Geronimo, << juh RON uh moh >> (1829-1909), was a warrior of the Chiricahua Apache . He defended his land and people against attacks by settlers and soldiers in Mexico and the southwestern United States during the 1870’s and 1880’s.
Geronimo was born along what is now the Arizona-New Mexico border. He grew up among the Nednais, a band of Chiricahua Apache, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. As a young man, he served under the Apache leaders Cochise and Mangas Coloradas. In 1858, his mother, wife, and children were all killed in an attack by Mexican troops.
About 1877, the United States government rounded up the Chiricahua Apache, including Geronimo, and moved them to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. This roundup resulted from increasing conflicts between the Apache and newcomers who had moved onto Indian land. Geronimo, refusing to live on the crowded reservation, escaped and fought U.S. troops in the Southwest and in Chihuahua. He surrendered and returned to the reservation in 1880.
In 1881, however, Geronimo and a number of his followers became disgusted with conditions on the reservation and left. They fled to the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico, where they set up hidden camps. From these camps, they made many raids on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. General George Crook then led U.S. forces in attacks on the Apache camps in the Sierra Madre. In 1883, Geronimo and his band surrendered to Crook and agreed to return to the reservation. Geronimo returned to the reservation in 1884 but left again in 1885. He surrendered to Crook in early 1886 but escaped yet again. In September 1886, he surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles.
Geronimo was held at forts in Florida and then Alabama. In 1894, he was moved to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. There, he told his life story to Stephen M. Barrett, a school official who compiled a book called Geronimo’s Story of His Life (1906). Geronimo died at Fort Sill on Feb. 17, 1909.
See also Indian wars (Apache warfare) .
