Goyathlay (Geronimo)

In the year of 1829 the Apache had six tribes that all lived fairly close to one another. This land was known as the Apache pass. The tribes consisted of the Be-don-ko-he, the Chi-hen-ne, the White Mountain Apaches, the Cho-kon-en (Chiricahua), and the Chi-e-a-hon. They all lived fairly peacefully together and held many council meetings. Some go along better than others, but would come together for what would later be known as the Apache resistance. Among the tribe of Be-don-ko-he was Goyathlay (the one who yawns), also known as Geronimo, who embarked on many of these journey. Geronimo was born in June of 1829 in No-Doyohn Canyon, Mexico. His tribe was west from the east line of Arizona and South from the head waters of the Gila River. He
was the fourth born in a family of four boys and four girls. His grandfather “Maco” was the chief of the tribe for many years. Geronimo stated that he “never seen him, but that his father said that he was a man of great height, strength, and wisdom.” Geronimo’s father died, when Geronimo was only a small boy which left only his mother and siblings for family, and is mother never remarried by choice. It was the Apache custom that widows without children were to immediately remarry. If a widow had children she was to marry two to three years after the death of their husband. A father also had the ability to set up an arranged marriage or even to sell them. Geronimo was raised believing in a God by the name of “Usen”. He was taught by his mother that the God Usen was the creator of all living things and habitats. He was their God. He made the harvest they planted, the animals that grazed their lands, he controlled the weather, and the outcome of all that happened. It was common for many families to cultivate the same land and crops, as well as share the burden of protecting them. Many people in the tribe enjoyed tobacco as it grew wild and didn’t need to be cultivated. The tobacco was cut and cured around autumn by the squaws and children they also would grind up corn to the form of a liquid and wait for it to be fermented into a juice known as “tiswin” which was intoxicating. They had celebrations for lots of reasons. These celebrations usually lasted up to four days. When the children of the tribe fell ill they were questioned about what evil they had participated in. Feathers were worn by men as emblems of wisdom, justice, and power. The Eagle was chief in this good fight. In 1846, at the age of seventeen, Geronimo was admitted into the council. This gave him many freedoms and rights that he quickly made use of. He was able to meet in the council meetings and give suggestions as well as hear the ones being made. Being on the council gave him a voice, and the ability to go out on hunts. These parts were remembered as the best and happiest part of this was that he could marry the girl he was in love with “Alope”, the daughter of No-po-so. Together they had three children. In 1858, Geronimo’s wife and children, along with many more of the tribe were murdered without cause, in Kas-ki-yeh Mexico while he was away doing some trading with the Mexicans. Mangas Colorodas, chief of the tribe seeing that all of their booty had been taken and many of their warriors slain, ordered that all that was left of the tribe to start for home in Arizona in perfect silence leaving the bodies of their loved ones behind. This must have been very devastating and would probably make anyone angry and want to fight with a vengeance. When they returned to Arizona, Geronimo returned to the cave in which his father was buried and made a vow of vengeance. He heard a voice from the caves where his dead father lay, telling him that he would be safe and protected to avenge the murder of his family. By the summer of 1859, Geronimo’s tribe had regained their booty and combined three tribes to perform in the act of revenge against the Mexican’s. All were angered by this brutal act of barbaric force. They traveled in three divisions, and had great reason to be angered. They were going to a battle in which seemed to them like the end of something that had caused great deals of pain for many. The Indians were very protective of their people and held strong in their beliefs. They were actually going to begin a decade of more death, pain, anger, imprisonment, and revenge. In 1860 and 1861 there were two more raids against the Mexicans that were not as successful as the one with the three formed tribes fighting together to avenge the murder of the first raid to Mexico involving the deaths of Geronimo’s wife and children. In 1860 there were twenty five fatalities and twelve in 1861. Geronimo was repeatedly given the name Geronimo by the Mexicans soldiers, although few agree as to why.
He was so daring in his feats that the Mexicans singled him out with the sobriquet Geronimo (Spanish for “Jerome”). The Mexicans believed that he had some kind of supernatural beings always with him. They believed in a spirit, or supernatural being that reputed invulnerability to bullets. Geronimo was the leader of the last American Indian fighting force to capitulate to the United States. He was known to fight against what most “normal” people would perceive to be the most daunting odds. When everyone else was afraid or as some may think sensible he was not. He most certainly fought against all odds with a vengeance. The murder of his family never left him. When food was scarce, it was a custom to raid the neighboring tribes. Raids and vengeance were an honorable way of life among the tribes among this region. Geronimo was the very essence of aggressiveness, he embodied the Apache way more than most and is still well known for his leadership, and his fierce and fearless abilities to fight or get revenge or take action to provide for his people. According to Arizona and the New Settlers he was a bloody-handed
murderer. 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. When he surrendered it was only to gather information and check on his people who were in captivity and once again escape. In May 1882, Apache scouts working for the United States army surprised Geronimo in his mountain sanctuary, and he agreed to return with his people to the reservation. In May 1885, with thirty-five warriors and one hundred and nine women, children and youths he escaped. Geronimo’s final surrender was in 1886, and was the last significant Indian guerrilla action in the United States. He died on February 17, 1909 as a prisoner of war, unable to return to his homeland and was buried in an Apache cemetery in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Geronimo was a naturally gifted hunter, who, the story goes, as a boy swallowed the heart of his first kill in order to ensure a life of success on the chase. He was always on the run and this fact very much defined his way of life. In response to the many attacks the Mexicans were always under the Mexican government put a bounty on Apache scalps, offering as much as twenty-five dollars for a child’s scalp. At the age of seventeen Geronimo had already directly led four successful raiding operations. While Geronimo and the rest of the Chiricahua remained under guard, Geronimo experienced a bit of celebrity from his white former enemies. Less than a decade after he’d surrendered, crowds longed to catch a glimpse of the famous Indian warrior. In 1905, he published his autobiography, and in that same year he received a private audience with President Theodore Roosevelt, unsuccessfully pressing the American leader to let his people return to Arizona. In 1863, Geronimo’s Chief Mangas Coloradas was tortured and killed. His legs and feet were burned with bayonets that were heated by the campfire until the pain became so unbearable that he was shot in the head to end his life after he tried to flee. His head was boiled in a kettle and sent to someone in the Smithsonian Institute, Skull Washington and put in a cabinet. It is still believed to be there. This also gave Geronimo yet another reason/ excuse for vengeance, and of course he retaliated. In 1884, after the death of his father Cochise “Naiche”, known as Geronimo’s “companion of war and bondage” became leader of the Chiricahua, and furthered his alliance with Geronimo from 1874 when Mangas was the leader.
Geronimo’s nephew Daklugie, son of Apache leader “Nednhi” told them. “He could offer them nothing but hardship and death from heat starvation, and degradation at San Carlos and a wild, free life in Mexico-------- short, perhaps, but free….. Let them remember that if they took this step they would be hunted like wild animals by the troops of both United States and Mexico…. All of us knew that we were doomed, but some preferred death to slavery and imprisonment…At that time Geronimo…..had also Lozen….known as the woman warrior. Geronimo was handicapped by the presence, too, of women and children who must be defended and fed. Nobody ever captured Geronimo. I know. I was with him. Anyway, who can capture the
wind?” After a decade of the Apache resistance, Geronimo and his family as well as any Apache alliances were hunted from all surrounding areas. The Apache were independent, untouchable, and even unseeable, men and women so at home in their habitat in the wild the “White Eyes” (their name for the invading European) had trouble even detecting their presence. An Apache man or woman could very easily walk up to four miles a day, every day and up to seventy miles when on horseback. It was known to be necessary for some gold miners to take offense at an older Apache who was near their camp. The Apaches were to be feared and respected. They were very aggressive people and did not believe in any other way. It was their tradition to take what they needed, when they needed it and from whomever they needed it from. People’s opinions may very much vary about how to describe the Apaches. To most they were brutal and barbaric, but probably speaking from themselves they were surviving the only way they knew how. In my opinion it was brutal to murder innocent people and start the decades of revenge. In these particular times it seems that everyone was taking from everyone. The Indians were forced from their land and held in captivity as prisoners and slaves after being forced to leave their land and set aside their beliefs for a lifestyle that was forced on them. They watched their families murdered and had to live with and work for the people that inflicted this pain on them. So, was Geronimo a savage and fierce, was he a murderer? History in some aspects seems to think so, but what of the “White Eyes” and the history of how they came to be. People are people and yes Geronimo was and still always will be a legend.