- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGoyathlay
- Nickname
- One who yawns
- A fearsome Apache Indian warrior and medicine man of mythic stature, Geronimo was born about 1829 on the upper reaches of the Gila River (near the present-day mining town of Clifton, AZ). He belonged to the Be-don-ko-he band of the southern Chiricahua Apaches. He was known as Goyathlay or Goyaklay, meaning "one who yawns." It's not clear how he came to be called Geronimo, but conventional wisdom is that it was bestowed upon him by Mexicans during his many raids into that country.
Few specifics are known of his early life, but he emerged as a leader of the Chiricahuas in 1858 in the wake of personal tragedy. According to Geronimo, he had gone in the company of other Apaches and their families to trade peacefully with settlers around the Mexican military post at Janos in northern Chihuahua. While he and other adult males were away, a troop of Mexican soldiers from the neighboring state of Sonora swooped down on the family encampment and slaughtered most of the Apaches there, including Geronimo's mother, wife and three children. As a result, Geronimo swore revenge on Mexicans. Soon after the massacre at Janos, Geronimo received a spirit's voice that told him to fight the Mexicans. In the ensuing forays Geronimo was wounded many times but always recovered, and as late as 1897 he was still boasting to those who would listen that no bullet could kill him. Indeed, foes and followers alike thought that Geronimo was endowed with supernatural powers. Eyewitnesses declared him clairvoyant; according to them, he could interpret signs, explain the unknowable and predict the future.
In line with its uncertain and fluctuating policy, the US government tried to "civilize" the Apaches by shifting them from one reservation to another in Arizona and New Mexico. Although they would "settle down" for a spell on reservation land, sooner or later one or more bands would break out and go on the warpath, and the resulting plundering, burning and killing terrorized the civilian populace from Arizona down into Mexico. Geronimo himself often led these warring factions. Several times he was captured or forced to surrender and was returned to a reservation for a period of time (although other Apaches might be on the warpath), but he eventually would break out again. In May 1885 he fled the reservation with 35 men, 8 boys and 101 women. Ten months later he again surrendered to the American military in northern Sonora (a treaty between the US and Mexico allowed security forces from each nation to cross the border in pursuit of hostile Indians) only to bolt for freedom one more time. With 5,000 American soldiers and 500 Apache scouts and police in pursuit, Geronimo--with 16 warriors, 14 women and 6 children--surrendered to the US Army for the last time on September 3, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon in southern Arizona.
Thus ended an epoch called "The Apacheria", a period of almost constant warfare involving whites, Mexicans and Apaches that lasted for nearly two centuries. Geronimo was exiled to Florida but was promised that afterwards he and his followers would be allowed to return to Arizona--a promise that was not kept. They were placed under military confinement and later scattered among various reservations, with Geronimo and some of his people being sent to Oklahoma. He later became a farmer there and adopted Christianity. He dictated his autobiography, "Geronimo: His Own Story", published in 1906. In February 1909 the 85-year-old warrior fell off of his horse and remained in a ditch until the next day. He caught pneumonia and died a few days later. He was buried in the Indian cemetery at Fort Sill, OK.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Sujit R. Varma (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpouseAlope(? - 1851) (her death, 3 children)
- U.S. Army Lt. Marion P. Maus was leading a patrol trailing Geronimo's band in Arizona near the Mexican border when they were ambushed by Geronimo and his warriors. In the middle of the firefight Maus dashed out from cover to drag a wounded soldier to safety; as he did so several Apaches burst from cover and rushed him, but Maus shot and killed them all. After he got the wounded trooper out of the line of fire, Maus spotted Geronimo hiding behind a large rock and fired a shot at him that came within a few inches of his head; in fact, Geronimo was temporarily blinded by the dust and grit kicked up by the bullet hitting the rock. He broke off the fight and he and his band slipped across the border into Mexico. Several days later a letter arrived on the desk of Lt. Maus' commanding general; it was from Geronimo, who wrote that Maus was one of the bravest men he had ever seen, and if it wasn't for his killing several of Geronimo's best warriors and almost killing Geronimo himself, the patrol would have been wiped out. He recommended that the general decorate Lt. Maus for bravery. Maus was in fact decorated for his actions in the engagement, but it's not known if Geronimo's recommendation was a contributing factor.
- Contrary to popular belief, Geronimo was not a chief, and was never even a war chief (during times of war Apaches often appointed a more experienced warrior to be war chief; when the war ended, leadership reverted back to the "regular" chief). He was a medicine man and someone to whom the actual chiefs came for advice. He led raids, but any Apache who was able to find warriors to follow him could lead raids. Many whites thought he was a chief because in negotiations he often acted as spokesman for Juh, the real chief. The reason for that, however, was that Juh had a speech impediment and didn't want the whites to know it. In any case Juh knew that Geronimo was a more forceful and effective speaker than he was, so he let Geronimo do the talking, but it was Juh who made all the decisions.
- Supposedly he was the grandfather of actor Charles Stevens, who played him in The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (1954), but several western historians have disputed that claim.
- While he was away from his camp one day in 1851, it was attacked by Mexican troops, who killed his entire family--wife, children, parents. He swore to take vengeance on Mexicans and waged war against them until the day he was finally captured and imprisoned, some 30 years later. In fact, one of the reasons he fought American troops was that the US government had a treaty with Mexico in which the US promised to prevent Geronimo from raiding across the border into Mexico. Geronimo's attitude was that anyone who tried to prevent him from killing his enemies was also his enemy, resulting in his targeting both US troops and civilians, in addition to Mexicans.
- I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.
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