Geronimo Is Captured, Ending Last Major U.S.–American Indian War

Geronimo Is Captured, Ending Last Major U.S.–American Indian War

Geronimo, an American Indian chief of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, was captured on September 4, 1886. He led his tribe against the United States government when it attempted to remove them from their ancestral home. Geronimo's autobiography, Geronimo: His Own Story, was published in 1906.

The people who became the Apache originally consisted of six nomadic tribes: the Kiowa, who dwelt between the Northern border of New Mexico and the Platte River; the Lipan who were located in eastern New Mexico and western Texas; the Jicarilla of southern New Mexico; the Mescalero, who lived in central New Mexico; the Chiricahua, who resided in a mountain range in southwestern Arizona that bears their name; and the Western Apache of central Arizona. The Apache first came into conflict with outsiders when they encountered the Spanish in the 16th century, and when they were forced from their traditional hunting grounds by the Comanche in the 18th century, the Apache began to conduct raids to procure food for themselves.

After the formation of the United States, the new American government took steps to deal with the American Indians, forming treaties with the tribes and establishing the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the end of the Mexican War in 1848, the United States acquired control of the Southwest. While settlers in this territory managed to maintain peaceful relations with the Pueblos, Pimas, and Papagos, the Navajos and Apaches responded violently when settlers seized their lands. This fight would continue for nearly 40 years.

Geronimo was born the fourth oldest of eight children in June 1829 (the exact date is uncertain) in the No-Doyohn Canyon in Mexico (now Clifton, Arizona). His Apache name, Goyathlay, means “one who yawns.” He supported the Apaches' continuing resistance to white colonization of their lands and may have participated in raids against the Mexicans as early as 1846. In 1858 Geronimo's mother, wife, and three young children were killed by Mexicans. He vowed revenge on those responsible for their deaths, and a year later led a group of warriors on the warpath in Mexico. They raided the area for several years.

During this time, the United States government continued to violate treaties it had made with various native tribes, particularly when valuable resources were discovered in tribal lands, as occurred when gold was found on the Sioux reservation in the Black Hills of North Dakota in 1874. In that instance, the Sioux were forcibly removed after they refused to sell their land. Meanwhile, the American government was also attempting to subdue the Apache tribes in the southwest that were engaged in confrontations with the military. In 1872 the last southwestern tribe was subdued when Cochise, the Chiricahua chief, signed a treaty with the government and moved with his people to a reservation.

Many of the Apaches were unhappy about their defeat and about being uprooted, and they looked to Geronimo for leadership. He led various bands in raids and encouraged the Apaches to leave their reservations and resume war with the white man. In 1882 Lieutenant Colonel George Crook, who had been able to achieve a measure of peace in the region, returned to the area to battle the natives. In January 1884 Geronimo surrendered to Crook, only to flee the reservation 17 months later with a small group of followers. Crook once again launched an offensive, and Geronimo surrendered to American forces at Cañon de Los Embudos in Sonora, Mexico, on March 27, 1886. Before they crossed the border back into the United States, Geronimo and some others were able to escape.

Crook was replaced by Brigadier General Nelson Miles, who tracked Geronimo to his camp in the Sonora mountains. On September 4, 1886, Geronimo surrendered to General Miles after being promised that he would eventually be allowed to return to Arizona. This promise was not kept. After spending some time in Florida and Alabama, Geronimo was finally relocated to Fort Sill in the Oklahoma territory in 1894. He took up farming and converted to Christianity, even becoming a member of the Dutch Reformed Church until he was expelled because he could not give up gambling. Geronimo eventually dictated his memoirs to S. S. Barrett, and they were published in 1906. He died at Fort Sill on February 17, 1909.