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Goyathlay
aka Geronimo
(click on the picture for a larger image)
 Quotes
from Geronimo
"I was warmed by the sun, rocked by
the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was
living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat
well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good
feeling.
The soldiers never explained to the
government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of
the Indians. We took an oath not to do any wrong to each other or to
scheme against each other.
I cannot think that we are useless or
God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us
all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the
winds are all listening to what we have to say.
When a child, my mother taught me to
kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection.
Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud;
sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us... and to Usen.
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."
Geronimo {jur-ahn'-i-moh}, or
Goyathlay ("one who yawns"), was born in 1829 in what is today
western New Mexico, but was then still Mexican territory. He was a
Bedonkohe Apache (grandson of Mahko) by birth and a Net'na
during his youth and early manhood. His wife, Juh, Geronimo's cousin
Ishton, and Asa Daklugie were members of the Nednhi band of the
Chiricahua Apache.
He was reportedly given the name
Geronimo by Mexican soldiers, although few agree as to why. As
leader of the Apaches at Arispe in Sonora, he performed such daring
feats that the Mexicans singled him out with the sobriquet Geronimo
(Spanish for "Jerome"). Some attributed his numerous raiding
successes to powers conferred by supernatural beings, including a
reputed invulnerability to bullets.
Geronimo's war career was linked with
that of his brother-in-law, Juh, a Chiricahua chief. Although he was
not a hereditary leader, Geronimo appeared so to outsiders because
he often acted as spokesman for Juh, who had a speech impediment.
Geronimo was the leader of the last
American Indian fighting force formally to capitulate to the United
States. Because he fought against such daunting odds and held out
the longest, he became the most famous Apache of all. To the
pioneers and settlers of Arizona and New Mexico, he was a
bloody-handed murderer and this image endured until the second half
of this century.
To the Apaches, Geronimo embodied the
very essence of the Apache values, agressiveness, courage in the
face of difficulty. These qualities inspired fear in the settlers of
Arizona and New Mexico. The Chiricahuas were mostly migratory
following the seasons, hunting and farming. When food was scarce, it
was the custom to raid neighboring tribes. Raids and vengeance were
an honorable way of life among the tribes of this region.
By the time American settlers began
arriving in the area, the Spanish had become entrenched in the area.
They were always looking for Indian slaves and Christian converts.
One of the most pivotal moments in Geronimo's life was in 1858 when
he returned home from a trading excursion into Mexico. He found his
wife, his mother and his three young children murdered by Spanish
troops from Mexico. This reportedly caused him to have such a hatred
of the whites that he vowed to kill as many as he could. From that
day on he took every opportunity he could to terrorize Mexican
settlements and soon after this incident he received his power,
which came to him in visions. Geronimo was never a chief, but a
medicine man, a seer and a spiritual and intellectual leader both in
and out of battle. The Apache chiefs depended on his wisdom.
When the Chiricahua were forcibly
removed (1876) to arid land at San Carlos, in eastern Arizona,
Geronimo fled with a band of followers into Mexico. He was soon
arrested and returned to the new reservation. For the remainder of
the 1870s, he and Juh led a quiet life on the reservation, but with
the slaying of an Apache prophet in 1881, they returned to full-time
activities from a secret camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
In 1875 all Apaches west of the Rio
Grande were ordered to the San Carlos Reservation. Geronimo escaped
from the reservation three times and although he surrendered, he
always managed to avoid capture. In 1876, the U.S. Army tried to
move the Chiricahuas onto a reservation, but Geronimo fled to Mexico
eluding the troops for over a decade. Sensationalized press reports
exaggerated Geronimo's activities, making him the most feared and
infamous Apache. The last few months of the campaign required over
5,000 soldiers, one-quarter of the entire Army, and 500 scouts, and
perhaps up to 3,000 Mexican soldiers to track down Geronimo and his
band.
In May 1882, Apache scouts working
for the U.S. army surprised Geronimo in his mountain sanctuary, and
he agreed to return with his people to the reservation. After a year
of farming, the sudden arrest and imprisonment of the Apache warrior
Ka-ya-ten-nae, together with rumors of impending trials and
hangings, prompted Geronimo to flee on May 17, 1885, with 35
warriors and 109 women, children and youths. In January 1886, Apache
scouts penetrated Juh's seemingly impregnable hideout. This action
induced Geronimo to surrender (Mar. 25, 1886) to Gen. George CROOK.
Geronimo later fled but finally surrendered to Gen. Nelson MILES on
Sept. 4, 1886. The government breached its agreement and transported
Geronimo and nearly 450 Apache men, women, and children to Florida
for confinement in Forts Marion and Pickens. In 1894 they were
removed to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Geronimo became a rancher,
appeared (1904) at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis,
sold Geronimo souvenirs, and rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's
1905 inaugural parade.
Geronimo's final surrender in 1886
was the last significant Indian guerrilla action in the United
States. At the end, his group consisted of only 16 warriors, 12
women, and 6 children. Upon their surrender, Geronimo and over 300
of his fellow Chiricahuas were shipped to Fort Marion,
Florida. One year later many of them were relocated to the Mt.
Vernon barracks in Alabama, where about one quarter died from
tuberculosis and other diseases. Geronimo died on Feb. 17, 1909, a
prisoner of war, unable to return to his homeland. He was buried in
the Apache cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
from PBS.org
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