Geronimo in Mexico: “The bravery of Apache women: 1861”

Most of us know of the Apache leader Geronimo but most of what most of us know we learned at the movies.  Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, Geronimo led the fight against the expansion into Apache tribal lands by the United States during the Apache Wars.  But you knew that much from the movies.  The greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But it all started in Mexico…and we continue with the story.

After their return from Casita, Mexico where Geronimo had been wounded, many of the Apache warriors had left the village to go on a hunt while others had gone north to trade for blankets from the Navajo Indians. Geronimo remained at the Apache Homeland in Arizona trying to get his wounds healed.

Three companies of Mexican troopers had come north into Arizona and had surrounded the Apache settlement in the night.  That morning, just at daybreak, when the women were lighting the camp fires to prepare breakfast, the Mexicans opened fire. There was no time for fighting.  Men, women, and children fled the surprise attack on the Homeland for their lives. Many women and children and a few warriors were killed, and four women were captured.

Geronimo’s left eye was still swollen shut, but with the other eye he saw well enough to hit one of the Mexican officers with an arrow, and then make good his escape among the rocks. The Mexican troopers burned the tepees and took the Apache’s arms, provisions, ponies, and blankets. They also took four of the Apache women captive.  It was the fall of 1861, much was lost and winter was at hand.

There were no more than twenty warriors in camp at the time of the Mexican attack, and of them only a few had had been able to grab weapons during the excitement of the attack.  A few warriors followed the trail of the troops as they went back to Mexico with the four women and the goods they had stolen from the Indians, but the warriors were unable to engage the Mexican troopers in battle. It would be a long time before the Apaches were again able to go on the warpath against the Mexicans.

The four women who were captured during this raid by the Mexicans were taken into Sonora, Mexico, where they were compelled to work as slaves for the Mexicans. After some years had passed, the Apache women were able to escape to the mountains and they started off to locate the tribe.  They had knives, which they had stolen from the Mexicans, but they had no other weapons. They had no blankets.  At night they would make a little wikiup by cutting brush with their knives, and setting the brush up to make walls. The top of the wikiup was covered over with more brush. In this temporary tepee the four women would huddle together against the mountain cold and sleep.

One night, when their camp fire was low, the women heard growling just outside the wikiup.  Francisco, at about seventeen years of age the youngest woman of the party, started to build up the fire, when suddenly a mountain lion crashed through the wikiup and attacked her. The suddenness of the attack made her drop her knife, but she fought as best she could with her hands.  The teenager was no match for the lion.  Her left shoulder was crushed and partly torn away. The lion kept trying to catch her by the throat but she was able to prevent this with her hands.  The struggle seemed to go on for a long time. The girl and the mountain lion thrashed about violently.  The mountain lion dragged the young woman about 300 yards from the camp.  Realizing that her strength was failing from loss of blood, the young girl desperately screamed out to the other women for help. The lion had been dragging her by one foot, and the teenager had been catching hold of the lion’s legs, and catching hold of the rocks and underbrush, to slow the beast down. At last, the lion stopped and stood over her. She once more cried out to her companions and the Apache women attacked the ferocious creature with their knives and, after a brief fight, killed him. The Apache women dressed the girl’s wounds and for about a month nursed her back to health there in the mountains.  When she was again able to walk the brave women resumed their journey and reached the Apache tribe in safety.