Tensions at Turkey Creek
For a time, reservation life was peaceful for Geronimo, but soon tensions began to arise. Mickey Free was chosen by Lieutenant Davis to serve as his primary translator, but Apaches well remembered Free as the boy whose abduction years earlier had precipitated the conflict between Cochise and the U. S. military, and that association engendered considerable animosity toward him. In addition, Chato, who had fought alongside Geronimo against the military, was now a prominent scout for Davis. Adding to Apache resentment were orders from Crook forbidding the making of tizwin (a fermented drink made from corn) and a man physically punishing his wife, both of which appeared to be unwarranted intrusions into their lives.
Arrests also began to occur. Kaytennae was accused of planning a breakout, arrested, and imprisoned at the military prison on Alcatraz. Others were arrested for violating the bans against manufacturing tizwin or beating a wife. Rumors circulated that Crook planned to arrest Geronimo and other leaders. Then Crawford, at his request, was transferred back to his regiment and replaced by Captain Francis Pierce. The change troubled members of Geronimo’s band, who had reached at least a modest level of accommodation with Crawford.
By the middle of May 1885, Geronimo was determined to leave San Carlos, but many others were reluctant to resume warfare and the hardships that it inevitably would bring. Geronimo needed a way to convince other prominent Apache leaders to join him, so he devised a plan to win their support. If some deceit in a worthy cause was needed, so be it. Geronimo told a number of leaders—including Naiche, Chihuahua, Mangus, and Nana—that his son Chappo had killed Lieutenant Davis and Chato, and as a result soldiers were coming for all of them. Believing that they had to flee or suffer severe punishment, these leaders left the reservation with about 150 others, including 35 warriors.
When Perico and Chappo joined Geronimo, the rest of the group learned that Davis and Chato had not been killed. It remains uncertain whether Geronimo had actually directed his son and his cousin to kill the two men and they did not have an opportunity to do so, or whether he had completely manufactured the story as a trick to induce others to leave San Carlos with him. At least some of those who had accompanied Geronimo, including Chihuahua and Naiche, reportedly believed that they had been tricked and were outraged by the deceit. Geronimo does not mention the incident in his autobiography, but Apaches who remained at San Carlos related this story to Davis, adding that Mangus was in on the plot. Geronimo’s biographer Angie Debo notes that “it is impossible now to determine the truth of the story Davis heard of conflict among the leaders.”17 That the group soon split into several
Units lends credence to reports of discord among those who fled. However, except for Mangus, the others soon reunited, so the split may have been a maneuver to throw off any pursuers.
Considerable violence followed in the wake of the flight by Geronimo and the others toward Mexico. By June 10, most of the Apaches had reached the border, leaving at least 17 dead civilians behind.
The Pursuit of Geronimo
The U. S. military was quick to pursue the fleeing Apaches and did not hesitate at the border. Captain Crawford crossed into Mexico by June 11, Captain Wirt Davis led another force into Mexico on July 13, and General Crook stationed troops at the border. Assisting the military were Apache scouts, including Chato. On June 23, the scouts found Chihuahua’s camp and attacked, capturing about 15 women and children. On August 7, the scouts, who knew the likely routes and campsites that Geronimo and the other leaders would use, struck Geronimo’s camp. Almost 80 scouts succeeded in taking many prisoners, primarily women and children, including Geronimo’s wives Ziyeh and Shegha and five of his children.
The following month, Geronimo led a small party back to San Carlos to reclaim at least some of those who had been captured, including Shegha and a young daughter. On the way back to Mexico, they discovered some Mescalero women, one of whom, Ihtedda, Geronimo apparently took as yet another wife.
Consistently faced with a shortage of supplies, the Apache leaders sent Ulzana (also known as Jolsanny), a brother of Chihuahua, to get ammunition and supplies. In November, Ulzana led 10 warriors into New Mexico and then to the reservation in Arizona. The band killed as they went, and at San Carlos exacted revenge against the families of Apache scouts, killing approximately 20 people, most of them women and children.
Geronimo, meanwhile, was having difficulty eluding Crawford’s scouts, who hit his camp again. Geronimo had sufficient warning so that his people could get away, but they lost their horses and supplies in the flight. Crook’s decision to use Apaches to hunt down other Apaches was proving remarkably successful, and Geronimo accepted Naiche’s advice to talk with the soldiers. Geronimo sent a woman as emissary, perhaps the acclaimed woman warrior Lozen, a sister of Victorio, to meet with Crawford.
The Apache leaders, minus Mangus, who was not with the party at that time, agreed to meet with Crawford on January 11, 1886. As the Apaches watched from a hill overlooking Crawford’s camp to see if the officer planned any trickery, they observed a Mexican force approach. Some shots rang out as the Mexicans apparently mistook Crawford’s scouts for a hostile band of Apaches. Crawford mounted a large rock to signal to the Mexicans that he was an American soldier but was struck by a bullet and killed.
A few days later, Geronimo, Naiche, Nana, Chihuahua, and 14 other men met with the officer who had assumed command since Crawford’s death,
Lozen
Little written information exists concerning Lozen (circa 1840-circa 1890), but oral tradition has marked her as a true Apache heroine. A sister to Victorio, Lozen was renowned as both a great warrior and a possessor of unusual spiritual gifts.
Tradition places Lozen as Victorio's close confidant, military strategist, and prophet. Lauded for her bravery and daring, she risked her life many times in battle and to save the lives of other Apaches, especially women and children.
After learning of her brother's death in October 1 880, Lozen set off alone from the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico, crossing the border despite the presence of both U. S. and Mexican troops. She undoubtedly hoped that the news was not true but knewthat if itwere, she would be needed even more by Victorio's Chihenne survivors. She apparently fought alongside the elderly Nana, who led the survivors of the attack that had killed Victorio. Lozen later fought beside Geronimo, finally surrendering when he did, in 1886.
Lozen, tradition notes, was able after ritualistic prayer to Usen (recognized by Apaches as the creative spirit) to determine an enemy's location. She also was believed to have the power to heal wounds and was greatly skilled at horseback riding. Although Apache women underwent rigorous physical training, they usually did not engage in combat. Lozen, however, was as great a warrior as almost any male Apache. She never married, instead devoting her life to helping Victorio and their people defend their land and their way of life. Such was the respect accorded her that she participated in war councils.
Lozen was sent south with the other Chiricahua Apache prisoners after the 1886 surrender. She died in Alabama sometime around the end of the decade, from an enemy she could neither outfight nor outride—an illness thought to be tuberculosis.
Lieutenant Marion Maus. At that January 15 meeting, Geronimo agreed to talk with Crook near the border in two months. As a guarantor of his sincerity, Geronimo sent 9 Apaches as essentially hostages, including Nana, Nana’s wife (Geronimo’s sister), and Ihtedda. Maus took his hostages to Fort Bowie and then crossed back into Mexico, establishing a camp about 10 miles south of the Arizona line.
Surrender
Geronimo arrived at the Canyon de los Embudos (the Canyon of the Funnels) and awaited Crook’s arrival from Fort Bowie. Accompanying Crook were Kaytennae, who had been released from Alcatraz and given a tour of San Francisco to acquaint him with the power of the United States, and a scout named Alchise. As usual, Bourke was the general’s aide and kept a detailed transcript of conversations. Crook stopped at Maus’s camp about one-half mile from where the Apaches were camped.
Geronimo, Naiche, and Chihuahua were among those who arrived at Crook’s camp on March 25. Mangus was not present, having taken his small band away several months earlier. Geronimo gave a lengthy defense of himself, explaining that he had lived peacefully at San Carlos, killing no one. He explained that only when he learned soldiers were planning to arrest and kill him did he leave the reservation. Crook listened patiently and then denied that any orders had been given to arrest him. Geronimo, in turn, denied that he had sent anyone to kill Davis and Chato.
The Apaches withdrew to consider their next course of action. Kaytennae and Alchise circulated among them, encouraging surrender. The offer from Crook consisted of unconditional surrender, to be followed by two years in the East with their families and then a return to the reservation. On March 27, word arrived at Crook’s camp that the leaders wanted to talk with him.
Chihuahua was the first to give his surrender speech, followed by Naiche. Geronimo, who had been the last holdout, agreeing to surrender only when it became clear that everyone else had decided on that course of action, spoke last. He had less to say than the others. Poignantly, he remarked, “Once I moved about like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all.”18 Geronimo then stepped forward and shook the general’s hand. He added his hope that his wife and daughter would be permitted to join him at Fort Bowie or Silver Creek, perhaps referring to Ziyeh and his adult daughter, Dohnsay.
Second Thoughts
That night, however, Geronimo and many others of the Apaches imbibed considerable alcohol. It had been supplied by a notorious trader named Tribolett, who specialized in smuggling and was among the class of traders who did not want peace because it would deprive them of a major market among the Indians. Tribolett was the source of not only the alcohol with which Geronimo could try to ease his sorrow over surrendering, but also the rumor that U. S. authorities planned to hang Geronimo once they had him back within the United States.
The following day, March 28, General Crook left for Fort Bowie, leaving Lieutenant Maus to escort the Apaches back to Arizona. Given the heavy drinking of the night before, they were in poor shape for heavy traveling and made limited progress. During the night, Geronimo and Naiche led a group of about 40 away from the camp, including Geronimo’s son Chappo and his cousins Fun and Perico. Maus sent Nana and Chihuahua to try to persuade them to return, but Geronimo had made his decision to continue fighting—a course that he surely knew could not end happily. He was determined at least to die free.
Geronimo and Naiche well recognized their precarious position and knew that almost anyone whom they met could end their lives by informing on them. Consequently, they tried to leave no witnesses among anyone they encountered.
General Miles
Crook returned to Fort Bowie on March 29 and sent off a telegram to General Philip Sheridan, Commanding General of the U. S. Army, informing him of the surrender and of the terms that he had offered: that the prisoners would be sent to Florida to be with their families for no more than two years before being returned to the reservation. Sheridan’s quick response rejected the terms on authority of President Grover Cleveland, agreeing to only one promise—that those who surrendered would not be killed.
The following day, Crook learned from Maus that Geronimo and Naiche had escaped. After another exchange of telegrams with Sheridan, Crook asked to be transferred. Sheridan complied in a message of April 2, shifting Crook to the Department of the Platte and replacing him with Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles.
Miles did not trust the Apache scouts despite their almost unbroken record of loyalty, and abandoned Crook’s innovative and successful strategy of using them to track down other Apaches. Instead, he relied on cavalry to pursue the escapees, but the horses had little ability to scale the mountains in which Geronimo and his band took refuge. On foot, the soldiers were not much better than the horses at following Geronimo, as they lacked the stamina in rugged terrain that even the Apache women and children possessed. Heliograph messages from mountain to mountain were effective only if the military actually had something to report.
Geronimo raided seemingly at will on both sides of the border, leaving few witnesses alive to report on his whereabouts. Meanwhile, Miles achieved no successes, failing to capture or kill any of Geronimo’s band. On the San Carlos Reservation and nearby, hatred was growing toward the Apaches, on the part of both other tribes on the reservation and the area settlers and townspeople. Miles suggested to Sheridan that the reservation Apaches be relocated to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma or in Kansas. The government agency decided instead to send them to Fort Marion at St. Augustine, Florida.
Miles sent Lieutenant Charles Gatewood to try to make contact with Geronimo. Gatewood was accompanied by a Nednai named Martine; Kayihtah, a brother of Yahnozha, one of Geronimo’s warriors; a translator named George Wratten; and a packer. Gatewood may not have needed the translator, as he knew the Apache language and was respected by the Apaches. He was authorized to seek assistance from any military force and joined the command of Captain Henry Lawton. When Gatewood learned that Geronimo had sent two women on an exploratory peace mission to Mexican officials at Fronteras, 30 miles south of the U. S. border, he hurriedly moved to pick up the women’s trail as they returned to Geronimo.
The Final Surrender
On August 24,1886, the Apaches saw the Gatewood party approaching under a white flag. They recognized Martine, Kayihtah, Gatewood, and Wratten, the
Last of whom was married to an Apache. Geronimo wanted to shoot them, but others in the party refused, threatening to kill anyone—even Geronimo—who attempted to harm Gatewood and his companions. At a council the following day, Gatewood told Geronimo that the group’s families had been sent to Florida (although Gatewood knew that they had not actually been transported yet) and that Geronimo and his group would join them in Florida if they surrendered. By August 26, Geronimo was ready to turn himself in to Miles. The party, about 28 strong, including 18 warriors, then began the journey back to the United States with Gatewood, Lawton, and Lawton’s troops.
Geronimo may not have fully understood the depth of hatred that many felt toward him. Even President Cleveland had telegraphed the War Department, saying, “I hope nothing will be done with Geronimo which will prevent our treating him as a prisoner of war, if we cannot hang him, which I would much prefer.”19
Miles waited to meet with Geronimo and Naiche, and also delayed informing Sheridan of their surrender, until he was certain there would be no turning back or slip-up of any sort. Finally, Miles set out for the designated meeting place, Skeleton Canyon in southern Arizona. The group arrived there on September 3.
When the translator told Geronimo that General Miles was his friend, Geronimo said, “I never saw him, but I have been in need of friends. Why has he not been with me?”20 The response elicited laughter from the other officers, although Geronimo seemed to be quite serious in his statement. Miles explained the terms of the surrender. Geronimo would accompany Miles to Fort Bowie and then travel on to Florida to be reunited with his family. There Geronimo and the other Apaches would receive cattle and implements for farming. Geronimo describes Miles’s symbolic actions in specific detail in his autobiography:
O21
We stood between his troopers and my warriors. We placed a large stone on the blanket before us. Our treaty was made by this stone, and it was to last until the stone should crumble to dust; so we made the treaty, and bound each other with an oath.... Then General Miles swept a spot of ground clear with his hand, and said: “Your past deeds shall be wiped out like this and you will start a new life.”'
Geronimo says in the autobiography regarding this agreement, from the vantage point of about 20 years later, “I do not believe that I have ever violated that treaty; but General Miles never fulfilled his promises.”22
Geronimo and his band then rode back to Fort Bowie with Miles. The vanquished were put on a train at Bowie Station to the sarcastic playing of “Auld Lang Syne” by the military band. The prisoners from the reservation, almost 400 of them, arrived at Fort Marion on September 20. Geronimo, Naiche, and their associates, however, were stopped at San Antonio, Texas, on September 10 on orders of the War Department, where they were held in a prison. Brigadier General D. S. Stanley, commander of the Department of Texas, was
Ordered to question the prisoners and report on their character as he awaited further orders.
Considerable sentiment existed for trying and executing Geronimo and the other leaders. President Cleveland decided instead that Miles’s agreement with the Apaches must be supported, at least insofar as he had promised that they would not be killed. In the end, Geronimo and the others with him were put onboard another train and sent on to Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida. They arrived on October 25. The president’s decision was received enthusiastically at Pensacola, where more prisoners meant more financial opportunities for area merchants.
Just a few days before Geronimo left Texas, the last of the Apache holdouts— Mangus, and his party of two warriors, three women, and five children— surrendered. They arrived at Fort Pickens on November 6.
World History
