The Mammoth Book of Native Americans (Mammoth Books) by Lewis Jon E

Author:Lewis, Jon E. [Lewis, Jon E.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Geronimo, Apache Tiger

Nobody

ever

captured

Geronimo. I know. I was

with him. Anyway, who can

capture the wind?

Daklugie, Nednhi Apache

THE INVINCIBLE

LEADER

Five years had passed since the

Chiricahua

Apache

under

Cochise

had

entered

the

reservation.

And

gradually,

imperceptibly, the peace had

come undone.

When Cochise died in 1874

his son Taza became chief,

tribal

leadership

being

hereditary amongst the Apache.

But Taza, if likeable, lacked

authority, and larger numbers

of Chiricahua warriors came

under

the

influence

of

Geronimo, the warrior leader of

the sub-band of Bedonkohe

Apache

who

had

become

assimilated into the Chiricahua.

The son of a Nednai chief who

had renounced his chieftainship

to marry into the Bedonkohe,

Geronimo had been born One

Who Yawns (Goyahkia). He had

been given the name Geronimo

by the Mexicans, for he had

once fought them at Arispe –

after they had murdered his

family – with such terrifying

ferocity that they prayed to St

Geronimo for salvation. The

name had stuck, and was used

by Apache, Mexicans and White

alike. Geronimo had the Power;

it had visited him when he had

grieved for his slain family. “No

gun can ever kill you,” the

Power had told him. He was

invincible.

Geronimo had grown tired of

the monotony of reservation

life, and begun to sneak off to

indulge his old habit of raiding

Mexico.

The

Mexicans

complained bitterly, and in

1876 the Arizonans joined the

outcry when two stagecoach

attendants and a rancher were

killed by drunken Apaches.

(That

the

stagecoach

attendants had gotten the

Apaches drunk and tried to

cheat them was conveniently

ignored.) The Governor of

Arizona,

Anson

P

Safford,

demanded that Washington

replace Thomas Jeffords as

Apache Agent, while Tucsons’s

Arizona Citizen declared: “The

kind of war needed for the

Chiricahua Apaches is steady,

unrelenting,

hopeless,

and

undiscriminating war, slaying

men, women and children, until

every valley and crest and crag

and fastness shall send to high

heaven the grateful incense of

festering

and

rotting

Chiricahuas.”

The murder of the three

White men gave Washington a

pretext to close the Chiricahua

reservation,

something

it

wanted to do anyway as part of

its

1875

policy

of

“consolidation”

of

the

reservations. The Apaches were

all to be forced onto one

overcrowded reservation at San

Carlos. On learning of the

consolidation plan, Geronimo,

now aged 46, fled across the

border to Mexico.

This first stint as a holdout

was inauspicious. Early in 1877

he came out of Mexico, driving

a herd of stolen horses, to visit

the agency at Warm Springs

(Ojo Caliente). The regime at

Warm Springs was lax, and the

place was used frequently as a

refuge by “renegades” in their

cross-border raids. News of

Geronimo’s

whereabouts

reached the Commissioner of

Indian Affairs, who wired John

Philip Clum, the young agent of

the San Carlos reservation, and

ordered

him

to

arrest

Geronimo. Clum immediately

set out on the 400-mile journey

to Warm Springs, accompanied

by about 100 of his Apache

Indian police.

After reaching Warm Springs,

Clum sent a message to

Geronimo and other “renegade”

warriors, like Chief Victorio who

had jumped the reservation,

that he desired to talk. Having

no

reason

to

expect

confrontation, the Apache rode

the three miles to the agency

accompanied by their wives and

children. Geronimo found Clum

sitting on the porch of the

adobe agency building, a dozen

of his police around him. Clum

opened the proceedings by

accusing Geronimo of killing

men

and

violating

the

agreement

made

between

Cochise and General Howard.

He told Geronimo he was

taking him to San Carlos.

Geronimo answered defiantly:

“We are not going to San Carlos

with you, and unless you are

very careful, you and your

Apache police will not go back

to San Carlos either. Your

bodies will stay here at Ojo

Caliente to make food for

coyotes.” To emphasize the

point, Geronimo hitched his rifle

up in his arms.

At this moment Clum gave a

prearranged signal, a touch of

the brim of his hat; the doors of

the commissary building burst

open and 80 police charged

out. Geronimo’s thumb began

to creep towards the hammer

of his rifle, but he thought

better of it and stood stock-still.

Clum stepped forward to disarm

the Apache.

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