Heroes of their People

Geronimo

Once a long time ago, before history and prejudice twisted history there was a man but before he was a man there was a boy. A boy that was like any other boy during his time, any other young boy that was Apache.

He helped his mother and siblings tend their gardens. Supposedly a small two acres of corn, squash, melons, potatoes, natural foods that they grew from hand. Of course there were other sources of foods, fruits from fruit trees that grew in washes or near rivers and other natural foods found. After his father died as a young boy, his mother raised him into a strong young man.

It is said that for his first hunt, he ate the heart of the beast he hunted.

When he reached the age of a man, he became a warrior. A protector of his family, his home, his people. This was also the age at which one could marry, giving gifts to the bride's family in hopes they would give allow him to join their family. Goyahkla married a young women and soon had three children. Marriage was a big step for a young man but the excitement of becoming an adult soon faded as the responsibilities of one became his.

A warrior was a protector.

There were raids. People, U.S.soldiers, Mexicans, other tribes or enemy clans that raided Apache people. Many took women, some took children, others took food and livestock. Horses, sheep, animals that were considered valuable because of their scarcity and value. Warriors had to fight these raiding parties and protect their homes and families. The alternative meant death, the women raped and left for dead, children stolen or killed.

A warrior kept his family safe, well-fed.

It certainly didn't help that intruding soldiers from the South and North came, sent to kill and take away Apaches as stated by the U.S. Indian Placement Act.

It is unsaid of how many Indians died, 'exterminated,' by the orders of the U.S. government. Then the few thousands remaining out of the millions of people that lived, were sent to reservations. Small pieces of lands that were considered worthless to the government, infertile and dry. It was a complete difference from the lush forests and rain-laden plains that they lived in. 

It was a known fact then that a white person could kill an Apache but an Apache could not employ self-defense was unfair.

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When young Goyahkla's tribe traveled down to Mexico, most of the men left to go get supplies from a nearby town called Kaskiyeh taking young Goyahkla with them. When the men returned, their tribe, their families were killed by nearby Mexican troops. His mother, his wife, his three children, dead.

It left him with a deep anger and mistrust of Mexicans. It left him depressed, aimless. Then in a dream, he heard a voice, and this voice gave him the will to continue living, to live the life of a warrior. The voice told him, "No gun can ever kill you. As I will take the bullets from the guns of your enemies, so they will have nothing but powder. I will guide your arrows."

This dream gave young Goyahkla with a bravery that allowed him to go to the Mexican troops and kill them. This bravery allowed him to take a knife ran towards his enemies and kill them, avoiding every bullet that the soldiers shot at him. Then it was, that he gained his name from Mexicans as they called Geronimo whenever they saw him. Supposedly calling for St. Jerome to save them before the newly dubbed 'Geronimo' killed them in cold-hearted justice.

Eventually he remarried, an Apache woman and had two children with her.

When the California Gold Rush occurred, there was fight between Apaches and gold-crazed miners, the government sought to put Apaches on Arizona's San Carlos Reservation in the 1870s. This reservation was known as "Hell's 40 Acres."

When the government told Geronimo and his tribe to move there, he ignored it. Why leave the life he had now for such a place? So instead he and Juh, another Apache chief, took two-thirds of the Chiricahua with them to the Ojo Caliente Reservation in New Mexico, instead of San Carlos as instructed. But then he was tricked by an Apache scout that a man known as John Clum had come for a peace talk to negotiate terms of living conditions.

Instead, he was taken to the reservation known as "Hell's 40 Acres" to live there.

But given the living conditions there, the unfair treatment, the sickness and disease present, he and about two-thirds of the people living there escaped.

About a quarter of the U.S. army then, 15,000 men were sent to capture the escaped Indians. Geronimo himself became a target of many, known greatly as a seeker of 'war' instead of peace, an enemy of the U.S. army.

These records can be found in journals and other historical documents in the United States archives.

Eventually he became tired of being chased and allowed himself to become captured on the terms that he and his band stay together and alive.

He kept his word.

In hopes that the United States would keep their word and let his people live. He kept his word and allowed himself to be used and exploited.

Geronimo died of old age.

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His corpse was later beheaded and desecrated by American soldiers.