GERONIMO IN MEXICO: “Sko-la-ta, Nokode and the Massacre at Casa Grande, 1880”

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.

Around the year 1880, when Geronimo was in his camp in the mountains south of Casa Grande, Mexico, called by the Indians Sko-la-ta, a company of Mexican troops attacked. There were twenty-four Mexican soldiers and they faced about forty Indians. The Mexicans surprised the warriors in camp and fired on them, killing two Apaches in the first volley.  This attack by the Mexicans was totally unexpected.

Geronimo related that he did not know how the Mexicans were able to find his camp unless, of course, they had excellent scouts and unless Geronimo’s own guards were careless, but there the Mexicans were, shooting at the Indians before the Apaches knew that the Mexicans were in the vicinity.  If the Mexicans had known how outnumbered they were they might not have assailed the Indian camp.

The Indians were situated in a wooded area, and Geronimo gave his men the order to move forward and fight the Mexican troopers at close range. The warriors kept behind rocks and trees until they came within ten yards of the Mexican line, then they stood up and both sides shot until all twenty four of the Mexicans were killed. Geronimo lost twelve Apaches in this battle. When the warriors had buried their dead and secured what supplies the Mexicans had, they headed to the northeast.

At a place near Nacori, called by the Apaches Nokode, Mexican troops attacked them again.  Gathered in this camp were about eighty warriors, both Bedonkohe and Nedni Apaches. There were three companies of Mexican troops.

The Mexican army attacked the warriors in an open field, and the Indians scattered, firing as they ran. The Mexicans followed them, but the Apaches dispersed, and soon outran the army.  Geronimo’s warriors reassembled in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Here a council was held, and since the Mexican troops were attacking without warning and coming from many directions, Geronimo and the warriors decided to disband.

After about four months had passed, and pressure from the Mexican army had lessened, the Apaches reassembled at Casa Grande.  Here they decided that it would be advantageous for the Indians to make a treaty of peace with the Mexican people. The alcaldes of the town of Casa Grande, along with all of the men of Casa Grande, made a treaty with the Apaches. The people of Casa Grande and the Indians shook hands and promised to be as brothers. This done, they began to trade, and the Mexicans, in a classic act of deceitfulness, gave the Indians mescal.  Soon nearly all the warriors were intoxicated.  While the Apaches were under the influence, two companies of Mexican troops, who had been headquartered in another town, attacked the Indians.  The Mexican troops slaughtered twenty Indians and captured many more.  The Apaches fled in all directions. After the treachery and massacre of Casa Grande the Apaches did not reassemble for a long while, and when they did, even though there was pressure from the American army, Geronimo and his Apaches returned to Arizona.