Who Geronimo was
Geronimo is the best-known Apache name in the world, and also one of the most misunderstood. He was born, by most accounts around 1829, into the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache, in country near the upper Gila River in what is now southwestern New Mexico. His Apache name is usually given as Goyahkla, often translated as “one who yawns”, and “Geronimo” is a name used by Mexicans. How he received it is not settled, and several explanations circulate.
He was not a chief. He is better described as a medicine man, or a man with spiritual power, who was also a respected war leader. Others, such as Naiche and Chihuahua, held more formal standing, and he led by reputation, not office. This distinction is why the Geronimo chief misconception comes up so often in discussions of the period.
Family, loss and early fighting
Much of what is known about his early life comes from the autobiography he dictated late in life, which was recorded and edited by an outsider, S. M. Barrett, and published in 1906. It is a valuable source, but it passed through an interpreter and an editor, so it should be read with care. In it, Geronimo describes a Mexican attack in which his mother, wife and children were killed. The date is often given as 1851, though accounts differ, and the attack is generally placed in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. He described the event as the root of a lifelong determination to fight Mexican forces.
The raid-and-reprisal pattern between Apache bands and Mexican communities, including the Sonora and Chihuahua raids, was long-running, and violence harmed civilians on all sides.
Reservations and flight
After Cochise’s death and the closing of the Chiricahua reservation in 1876, many Chiricahua were moved to San Carlos in Arizona. Geronimo lived there for periods, and left more than once, often with a mixed group of Chiricahua and others. The reasons usually given were fear of arrest, tension after the 1881 killings at Cibecue Creek, poor conditions and rations, and distrust of officials. Each time, the army sent troops after them, and each time some families returned.
His group left again in May 1885 from the Fort Apache area and moved between the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico and the Sierra Madre. This was the last major campaign of the Apache Wars. It involved a large number of American troops, as well as many Apache scouts who served the army, a story told separately in the account of scouts in the 1886 campaign.
The 1886 surrender
In March 1886, General George Crook met Geronimo and his followers in northern Mexico, and they reportedly agreed to terms that would send them to the East for a limited period. Geronimo and a few others slipped away before the arrangement was complete. Crook, criticized for the outcome, was replaced by General Nelson Miles. After further pursuit, Geronimo and Naiche surrendered to Miles in September 1886 at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona. Lieutenant Charles Gatewood, who knew many of the Apache people, played a part in the talks that led to it.
Contrary to what many readers assume, the surrender did not bring a reservation. Geronimo and the other men were held first in Florida. The sources differ on some details of the terms discussed, and later Chiricahua accounts stress that they felt betrayed by what followed.
Imprisonment
Geronimo was held at Fort Pickens, Florida, with other men, while many women, children and elders were at Fort Marion. The groups were later reunited at Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama, then moved to Fort Sill in Oklahoma in 1894. Many Chiricahua there were people who had never fought, and even scouts who had served the army. Their status as prisoners of war lasted until 1913.
Geronimo spent his last years at Fort Sill, supervised by the army. He farmed, appeared at expositions, and sold souvenirs and photographs under guard. He died on February 17, 1909, and is buried in the Apache cemetery at Fort Sill. He was never allowed to return to Arizona.
What can be said with confidence
He was an important Chiricahua leader in the 1880s, a man who suffered great personal loss, and a prisoner for more than twenty years. The picture of him as a bloodthirsty villain, and the later picture of him as a romantic symbol, both fail to describe a complicated person. His later life, and questions of Geronimo legacy and how his image was used, are taken up in a separate article.
For current information about Chiricahua descendants, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe and the Mescalero Apache Tribe maintain their own official sources.