Sill in 1905, at the age of eighty-two.

  The two scouts who went with Lieutenant Gatewood to talk Geronimo into surrender, Martine and Kayitah, were rewarded with the status of prisoner of war and thus lived at Fort Marion, Mount Vernon, and Fort Sill. The two cousins each married and had children. At Fort Sill Martine first headed a village, and in 1900 Kayitah took over. They were regarded as equals, however, and the village was known as that of Kayitah and Martine. Both went to Mescalero. Kayitah died in 1934 at the age of seventy-eight. Martine’s death is unrecorded, but he was interviewed by Morris Opler in the 1930s.

  For all the trouble he caused on the reservation, Kayatena proved an important influence in persuading Geronimo to surrender to Crook in 1886. Peacefully living on the reservation, he and all the Chiricahuas were transported to Fort Marion in 1886. There he acquired the status of prisoner of war and lived through the years of Mount Vernon and Fort Sill. He married twice and in 1913 went with many other Chiricahuas to the Mescalero Reservation. He died of pneumonia in 1918 at the age of fifty-seven.

  Jason Betzinez did indeed, as a youth of fifteen, “ride with Geronimo.” A Warm Springs/Bedonkohe, he was the great-grandson of the venerated chief Mahco. Although a prisoner of war, he was educated at Carlisle from 1887 to 1895 and acquired literacy that allowed him to write, in collaboration with Colonel W. S. Nye, his own book, an indispensable source for the early years. At Fort Sill, he was the last Apache scout mustered out before the move to Mescalero. In 1919 he married a missionary he had known at Fort Sill but fathered no children. Not until 1960, at the age of one hundred, did Betzinez die—in an auto accident. His book, I Fought with Geronimo, has been used frequently in this narrative.

  Geronimo’s move to Mount Vernon Barracks in May 1888 marked his waning association with the military figures who had been part of his past. Within a short time they had dropped from the story of his life. Aside from General George Crook’s interview with Geronimo and others at Mount Vernon Barracks in January 1890, he never again saw or heard from most of the others; and Crook died only three months later, in March 1890.

  General Nelson A. Miles periodically wrote more wordy dispatches when he objected to events at Mount Vernon Barracks, and several times he raised the Chiricahua issue. At the same time, he came under growing criticism for the way he continued to describe the last campaign. In particular, in report after report he exaggerated the roles of Lawton and Wood while hardly mentioning Lieutenant Gatewood and his Chiricahua scouts, Kayitah and Martine.

  Captain Henry W. Lawton continued to enjoy Miles’s favor. In 1893, thanks to the general, Lawton received a Medal of Honor for heroism in the Civil War. In the Spanish American War, promoted to major general of Volunteers, he served creditably in Cuba before transferring to the Philippines. Although a general, he fought valorously in battles with Philippine insurgents. In one, on December 18, 1899, he caught a fatal bullet—the only US general killed in the Philippine Insurrection.

  Assistant Surgeon Leonard Wood also benefitted from Miles’s patronage. Like Lawton, in 1898 he received the Medal of Honor for services in the Apache campaign. In 1898 also, he finally achieved his ambition of abandoning the medical service for the line. The Spanish American War afforded him his chance. Long a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, he gained the colonelcy of the First US Volunteer Cavalry, the “Rough Riders,” of which Roosevelt was lieutenant colonel. With service in Cuba and the Philippines, he emerged a major general of Volunteers and a brigadier general in the regular army. After the reorganization of the army, he served from 1910 to 1914 as army chief of staff. His military ambitions led to political ambitions, and he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 1920. He died in 1927.

  Nelson A. Miles rose swiftly, promoted to major general in 1890, the same year in which his longtime nemesis George Crook died. The citizens of Tucson awarded him a ceremonial sword for ending the Apache Wars, and in 1892 he, too, received a Medal of Honor for Civil War gallantry. Named commanding general of the army in 1895, he held the position through the Spanish American War, in which he performed without much distinction. Awarded a third star by the Congress, he retired in 1903, the army’s last commanding general. President Roosevelt called him a “brave peacock” and refused to attend his retirement ceremony. A heart attack struck down Miles while attending a circus in 1925.

  The true loser among all these distinguished officers was First Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood. While downplaying Gatewood’s contribution to the surrender of Geronimo, Miles honored his promise to appoint him a member of his staff. As he had alienated Crook, so Gatewood alienated Miles. Relegated to the margins of the staff, he suffered from long years of service and illness. Badly injured by a gunpowder explosion, in 1892 he sought the promotion to captain to which his seniority entitled him. The promotion board denied him on the grounds of bad health. On May 20, 1896, a malignant tumor on his liver killed him.

  Such were some of the people who affected the life of Geronimo in one way or another. But Geronimo’s name drowned them all in the memory of the public.

  On September 4, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona Territory, four centuries of Indian warfare in North America drew to a close. The Ghost Dance troubles four years later were a religious movement, not a war. The character of the Apache conflict differed profoundly from all other Indian wars. Other tribes often engaged in combat, which was rare in Apache hostilities. Few Apache conflicts merit the term “battle” or even “skirmish.” In most encounters the Apaches fled without loss of life. Even so, Skeleton Canyon achieves significance as the end of four centuries of Indian hostilities in North America. As the last holdout, Geronimo acquired the most recent position in the American memory, one reason his legacy has so firmly endured.

  Legend or reality, Geronimo remains the dominant Indian name in the American memory.

  APPENDIX

  APACHE INDIANS

  Mescalero (Mess-ka-lero) Tribe. Sierra Blanca of southern New Mexico

  Jicarilla (Hick-a-reeya) Tribe. Northern New Mexico

  Western Apache Bands. Arizona north of Gila River

  White Mountain Band. Largest and easternmost band, White Mountains of northeast Arizona; aka Coyotero (Coy-o-tero) (although Coyotero may be a separate White Mountain group).

  San Carlos Band. Gila River southwest of White Mountains in Arizona.

  Cibicue (Sib-a-que) Band. Arizona northwest of White Mountain band.

  Tonto Bands:

  Southern. Arizona west of Cibicue Band.

  Northern. Arizona northwest of Southern Tonto Band.

  Chiricahua Apache Tribe (No tribal chief)

  Chihenne (Chee-hennie) Band. New Mexico west of Rio Grande into Black Range and Mogollon Mountains.

  Chihenne Local Groups: Warm Springs (Victorio, Loco, Nana); Mimbres; Coppermine; Mogollon (Mug-ee-yon) (may be another name for Bedonkohe).

  Bedonkohe (Be-don-ko-hee) Band. Geronimo’s band. Mogollon Mountains of southwestern New Mexico. Expert Morris Opler does not recognize the Bedonkoke. It may be another name for his Mogollons. By 1850s Mangas Coloradas’s Bedonkohe following began merging with Chihennes to form a hybrid group, mainly Bedonkohe, at Santa Lucía Springs, New Mexico.

  Chokonen (Cho-ko-nen) Band. Southeastern Arizona in Chiricahua and Dragoon Mountains. Cochise headed the dominant Local Group. Others not apparent. By 1858 Cochise became the chief of the entire Chokonen Band. After death of Mangas Coloradas, Cochise emerged
as the dominant leader of the entire Chiricahua tribe.

  Nednhi (Ned-nee) Band. Northern Mexico ranging into Arizona. Juh dominant leader. Local groups not known.

  ABBREVIATIONS

  AAAG

  Acting Assistant Adjutant General

  AAG

  Assistant Adjutant General

  ADC

  Aide- de- Camp

  AG

  Adjutant General

  AGO

  Adjutant General’s Office

  AGUSA

  Adjutant General US Army

  AHS

  Arizona Historical Society

  CIA

  Commissioner of Indian Affairs

  CO

  Commanding Officer

  DM

  Department of the Missouri

  GFO

  General Field Order

  GO

  General Order

  LR

  Letters Received

  LS

  Letters Sent

  MDM

  Military Division of the Missouri

  MDP

  Military Division of the Pacific

  NARA

  National Archives and Records Administration

  OAG

  Office of the Adjutant General

  OIA

  Office of Indian Affairs

  RG

  Record Group

  SO

  Special Order

  SS

  Secretary of State

  SW

  Secretary of War

  NOTES

  CHAPTER 1. APACHE YOUTH

  1. Originally published in 1906 as Geronimo’s Story of His Life, the book has progressed through many printings. I have used the Penguin edition of 1996 and cite it as S. M. Barrett, Geronimo, His Own Story: The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior, as told to S. M. Barrett, new edition revised and edited by Frank Turner (New York: Penguin, 1996). Pagination differs among the various editions. The narrative can be easily dismissed as the meanderings of an old man, but it contains much of value when checked with reliable sources. Geronimo dictated his story at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1905, a prisoner of war ever since his surrender in 1886. He spoke in his own language to Asa Daklugie, a Carlisle Indian School graduate and son of Chief Juh. Daklugie in turn translated into English for S. M. Barrett, a Lawton school superintendent. What was lost or corrupted in translation, and what Barrett changed to accord more with the white calendar and understanding, cannot be known. In addition, the War Department objected to the manuscript as reflecting badly on an army that Geronimo had repeatedly eluded, and Barrett made some accommodating changes. Only by direction of President Theodore Roosevelt, however, did the manuscript finally see print. I treat in more detail the autobiography in chap. 28.