Some notable dates and events…

1876 – the Chiricahua were forcibly moved to the harsh, arid lands near San Carlos, in eastern Arizona. Geronimo took a small band of his followers and led them into Mexico. He was captured relatively quickly, and returned to the San Carlos reservation. To capture Geronimo was not easy. It required 5,000 soldiers, one fourth of the entire US Army; 500 Army Scouts, and an estimated 3,000 Mexican soldiers. Once returned, Geronimo remained on the reservation for the remainder of the 1870s. He led a quiet life with the remnants of his family.

1881 – An Apache prophet is murdered on the San Carlos reservation. Geronimo and Juh left the reservation and created a secret camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains. From this hidden location, they restarted the raids.

1882 – Apache scouts in the employ of the US Army catch Geronimo by surprise in his hidden mountain sanctuary. He reluctantly agrees to return to the reservation with his small band of people.

1883 (1885) – After a year of quiet, difficult farming in the arid lands of the San Carlos reservation, the Apache warrior Ka-ya-ten-nae was arrested and then imprisoned. The warrior's incarceration is shrouded in rapidly spreading and growing rumors of impending trials – trials which are sure to be followed by hangings. These events caused Geronimo to flee the San Carlos reservation on May 17, 1885. He took with him: 35 warriors, and 109 women and children.

1886 – Some what ironically, it was Apache scouts working for the US Army who located and penetrated Juh's hideout. Juh had thought his sanctuary to be adequately hidden and defended. In fact, he believed it to be impregnable, which was the root of his undoing. Juh's capture induced Geronimo to give up his cause and to surrender.

March 25, 1886 – Geronimo surrendered to General George Crook. Geronimo quickly became dissatisfied with the conditions created by General Crook, and he fled back into the Arizona deserts.

September 4, 1886 – Geronimo again surrenders, this time to General Nelson Miles. Subsequent to his surrender, the US Government violated its previous agreement and transported Geronimo along with about 450 Apache men, women, and children to Florida. The group was confined in Fort Marion and Fort Pickens.

1894 – The Apache group was moved from Florida to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

In his later life, Geronimo was a rancher. He also appeared in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. The once great warrior and Apache leader who had defied federal authority for more than 25 years, sold Geronimo souvenirs and paraphernalia. Later, he also rode in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade. Geronimo met the president to appeal for the remaining Apaches to be allowed to return to the land of their ancestors in Arizona. Here are excerpts from his request:

"I ask you to think of me as I was then... when the soldiers of the great White Chief drove me and my people from our home we went to the mountains. When they followed we slew all that we could. We said we would never be captured. No. We starved but we killed. I said that we would never yield, for I was a fool. So I was punished, and all my people were punished with me. The white soldiers took me and made me a prisoner far from my own country... Great Father, other Indians have homes where they can live and be happy. I and my people have no homes. The place where we are kept is bad for us... We are sick there and die... Great Father, my hands are tied as with a rope. My heart is no longer bad. I will tell my people to obey no chief but the Great White Chief. I pray you to cut the ropes and make me free. Let me die in my own country, as an old man who has been punished enough and is free."

Roosevelt refused to grant Geronimo his request to return to his homeland. Geronimo died of pneumonia, as a prisoner of war, on 17 February 1909. He was buried in the Apache cemetery established at 437 Quanah Road in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Other suggested reading:

"Women of the Apache Nation: Voices of Truth (University of Nevada, 1991)

"Survival of the Spirit: Chiricahua Apaches in Captivity" (University of Nevada Press, 1993)

General George Crook was given a command which included charge over the Arizona and New Mexico reservations in the spring of 1883. He took 200 Apaches and went to Mexico and located Geronimo’s hidden camp. The general then persuaded him to return to the San Carlos reservation, along with his loyal group of people. Crook made numerous necessary reforms on the reservation, but the press severely criticized him, citing his leniency. The same press vilified and demonized Geronimo.

Crook, afraid for the plight of Geronimo and his people, went after Geronimo. Unfortunately, Geronimo no longer gave any credibility to Cook's promises, and so the negotiations with the Apache leader failed. In Washington, the War Department admonished Crook for his failure to resolve the situation. Crook resigned. He was replaced by Brigadier General Nelson Miles (Nelson Appleton Miles (August 8, 1839 – May 15, 1925) served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War.).

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