GERONIMO IN MEXICO: “The Battle of White Hill, 1879”

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.  It is true that the greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But the history of Geronimo’s war parties started in Mexico…and we continue our adaptation of Geronimo’s own recollections.

Almost every year the tribe would live a part of the time in Old Mexico. Because there were at this time many white settlements in Arizona and plenty of pressure from the United States Army, the Apaches would move to Mexico, move back to Arizona, and then return to Mexico.  Geronimo had said that the reason was that game was no longer plentiful in Arizona and, besides, the Indians liked to go down into Old Mexico.  The lands of the Nedni Apaches, Geronimo’s friends and kinsmen, extended far into Mexico. Their Chief, Whoa, was like a brother to Geronimo, and Geronimo’s tribe spent much of their time in Nedni Apache territory. Geronimo’s Chiricahua Apaches would go into hiding in the Sierra Madre Mountains. 

In 1879, their camp was near Nacori, and Geronimo had just organized bands of warriors for raiding the country, when scouts discovered Mexican cavalry coming toward the camp to attack.

Instead of running and hiding, Geronimo marched all of his warriors toward the Mexican troops and met them at a place about five miles from the Indians’ encampment. Using an interesting tactic that best demonstrated Geronimo’s fighting style, the warriors showed themselves to the soldiers and, as expected, the Mexicans quickly rode to the top of a hill and dismounted, placing their horses on the outside for breastworks. It was a round hill, very steep and rocky, and there was no timber on its sides. There were two companies of Mexican cavalry, and the Apaches had about sixty warriors. The Indians crept up the hill behind the rocks and the Mexicans kept up a constant fire.  Geronimo cautioned the warriors to lay low behind the boulders and not to expose themselves to the Mexicans and to fire sporadically.

Geronimo knew that the troopers would waste their ammunition.  It wasn’t long before the Apaches had killed all the Mexican cavalry’s horses, but the Mexican soldiers would lie behind their dead steeds and shoot at the Indians.  While the Apaches had killed several Mexicans, the warriors had not yet lost a man.  However, it was impossible to get very close to the Mexicans in this way, and finally, Geronimo considered it best to lead a charge against them.

The Apaches had been fighting ever since about one o’clock, and about the middle of the afternoon, seeing that they were making no further progress, and considering that the Mexicans were almost out of ammunition, Geronimo gave the sign for the move forward. The war-whoop sounded and the Indians leaped forward from behind every stone, jumping over the Mexicans’ dead horses, fighting hand to hand. The warriors closed on the cavalry with lightening speed.  The attack was so sudden that the Mexicans, running first this way and then that, became so confused that in a few minutes the Apaches had killed them all with spears, tomahawks, and knives.  Then the Indians scalped the slain Mexicans, carried away their few Apache dead, and gathered up all the weapons they needed.

That night Geronimo moved the camp eastward through the Sierra Madre Mountains into Chihuahua. No troops molested them here and after about a year the Apaches returned to Arizona.