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 what
started it all was in Mexico. The fighting that we’ll talk about today was
against Mexicans. Here is how it all
began.
Geronimo was born on June 16, 1829, a
birth date he gave himself, near Turkey Creek; a tributary of the Gila River,
in what is now the western part of the state of New Mexico. It was in Old Mexico then but in reality it
was Bedonkohe land. He was given the
name, “One Who Yawns,” or Goyathlay in English (often Gokhlayeh or Goyahkla and
spelled Goyaałé in the Chiricahua dictionary).
In more recent times, the Fort Sill (Oklahoma) Apaches have suggested that
his birth name meant, “Intelligent, shrewd, clever.”
Goyathlay was raised with his three
brothers and four sisters by his father, Tablishim and his mother, Juana in the
Apache traditions. Mako (Mahko), his grandfather, had been chief of the
Bedonkohe band of Apaches. Following the
death of Tablishim, his mother took Goyathlay to live with the Chihenne, the
“Red Paint People.” It was with the
Chihenne band (Warm Springs) or Net’na, that Goyathlay reached maturity. At the age of 17, he was admitted to the
Council of Warriors and began to lead raids on Mexican and American settlers,
stealing their horses. He quickly became known for his craftiness and
ferociousness. He was also given
permission to marry Alope, a woman of the Nedni (or Nednhi)-Chiricahua
band. With Alope, Goyathlay fathered
three children.
With his wife Alope, his mother Juana,
and three children to support, Goyathlay emigrated to the Big and Little Burro
Mountains area of Arizona, where he met and formed a deep and lasting friendship
with Mangas Coloradas (or Dasoda-hae, which means Red Sleeves), father-in-law
of the famous Cochise.
But all was not peaceful and there
were historical precedents. To counter
notable Apache raids on settlements, the government of Spain had established
presidios, fortified settlements, at Janos in Chihuahua and at Fronteras in
northern Opata nearly 200 years before.
As late as 1835 the Mexican state of Sonora, in an all-out effort to rid
the Sierra Madres of the Apaches, passed a law offering one hundred pesos
(roughly equal to one American dollar) for every scalp of an Apache warrior.
Two years later, by 1837, the state of Chihuahua set a scale of one hundred
pesos for a warrior’s scalp, fifty for a woman’s, and twenty-five for a
child’s. It became increasingly
dangerous for any Apache to live anywhere in Apacheria. Geronimo and his Bedonkohe adherents had come
under the full leadership and protection of Mangas Coloradas. And, by the 1850s, Mangas Coloradas became
principal chief and war leader and began a series of retaliatory raids against
the Mexicans. Apache raids on Mexican
villages were so numerous and brutal that no area was safe.
That said, in the spring of 1858, the
Apaches were at peace with the Mexican towns and at peace with the surrounding
Indian tribes. On a trading trip south
to Casa Grande in Old Mexico, with Mangas Coloradas leading, they stopped at
the town of Janos in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, a town the Apaches called
Kas-ki-yeh. It was a peaceful
expedition, the women and children were along, and they stayed for several
days. Every day the men went into Kas-ki-yeh to trade, leaving the camp under
the protection of a small guard so that their arms, supplies, and women and
children would not be disturbed during their absence.
It was while most of the men were off
trading that Colonel José Maria Carrasco led a company of 499 Mexican soldiers
from Sonora in an attack on Goyathlay’s encampment. The Mexican troops swept down upon the
campsite and butchered nearly everyone in sight. It was while the Apaches were on their way
back to the campground from Kas-ki-yeh that Goyathlay and the others were met
by a few women and children who informed them of the massacre. Upon reaching camp, they discovered all of
their guard warriors killed, their horses captured, their supplies destroyed
and their arms gone. Even worse, many of the women and children had been
killed as well.
Fearing that the murdering soldiers
would return, the Apaches quickly separated and hid until nightfall. Assembling in a thicket by the river, they
placed sentinels and silently filtered back into the encampment. It was then that Goyathlay discovered that
among those who lay dead were his young wife, his three small children and his
aged mother. All had been brutally slain
by the soldiers. Goyathlay quietly
turned away from the carnage and stood alone in his grief by the river.
That night, in the Warriors’ Council,
it was decided that as there were only eighty warriors left, without arms or
supplies, surrounded by the Mexicans and far inside Mexican territory, they
could not hope to fight with any success.
Mangas Coloradas gave the order to leave the dead in the camp and return
at once to Arizona.
Goyathlay was dumfounded. As the rest of the band passed him by he
stood there and contemplated that he had no fight in him, he had no weapon, he
was forbidden to recover the bodies of his family, and he just felt empty
inside. He finally turned and followed
the tribe in silence. The next morning,
while some killed a small amount of game and stopped long enough to cook and
eat; Goyathlay had killed no game, and did not eat. He spoke to no one and no one spoke to
him. There was nothing to say.
Goyathlay’s depression was deep but
understandable, especially his feelings of sadness and emptiness. His reduced interest in activities that he
once enjoyed and his loss of energy were all common signs of melancholy. The writings of Goyathlay also describe a
difficulty in concentrating, holding a conversation, paying attention, or
making decisions that used to be made fairly easily.
They walked for two days and three
nights stopping only for meals. Finally
camping near the Mexican border, they rested two days. It was here that Goyathlay began to come out
of his depressed mood. He took some food
and talked with the other Indians who had lost much in the massacre. Goyathlay felt that none had lost as much as
he had, for he felt that he had lost all.
They arrived home within a few days.
There Goyathlay found the decorations that Alope had made and the
playthings of his little ones. Following the Apache way, he burned them
all, even his tepee and he burned his mother’s tepee and destroyed all her
property.
Goyathlay
vowed vengeance upon the Mexican troopers who had wronged him, and whenever he
saw anything to remind him of former happy days, his heart would ache for
revenge upon Mexico. His depression
turned to a deep, burning anger and he hated all Mexicans for the rest of his
life. It was the later stress caused by
the trauma that he experienced in the slaughter of his family that turned
Goyathlay from a peaceful Indian into a bold warrior and he carried that
enraged, burning abhorrence against the Mexicans until his dying day.
His chief, Mangas Coloradas sent him
to Cochise’s band for help in getting revenge against the Mexicans and
Goyathlay soon joined that famous band of Apaches known as Chiricahua and with them, took part in numerous
raids in northern Mexico and across the border into U.S. territory. It was those Mexican adversaries who gave
Goyathlay the nickname of "Geronimo." It is said that Goyathlay was
given the name Geronimo (Jerome) by Mexican soldiers because of the daring
feats he performed. Few historians agree
to the reasons.
Goyathlay became exceedingly fierce
and unafraid in his war with the Mexicans.
Each time they saw him the soldiers would begin to cry out in terror,
"Cuidado! Geronimo!" In one battle, ignoring a deadly hail of
bullets and armed only with a knife, Goyathlay repeatedly attacked and stabbed
the Mexicans, purportedly causing them to call out supplications to Saint
Jerome, allegedly the Patron Saint of the Mexican Army. Although in the Roman Catholic Church, Jerome
is recognized as the patron saint of translators, librarians and
encyclopedists, he did write quite a bit about the horrors of hell and perhaps
it was in this context that the Mexicans were asking for his aid.
Goyathlay attributed his numerous
raiding successes to his special spiritual insights and abilities known to
Apache people as "Power.” He had a
reputed invulnerability to gunshot, the faculty to walk without leaving tracks;
the abilities now known as telekinesis and telepathy. He was wounded by buckshot and bullets many
times but survived. Apache men chose to
follow him of their own free will, and offered eye-witness testimony regarding
his “Power."They declared that this was the main reason why so many chose
to follow him: they thought he was favored or protected by "Usen",
the Apache high-god. Goyathlay believed
that the bitter loss of his family brought him his "Power." While sitting with his head bowed in sorrow,
he heard a voice tell him that ‘no gun can ever kill you, and I will guide your
arrows.’ The fact that he was often wounded, but remained alive, strengthened
his conviction in this power.
At any rate, Goyathlay officially became
Geronimo and the name caught on. His “Power” served him well and his exploits
in the Southwest have become international legend.
