Editing Geronimo (section)

==Background==
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans resident in the Southwest United States. The current division of Apachean groups includes the [[Western Apache people|Western Apache]], [[Yavapai]], [[Coyotero]], [[San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation|Aravaipa]], [[Mohave people|Mojaves]], [[Chiricahua]], [[Tonto Apache|Tontos]], [[Bylas]], [[Rumsen people|San Carlos]], [[Mescalero]], [[Jicarilla Apache|Jicarilla]], [[Lipan Apache people|Lipan]] and [[Plains Apache]] (formerly Kiowa-Apache). The first Apache raids on [[Sonora]] and [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] took place in the late 17th century. To counter the early Apache raids on Spanish settlements, [[presidio]]s were established at [[Janos, Chihuahua|Janos]] (1685) in Chihuahua and at [[Fronteras]] (1690) in what is now northeastern Sonora, then [[Opata people|Opata]] country. In 1835, Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps. Two years later, [[Mangas Coloradas]] became principal chief and war leader and began a series of raids against the Mexicans. Apache raids on Mexican villages were so numerous and brutal that no area was safe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Apache Indians Southwest |url=http://www.epcc.edu/nwlibrary/borderlands/18_apache.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007202003/http://www.epcc.edu/nwlibrary/borderlands/18_apache.htm |archive-date=October 7, 2006}}</ref> Between 1820 and 1835 alone, some 5,000 Mexicans died in Apache raids, and 100 settlements were destroyed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hermann |first=Spring |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W63NQtM-if4C |title=Geronimo: Apache freedom fighter |publisher=Enslow Publishers |year=1997 |isbn=0-89490-864-2 |page=26 |access-date=November 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105060931/https://books.google.com/books?id=W63NQtM-if4C |archive-date=January 5, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

During the decades of [[Apache–Mexico Wars|Apache-Mexican]] and [[Apache Wars|Apache-United States]] conflicts, raiding had become embedded in the Apache way of life, used for strategic purposes as well as economic enterprise.{{sfn|Debo|1996|p=28}} Speaking of the start of the Spanish/Mexican Apache conflict, Debo states, "Thus the Apaches were driven into the mountains and raiding the settled communities became a way of life for them, an economic enterprise as legitimate as gathering berries or hunting deer" and often there was overlap between raids for economic need and warfare.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=130}} Raids ranged from stealing livestock and other plunder, to the capture and/or killing of victims, sometimes by torture.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=1, 130}} Mexicans and Americans responded with retaliatory attacks against the Apache which were no less violent and were very seldom limited to identified individual adult enemies, much like the Apache raids. The raiding and retaliation fed the fires of a virulent revenge warfare that reverberated back and forth between Apaches and Mexicans and later, Apaches and Americans. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo, as well as other Apache leaders, conducted attacks, but Geronimo was driven by a desire to take revenge for the murder of his family by Mexican soldiers and accumulated a record of brutality during this time that was unmatched by any of his contemporaries.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=1}} His fighting ability extending over 30 years forms a major characteristic of his persona.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=130}}

Within Geronimo's own Chiricahua tribe, many had mixed feelings about him. While respected as a skilled and effective leader of raids or warfare, he emerges as not very likable, and he was not widely popular among the other Apaches.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=1, 2}} This was primarily because he refused to give in to American government demands, causing some Apaches to fear the American response. Nevertheless, the Apache people stood in awe of Geronimo's powers, which he demonstrated to them on a series of occasions. These powers indicated to other Apaches that Geronimo had supernatural gifts that he could use for good or ill. In eyewitness accounts by other Apaches, Geronimo was able to become aware of distant events as they happened,{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=140}} and he was able to anticipate future events.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=130–131}}  He also demonstrated powers to heal other Apaches.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=2}}