Editing Geronimo (section)

{{Short description|Leader of the Bedonkohe Apache (1829–1909)}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox American Indian chief
|name           = Gerónimo
|image          = GeronimoRinehart.jpg
|caption        = Photograph by [[Frank Rinehart]], 1898
|tribe          = Bedonkohe [[Apache people|Apache]]
|birth_date     = {{birth date text|June 16, 1829}}
|birth_place    = [[Arizpe]], [[Sonora]], [[Mexico]]<ref name=story>{{cite book |author=Geronimo |editor1-first=S. M. |editor1-last=Barrett |editor2-first=Frederick W. |editor2-last=Turner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUPsbhM5wCYC&pg=PT11 |title=Geronimo: his own story |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-452-01155-7 |access-date=November 12, 2015 |archive-date=January 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200105120945/https://books.google.com/books?id=jUPsbhM5wCYC&pg=PT11 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|death_date     = {{death date and age|1909|2|17|1829|6}}
|death_place    = [[Fort Sill]], [[Oklahoma]], U.S.
|predecessor    = [[Juh]]
|successor      =
|native_name    = Goyaałé
|resting_place  = Apache Indian Prisoner of War Cemetery, Fort Sill
|rp_coordinates = {{coord|34.696814|-98.370387|display=inline|region:US-OK}},
|spouse         = Alope, Ta-ayz-slath, Chee-hash-kish, Nana-tha-thtith, Zi-yeh, She-gha, Shtsha-she, Ih-tedda, and Azul
|children       = Chappo, Dohn-say
|signature      = Geronimo signature.svg
|footnotes      =
|mother_tongue  = Apache, Spanish
}}
{{Geronimo chronology}}
'''Gerónimo''' ({{langx|apm|Goyaałé|lit=the one who yawns}}, {{IPA|ath|kòjàːɬɛ́}}; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and [[medicine man]] from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe [[Apache]] people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands{{snd}} the Tchihende, the Tsokanende (called [[Chiricahua]] by Americans) and the Nednhi{{snd}}to carry out numerous raids, as well as fight against Mexican and U.S. military campaigns in the northern Mexico states of [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] and [[Sonora]] and in the southwestern American territories of [[New Mexico Territory|New Mexico]] and [[Arizona Territory|Arizona]].

Geronimo's raids and related combat actions were a part of the prolonged period of the [[Apache Wars|Apache–United States conflict]], which started with the Americans continuing to take land, including Apache lands, following the end of [[Mexican–American War|the war with Mexico]] in 1848. Reservation life was confining to the free-moving Apache people, and they resented restrictions on their customary way of life.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=152, 153}} Geronimo led breakouts from the reservations in attempts to return his people to their previous nomadic lifestyle. During Geronimo's final period of conflict from 1876 to 1909, he surrendered three times and eventually accepted life on the Apache reservations. While well-known, Geronimo was not a chief of the Bedonkohe band of the Central Apache but a shaman, as was Nokay-doklini among the Western Apache.{{sfn|Debo|1996|p=38}}{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=1, 2}} However, since he was a superb leader in raiding and warfare, he frequently led large numbers of 30 to 50 Apache men.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=1, 2}}

In 1886, after an intense pursuit in northern Mexico by American forces that followed Geronimo's third 1885 reservation breakout, Geronimo surrendered for the last time to Lt. [[Charles B. Gatewood|Charles Bare Gatewood]]. Geronimo and 27 other Apaches were later sent to join the rest of the Chiricahua tribe, which had been previously exiled to [[Florida]].{{sfn|Debo|1996|p=268}} While holding him as a prisoner, the United States capitalized on Geronimo's fame among non-Indians by displaying him at various fairs and exhibitions. In 1898, for example, Geronimo was exhibited at the [[Trans-Mississippi Exposition]] in Omaha, Nebraska; seven years later, the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs|Indian Office]] provided Geronimo for use in a parade at the [[Second inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt|second inauguration]] of President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]. He died at the [[Fort Sill]] hospital in 1909, as a prisoner of war, and was buried at the Fort Sill Indian Agency Cemetery, among the graves of relatives and other Apache prisoners of war.