Geronimo and Sitting Bull by Bill Markley

Author:Bill Markley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TwoDot
Published: 2021-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Geronimo on the Run, 1885–1886

IT WAS DUSK ON MAY 17, 1885, AS GERONIMO, MANGAS, NAICHE, Chihuahua, and Nana led 144 Chiricahuas off the White Mountain Reservation. Thinking General George Crook had ordered Mangas’s and his arrest for tiswin brewing, Geronimo believed they had to escape the reservation and head for Mexico. Needing a substantial number of warriors to survive in Mexico, Geronimo thought the only way to convince Naiche, Chihuahua, and other leaders, along with their warriors, to leave with him was to have Lieutenant Britton Davis and the Chiricahua scout Chatto killed. Their murders would convince the others they had no choice but to flee. So Geronimo told them Davis and Chatto were already dead without checking to make sure they had actually been killed. When Geronimo discovered the assassins had failed to carry out their deeds, he decided not to tell Chihuahua and the others.1

Knowing the Apache scouts would soon be on their trail, the Chiricahuas raced southeast through the night of May 17. They glimpsed pursuers before crossing Eagle Creek and climbing into the rugged mountains beyond on May 18. The next day, the women and children scattered from the men and would later rejoin them. The men took difficult mountain paths, forcing their pursuers to go slowly.2

The warriors killed anyone they came upon, taking their weapons and ammunition. They burned ranch houses, stole horses and mules, and killed cattle. They split into two main groups, one headed by Geronimo and the other headed by Chihuahua. Smaller raiding parties prowled the countryside.3

Separated by some distance, Geronimo’s group and Chihuahua’s group stopped to rest on May 21, possibly along the San Francisco River. A raiding party arrived with one of the deserter Apache scouts at Chihuahua’s camp. The scout told Chihuahua that Lieutenant Davis and Chatto were still alive. Chihuahua was furious, believing Geronimo had duped him, and he vowed to kill Geronimo.4

Someone must have rushed to Geronimo’s camp and warned him Chihuahua was coming to kill him. He quickly got his people moving east and then south to Devil’s Creek.5

By the time Chihuahua, his brother Ulzana, and the deserter scout reached Geronimo’s camp, they were long gone. Chihuahua decided to head north along the San Francisco River and lay low before heading south.6

On May 22, Lieutenant Britton Davis left Fort Apache in pursuit of Geronimo and the Chiricahua fugitives. Interpreter Mickey Free and fifty-eight Apache scouts wearing red headbands rode with him—thirty-two White Mountain Apaches, four San Carlos Apaches, and twenty-two Chiricahuas led by Chatto. Crook had telegrammed Davis to let the Chiricahua scouts know that if the fleeing Chiricahuas reached Mexico and started terrorizing again, the Mexicans would not release their captive relatives. This was incentive enough for many, and for others, who disliked Geronimo, whom they believed had brought all their troubles upon them. It was now Chiricahuas hunting Chiricahuas. It would be friend against friend, relative against relative.7

Captain Allen Smith with one hundred men of the Fourth Cavalry and a dozen White Mountain

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