10. Wood, Chasing Geronimo, entries of September 5, 8, 1886.
CHAPTER 25. PRISONERS OF WAR, 1886–87
1. The names, ages, and other details were furnished by Brig. Gen. David S. Stanley by orders of the War Department. Telegram, Stanley to AGUSA, San Antonio, October 11, 1886, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 186, NARA.
2. Stanley endorsement on critical newspaper item, October 8, 1886, ibid.
3. Kanseah, in Ball, Indeh, 131.
4. Telegrams, Stanley to Acting SW, San Antonio, September 30, October 1, 1886, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 186, NARA.
5. New York Times, October 3, 1886, printing dispatch from San Antonio October 2.
6. Stanley to AGUSA, October 27, 1886, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 186, NARA.
7. All these telegram are available on microfilm in ibid., scattered through rolls 184, 185, and 186. Most are printed in Senate Executive Document 117, 49th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 2, 1887, serial 2449. Leonard Wood’s diary, normally reliable, contains a passage relating that on the way down to Bowie Station on September 8, he rode next to Miles’s adjutant, Capt. William Thompson. Influenced by old friendship and perhaps a few drinks, Wood wrote, Thompson leaned over, patted his pocket, and said: “I have got something here which would stop this movement, but I am not going to let the old man see it until you are gone, then I will repeat it to him.” The only telegram that could have stopped the movement was the directive to hold the prisoners at Fort Bowie, but Miles received and responded to this on September 7 or 8. I have found no other telegram that would have stopped the movement, the latest being the president’s directive of September 8, overriding earlier directives, to confine the prisoners at the nearest secure fort or military prison. Thompson wired the message to Miles en route, and he answered it, typically fogging the language, from Engle, New Mexico, as the train bore the prisoners across Texas to San Antonio. Wood, Chasing Geronimo, entry of September 8, 1886, 112. Later a controversy arose between Miles and Howard over a dispatch that Miles claimed he did not see for forty-one days. The dispute extended well into 1887 before apparently ending with Howard’s transfer to another assignment. I have been unable to locate this dispatch.
8. Telegrams, Acting SW to President, September 10, 1886, and to Stanley, September 29, 1886, both in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 186, NARA.
9. The scene is described by a reporter for the Pensacolan, October 27, 1886, quoted in Woodward B. Skinner, The Apache Rock Crumbles: The Captivity of Geronimo’s People (Pensacola, FL: Skinner, 1987), 106.
10. Details of life at Fort Pickens are taken from Capt. J. E. Wilson to AAG Division of the Atlantic, Fort Barrancas, FL, November 30, 1886; and Lt. Col. Loomis Langdon to AAG Division of the Atlantic, Fort Barrancas, January 7, 1887; both in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 187, NARA.
11. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 151–52. Skinner had access to the Wrattan Papers but apparently found this undated letter in a newspaper.
12. Annual Report of Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, September 3, 1887, SW, Annual Report (1887), 158.
13. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, chaps. 11, 13, describes many of these visits, drawn from Pensacola newspapers.
14. Ibid., 184–87.
15. Langdon to AAG Division of the Atlantic, St. Francis Barracks, August 23, 1886; with endorsement of Schofield August 28 and Sheridan September 3, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 184, NARA.
16. Telegram, Schofield to AGUSA, Governors Island, September 20, 1886; telegrams, Langdon to AAG Division of the Atlantic, St. Augustine, September 20, 29, 1886, the latter with string of endorsements decreeing disposition of scouts, ibid., roll 186.
17. Herbert Welsh, The Apache Prisoners in Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida (Philadelphia: Indian Rights Association, 1887), 20.
18. Teller to Endicott, March 21, 1887, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 189, NARA.
19. Welsh, Apache Prisoners, 20n.
20. Ayres to Sheridan, St. Francis Barracks, March 25, 1887, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 189, NARA.
21. Naiche, Mangas, and Geronimo to Miles, Fort Pickens, April 17, 1887, dictated to “G.W.”; Wrattan to Miles, April 17, 1887; both in Miles Papers, box 3, folder W.
22. Telegram, Bourke to Endicott, Mobile, April 13, 1887; Bourke to Endicott, Washington, April 19, 1887; both in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, rolls 190, 189, NARA.
23. Telegrams from AGUSA to General Schofield, Colonels Ayers at St. Francis Barracks, Colonel Langdon at Fort Barrancas, and Maj. William Sinclair at Mount Vernon Barracks, April 18, 1887; Ayers to AAG Division of the Atlantic, St. Francis Barracks, April 27, 1887; all in ibid., roll 189.
24. Langdon to AAG Division of the Atlantic, Fort Barrancas, June 6, August 9, 1887, ibid., roll 190.
25. Wrattan to Miles, Fort Pickens, October 27, 1887, Miles Papers, box 3, folder W. Wrattan to Stanley, Fort Pickens, October 3, 1887, with Stanley endorsement of December 24 and Sheridan endorsement of December 28, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 190, NARA.
CHAPTER 26. GERONIMO AT MOUNT VERNON BARRACKS, 1888–94
1. Walter Reed, “Geronimo and His Warriors in Captivity,” Illustrated American 3 (August 16, 1890): 231–35, in Cozzens, Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 627. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 223, drawing on Mobile newspaper accounts. He confirms Reed except that he has some people emerging from their habitations. Albert E. Wrattan, “George Wrattan, Friend of the Apaches,” Journal of Arizona History 27 (Spring 1986): 106.
2. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 223.
3. Monthly report on prisoners, Maj. William Sinclair to AAG Division of the Atlantic, Mount Vernon Barracks, May 31, 1888, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 190, NARA.
4. Bourke to AGUSA, Washington, April 19, 1887, ibid., roll 189.
5. Eugene Chihuahua in Ball, Indeh, 139, 152.
6. For example, see Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 169–73, quoting from description by a reporter in the Mobile Register, June 26, 1887.
7. Eugene Chihuahua’s quotation is from Ball, Indeh, 153. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, describes many excursions from Mobile drawn in detail from Mobile newspaper accounts. See also Wrattan, “George Wrattan, Friend of the Apaches,” 106.
8. Sinclair to AAG Division of the Atlantic, Mount Vernon Barracks, September 30, 1887, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 190, NARA.
9. Ball, Indeh, 153. The War Department required a monthly report from the officer in charge of the Apaches; it annexed a detailed report by the post surgeon.
10. Welsh to SW William C. Endicott, Philadelphia, June 11, 1888, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 190, NARA.
11. Welsh to President Cleveland, Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia, August 25, 1888, ibid.
12. Welsh to Secretary of the Interior William F. Vilas, November 27, 1888; Welsh to Endicott, December 13, 1888; Welsh to Cleveland, February 2, 1889; S. C. Armstrong (superintendent of Hampton Industrial Institute) to Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard, February 11, 1889; Bourke to SW Redfield Proctor, March 14, 1889; Extract of Report of an Inspection of Mount Vernon Barracks on April 7, 1889, by Inspector General Robert P. Hughes; three members of Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, Committee on Mount Vernon Apaches, to Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard, Boston, May 16, 1889 (Howard commanded the Division of the Atlantic at Governors Island, NY); Howard to Proctor (following visit to Mount Vernon), July 1, 1889; Proctor to Welsh, July 7, 1889; Bourke to AGUSA, Washington, July 5, 1889; all in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, rolls 192, 193, NARA. These are only a sample of the correspondence that flew among all parties through 1888 and 1889. The controversy continued, and more sources are cited as needed.
13. Ball, Indeh, 154. See also Reed, “Geronimo and His Warriors in Captivity,” 628.
14. Pratt to 1st Lt. C. C. Ballou
at Mount Vernon Barracks, June 15, 1894, enclosing letter Geronimo to Chappo, June 6, 1894, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 198, NARA.
15. Pratt to CIA, Carlisle, May 24, 1889; Howard to AGUSA, New York, May 31, 1889; both in bid., roll 192.
16. Reed to AAG Division of the Atlantic, Mount Vernon Barracks, November 18, 1889, ibid., roll 193.
17. President Harrison to Senate and House, January 20, 1889, attaching Proctor to President, January 13, 1890; Crook to Proctor, Washington, January 6, 1890; Guy Howard to Proctor, New York, December 23, 1889; Howard to Proctor, March 18, 1890; Herbert Welsh to Proctor, June 24, 1890; Sen. Henry Dawes to Proctor, June 28, 1890; all in ibid., rolls 193, 194. John Anthony Turcheneske Jr., The Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War: Fort Sill, 1894–1914 (Niwot: University Press of Colorado), 27–28, recounts the handling of the legislation in the House and Senate.
18. Wotherspoon to Post Adjutant, Mount Vernon Barracks, June 21, 1890, with endorsements of Howard, the Quartermaster General, and Secretary Proctor, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 194, NARA.
19. Wotherspoon’s monthly reports describe these events in detail, all in ibid.
20. Wotherspoon, “The Apache Prisoners of War,” presentation to Lake Mohonk Conference, in Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indian, 1891 (Lake Mohonk Conference, 1891), reprinted in House Reports, 52nd Cong., 1st sess., 1891–92, at 1159–80.
21. Eric Feaver, “Indian Soldiers, 1891–96: An Experiment on the Closing Frontier,” Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives 7 (Summer 1975): 109–18. SW, Annual Report (1891), 14–16.
22. Wotherspoon to Post Adjutant, April 20, 1891; Wotherspoon to Proctor, May 16, 1891, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 195, NARA. Michael L. Tate, “Soldiers of the Line: Apache Companies in the U.S. Army, 1891–97,” Arizona and the West 16 (Winter 1974): 343–64. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 312, 316–17, 320.
23. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 324–25, chaps. 35–36. Wotherspoon’s monthly reports in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 196, NARA, recount in detail the activities of the company, as does Skinner.
24. Morris Opler, comp., “Autobiography of a Chiricahua Apache, Sam Kenoi,” Opler Papers, no. 14/25/3238, part II, box 35, folder 4.
25. MS, “Interview by Capt. H. C. Bowen, 5th Infantry, with Geronimo at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, beginning late summer 1893,” Col. H. C. Bowen Papers, box 3, US Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA.
26. Plattsburgh (NY) Republican, February 15, 1893. RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 196, NARA.
27. Russell to Capt. George W. Davis (military secretary to SW), April 4, 1894; Wotherspoon to Davis, May 11, 1894; AGUSA to CO, Mount Vernon Barracks, May 14, 1894; all in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 198, NARA. Wrattan, “George Wrattan,” 111. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 372–77.
28. Wotherspoon to CO, Mount Vernon Barracks, July 25, 1892, with endorsements including Surgeon General’s of August 28, 1892, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 196, NARA. Sutherland retired a year later.
29. The trail of this bill through the Congress is complicated, convoluted, and laden with maneuver, deception, falsehood, and misunderstanding. It is recounted in detail in Turcheneske, Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, chap. 3.
CHAPTER 27. GERONIMO’S FINAL HOME, 1894–1909
1. Pratt to 1st Lt. C. C. Ballou (Wotherspoon’s successor), Carlisle, June 15, 1894, enclosing letter of Geronimo to Chappo, June 6, 1894, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 198, NARA.
2. Miles to Maj. George W. Davis in Office of SW, MDM Chicago, September 3, 1894, ibid., roll 197. This is a very long letter with informative attachments by 1st Lt. Hugh L. Scott and Capt. Marion P. Maus, both of whom General Miles sent to interview and assess all the adults at Mount Vernon.
3. Griswold, “Fort Sill Apaches,” 43.
4. Scott to AAG MDM Chicago, Fort Sill, November 7, 1894, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 198, NARA.
5. Ibid.
6. Sam Kenoi interview, Opler Papers, box 37.
7. Wrattan to Scott, December 29, 1894, with endorsements periodically until May 1895, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 199, NARA.
8. Tate, “Soldiers of the Line,” 343–64; Feaver, “Indian Soldiers, 1891–96,” 109–18. Skinner, Apache Rock Crumbles, 397.
9. The history of the implementation of the Dawes Act on this and other reservations is too complex to detail here. As applied to the Chiricahuas, it is described by Brenda L. Haes, “Fort Sill, the Chiricahua Apaches, and the Government’s Promise of Permanent Residence,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 78 (Spring 2000): 28–43; and Turcheneske, Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War. Scott to AG DM, February 2, 1897, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 200, NARA, reports the Scott-Baldwin agreement with the Kiowas and Comanches.
10. Kenoi interview.
11. E. A. Burbank, Burbank among the Indians, as told by Ernest Royce, ed. Frank J. Taylor (Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 1946), 18–19, 21.
12. Francis E. Leupp, Notes of a Summer Tour among the Indians of the Southwest (Philadelphia: Indian Rights Association, 1897), 3.
13. Capron to AGUSA, Fort Sill, February 28, 1898, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 200, NARA. Capron became a troop commander in Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” and was killed at San Juan Hill.
14. W. S. Nye, Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937), 298–99. The officer was Capt. William C. Brown, from whom Nye obtained his information, as well as other facts from the post trader, W. H. Quinnette.
15. The telegrams that kept the wires humming April 16–20 are in RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 200, NARA. A more detailed account is in Turcheneske, Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, 68–20.
CHAPTER 28. GERONIMO’S LAST YEARS
1. (Nebraska City) Conservative September 29, 1898. The exposition and Indian Congress are described in http://digital.omahapubliclibrary.org/transmiss/congress/about.html and http://digital.omahapubliclibrary.org/transmiss/secretary/indcongress.html. The second is a link from the first including a lengthy report by the Smithsonian’s distinguished ethnologist James Mooney, who was brought in to assist in setting up the Indian Congress.
2. New York Tribune, October 11, 1898.
3. New York Times, July 4, 1904. Both Buffalo and Saint Louis are described at http://library.bfn.org/local/pan-am.html. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/papr/mckpanex.html. http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/louis.htm. http://library.bfn.org/local/pan-am.html. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/papr/mckpanex.html. http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/louis.htm.
4. St. Louis Republic, August 6, 1904.
5. Guthrie (OK) Daily Leader, June 20, 1904.
6. (Woodstock, VA) Shenandoah Herald, July 12, 1901.
7. New York Times, February 2, March 9, 1905. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/heritage/Indians-on-the-Inaugural-March.html?c=y&page=1#.
8. (Richmond, VA) Times Dispatch, March 5, 1905.
9. Alexandria (VA) Gazette, March 9, 1905. Accounts also appear in Washington (DC) Times, March 10, 1905; and New York Times, March 10, 1905.
10. For the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche Reservation, see http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/K/KI020.html. A long report on the condition and activities of the Indians for the year 1901–2 is Capt. Farrand Sayre to AG MDM, Fort Sill, June 30, 1902, RG 94, LR, OAG, 1881–89, M689, 1066 AGO 1883, roll 202, NARA. Sayre presents great detail on farming, herding, health, school, missionary work, sale of beef, hay, and other products, and the flow of whiskey from Lawton and other surrounding settlements.
11. Kate Uttinger, “Geronimo: A Study in Grace,” Leben: A Journal of Reformation Life 5 (October–December 2009).
12. Barrett rel
ates the story of the process of getting Geronimo’s autobiography into print in the introduction to the book. It went through a number of editions, with different pagination. I have used Barrett, Geronimo, His Own Story.
13. Betzinez, I Fought with Geronimo, 38.
14. Ibid., 198. My account is drawn largely from this source, Betzinez, and Debo, Geronimo, chap. 23. She based her account on sources, largely the Lawton newspaper, that I have not been able to access. New York Times, February 17, 1909.
15. A stone monument now marks his grave, but controversy continues to question whether his bones are still there.
EPILOGUE
1. The Hugh Scott Papers, Library of Congress, contain most of the documents recording his assignment to the Chiricahua problem. I have relied on the complete history set forth by Turcheneske, Chiricahua Prisoners of War. See also Haes, “Fort Sill, the Chiricahua Apaches, and the Government’s Promise of Permanent Residence,” 28–43.
2. All the Indian sketches are taken from Griswold, “Fort Sill Apaches,” which is alphabetized; and Dan L. Thrapp, ed., Dictionary of Frontier Biography, 3 vols. (Glendale, AZ: Arthur H. Clark, 1988).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adjutant General. Chronological List of Actions, etc., with Indians from January 15, 1837, to January, 1891. Introduction by Dale E. Floyd. Fort Collins, CO: Old Army Press, 1979.
Geronimo Page 38