Geronimo
...mely death came during his adolescent years. Now being responsible for his family, Geronimo took his mother to live with his relatives among a band of Nedhni Apaches that would later be led by his friend Juh. By the time he was 17, Geronimo had performed four novice raids and completed other required activities to gain admittance to the council of warriors. Soon after he married a woman called Alope, who bore him three children. Tragedy dawned in the summer of 1850 when Geronimo accompanied his tribe to go on a trading expedition with the people of Janos. While Geronimo and some of the other warriors traded with the people of Janos, their lightly guarded camp was attacked by Mexican soldiers from Casas Grandes. Around 50 were killed and about 100 were sold into slavery. Among the dead were Alope, his three children and his mother. Stunned by his loss, Geronimo sought vengeance. “My feelings toward the Mexicans did not change - I still hated them and longed for revenge. I never ceased to plan for their punishment”.3 The Apache tribes raided the Mexicans for many years. It was now when Geronimo received his infamous name by the cries of the attacked Mexicans. The name Geronimo would soon become infamous throughout the southwest. In parts of the United States, other Apache tribes were resisting the invasion of white settlers that were in search of gold. Geronimo started raiding the American settlers for stealing his tribe’s land. Heartless settlers were angry for wasting good land on the Apache. In the mid 1870’s, Geronimo apparently settled on the Chiricahua Reservation in Arizona. Later he was moved to Warm Springs Reservation but he continued to slip away on raids. Geronimo was taken to the San Carlos Reservation then released a few months later by Clum’s successor. Less than a year later, he broke away from San Carlos and headed for Mexico. He operated in the Victorio War of the late 1870’s and in late 1879, Geronimo and Juh returned to San Carlos, but two years later they left the reservation once again in rebellion against the treatment they received there. In the spring of 1882, Juh and Geronimo led 60 men back to San Carlos. At dawn on April 18, they broke chief Loco and several hundred unarmed Mimbreno off the reservation. Fighting their way back into Mexico, they were attacked in camp by cavalrymen under a new agreement between the United States and Mexico. This so-called “hot pursuit” agreement permitted troops from either country to cross the border while chasing Indians .4 After a year of farming, the sudden arrest and imprisonment of the Apache warrior Ka-ya-ten-nae, together with rumors of impending trials and hanging, prompted Geronimo to flee on May 17, 1885, with 35 warriors and 109 women, children and youths. On January 10, 1886, Captain Emmett Crawford and a column of Apache scouts located Geronimo’s Apacheria near the Haros R. in Sonora, Mexico. The Mexicans thought Crawford’s scouts were hostile Chiricahuas and proceeded to open fire. Crawford was shot in the head and Geronimo merely served the unaccustomed role of spectator. Following Crawford, Geronimo agreed to make a deal with Crook. He left the custody of Crook’s scouts, however, and was on the loose in Mexico with a few followers. “I feared treachery, and when we became suspicious, we turned back”.5 The capable and ambitious General Nelson Miles assumed command. Thousands of Mexican soldiers scoured Geronimo’s old haunts...