Editing Geronimo (section)

===Geronimo campaign===
The [[Apache Wars|Apache–United States]] conflict was a direct outgrowth of the much older [[Apache–Mexico Wars|Apache–Mexican]] conflict which had been ongoing in the same general area since the beginning of Mexican/Spanish settlement during the 17th century.[[File:Goyaale.jpg|thumb|upright|Geronimo (Goyaałé), a Bedonkohe Apache, kneeling with rifle, 1887]]

[[File:Apache chieff Geronimo (right) and his warriors in 1886.jpg|thumb|From right to left, Apache leader Geronimo, Yanozha (Geronimo's brother-in-law), Chappo (Geronimo's son by his second wife), and Fun (Yanozha's half brother) in 1886. Taken by [[C. S. Fly]].]]
While Apaches were shielded from the violence of warfare on the reservation, disability and death from diseases like malaria were much more prevalent.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=96, 108}} On the other hand, rations were provided by the government, though at times the corruption of [[Indian agent]]s caused rationing to become perilously scarce.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=1, 2, 96}} The people, who had lived as semi-nomads for generations, disliked the restrictive reservation system. Rebelling against reservation life, other Apache leaders had led their bands in "breakouts" from the reservations.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

On three occasions – April or August 1878;{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=92–97}}{{sfn|Debo|1996|p=117}} September 1881;{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=104–112}} and May 1885{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=149–159}}{{sfn|Debo|1996|pp=236, 237}} – Geronimo led his band of followers in breakouts from the reservation to return to their former nomadic life associated with raiding and warfare.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=1, 2}} Following each breakout, Geronimo and his band would flee across Arizona and New Mexico to Mexico, killing and plundering as they went, and establish a new base in the rugged and remote [[Sierra Madre Occidental]] Mountains.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=2}} In Mexico, they were insulated from pursuit by U.S. armed forces. The Apache knew the rough terrain of the Sierras intimately,{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=160}} which helped them elude pursuit and protected them from attack. The Sierra Madre mountains lie on the border between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, which allowed the Apache access to raid and plunder the small villages, haciendas, wagon trains, worker camps and travelers in both states.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=160}} From Mexico, Apache bands also staged surprise raids back into the United States, often seeking to replenish their supply of guns and ammunition. Utley refers to a specific raid in March 1883, in which Geronimo's people split up with Geronimo and Chihuahua raiding in the [[Sonora River]] valley to collect livestock and provisions, while Chatto and Bonito raided through southern Arizona to gather weapons and cartridges.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=133}} In these raids into the United States, the Apaches moved swiftly and attacked isolated ranches, wagon trains, prospectors and travelers. They often killed all the persons they encountered in order to avoid detection and pursuit as long as possible before they slipped back over the border into Mexico.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=133}}

The "breakouts" and the subsequent resumption of Apache raiding and warfare caused the Mexican Army and militia as well as United States forces to pursue and attempt to kill or apprehend off-reservation "renegade" Apache bands, including Geronimo's, wherever they could be found. Because the Mexican army and militia units of Sonora and Chihuahua were unable to suppress the several Chiricahua bands based in the Sierra Madre mountains, in 1883 Mexico allowed the United States to send troops into Mexico to continue their pursuit of Geronimo's band and the bands of other Apache leaders.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=136}}

{{Quote box
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|quote=The Indians always tried to live peaceably with the white soldiers and settlers. One day during the time that the soldiers were stationed at Apache Pass I made a treaty with the post. This was done by shaking hands and promising to be brothers. Cochise and Mangus-Colorado did likewise. I do not know the name of the officer in command, but this was the first regiment that ever came to Apache Pass. This treaty was made about a year before we were attacked in a tent, as above related. In a few days after the attack at Apache Pass we organized in the mountains and returned to fight the soldiers.
|source=''Geronimo's Story of His Life, Coming of the White Men'', 1909.
|}}
{{Quote box
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|quote=General Crook said to me, "Why did you leave the reservation?" I said: "You told me that I might live in the reservation the same as white people lived. One year I raised a crop of corn, and gathered and stored it, and the next year I put in a crop of oats, and when the crop was almost ready to harvest, you told your soldiers to put me in prison, and if I resisted, to kill me. If I had been let alone I would now have been in good circumstances, but instead of that you and the Mexicans are hunting me with soldiers.
|source=''Geronimo's Story of His Life, in Prison and on the War Path'', 1909.
|}}

On May 17, 1885, a number of Apache including [[Nana (chief)|Nana]], Mangus (son of Mangas Coloradas), [[Chihuahua (chief)|Chihuahua]], [[Naiche]], Geronimo, and their followers fled the [[San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation|San Carlos Reservation]] in Arizona after a show of force against the reservation's commanding officer [[Britton Davis]]. Department of Arizona General [[George Crook]] dispatched two columns of troops into Mexico, the first commanded by Captain [[Emmet Crawford]] and the second by Captain Wirt Davis. Each was composed of a troop of cavalry (usually about forty men) and about 100 [[Apache Scouts]] recruited from among the Apache people.{{sfn|Utley|2012|p=135}} These Apache units proved effective in finding the mountain strongholds of the Apache bands and killing or capturing them.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=130, 179, 200}} It was highly unsettling for Geronimo's band to realize their own tribesmen had helped find their hiding places.{{sfn|Utley|2012|pp=178, 179}} They pursued the Apache through the summer and autumn through Mexican Chihuahua and back across the border into the United States. The Apache continually raided settlements, murdering other innocent Native Americans and civilians and stealing horses.<ref name="hurst">{{cite web |last1=Hurst |first1=James |title=Geronimo's surrender – Skeleton Canyon, 1886 |url=http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/People/Geronimossurrender-Skelet.html |access-date=September 18, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826013352/http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/People/Geronimossurrender-Skelet.html |archive-date=August 26, 2015 }}</ref> Over time this persistent pursuit by both Mexican and American forces discouraged Geronimo and other similar Apache leaders, and caused a steady and irreplaceable attrition of the members of their bands, which taken all together eroded their will to resist and led to their ultimate capitulation.

Crook was under increased pressure from the government in Washington. He launched a second expedition into Mexico, and on January 9, 1886, Crawford located Geronimo and his band. His Apache Scouts attacked the next morning and captured the Apache's herd of horses and their camp equipment. The Apaches were demoralized and agreed to negotiate for surrender. Before the negotiations could be concluded, Mexican troops arrived and mistook the Apache Scouts for the enemy Apache. The Mexican government had accused the scouts of taking advantage of their position to conduct theft, robbery, and murder in Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |title=Geronimo at Work |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96060682/1886-04-16/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1873&sort=date&date2=1922&words=Geronimo&sequence=0&lccn=&index=1&state=&rows=20&ortext=geronimo&proxtext=geronimo&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=101 |website=Library of Congress, Chronicling America |date=April 16, 1886 |publisher=Daily Tombstone epitaph., April 16, 1886, Image 3 |access-date=September 2, 2016 |archive-date=February 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218143138/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn96060682/1886-04-16/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1873&sort=date&date2=1922&words=Geronimo&sequence=0&lccn=&index=1&state=&rows=20&ortext=geronimo&proxtext=geronimo&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=101 |url-status=live }}</ref> They attacked and killed Captain Crawford. Lt. Maus, the senior officer, met with Geronimo, who agreed to meet with General Crook. Geronimo named as the meeting place the Cañon de los Embudos (Canyon of the Funnels), in the Sierra Madre Mountains about {{convert|86|mi}} from [[Fort Bowie]] and about  {{convert|20|mi}} south of the international border, near the Sonora/Chihuahua border.<ref name="hurst" />

[[File:Geronimo and his warriors.jpg|thumb|left|Photo by [[C. S. Fly]] of Geronimo and his warriors, taken before the surrender to Gen. Crook, March 27, 1886, in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. Fly's photographs are the only known images of Indian combatants still in the field who had not yet surrendered to the United States.<ref name="molliefly">{{cite web |title=Mary "Mollie" E. Fly (1847–1925) |url=https://www.azwhf.org/mary-mollie-e-fly-1847-1925/ |access-date=October 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023033330/https://www.azwhf.org/mary-mollie-e-fly-1847-1925/ |archive-date=October 23, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>]]

During the three days of negotiations in March 1886, photographer [[C. S. Fly]] took about 15 exposures of the Apache on {{convert|8|by|10|in}} glass negatives.<ref name="vaughan">{{cite journal|last=Vaughan |first=Thomas |title=C.S. Fly Pioneer Photojournalist |jstor=41695766 |journal=The Journal of Arizona History |year=1989 |pages=303–318 |volume=30 |number=3 |edition=Autumn, 1989}}</ref> One of the pictures of Geronimo with two of his sons standing alongside was made at Geronimo's request. Fly's images are the only existing photographs of Geronimo's surrender.<ref name="molliefly" /> His photos of Geronimo and the other free Apaches, taken on March 25 and 26, are the only known photographs taken of an American Indian while still at war with the United States.<ref name="molliefly" /> Among the Indians was a white boy Jimmy McKinn, also photographed by Fly, who had been abducted from his ranch in New Mexico in September 1885.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Captive White boy, Santiago McKinn|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/pohrt/x-552/bou029_001|publisher=University of Michigan}}</ref>

Geronimo, camped on the Mexican side of the border, agreed to Crook's surrender terms. That night, a soldier who sold them whiskey said that his band would be murdered as soon as they crossed the border. Geronimo, Nachite, and 39 of his followers slipped away during the night. Crook exchanged a series of heated telegrams with General [[Philip Sheridan]] defending his men's actions, until on April 1, 1886, when he sent a telegram asking Sheridan to relieve him of command, to which Sheridan agreed.<ref name="vaughan" />

[[File:Charles Bare Gatewood.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Charles B. Gatewood]], known to the Apache as Bay-chen-daysen, "Long Nose"]]
Sheridan replaced Crook with General [[Nelson A. Miles]]. In 1886, Miles selected Captain [[Henry Ware Lawton|Henry Lawton]] to command B Troop, [[4th Cavalry Regiment (United States)|4th Cavalry]], at [[Fort Huachuca]], and First Lieutenant [[Charles B. Gatewood]], to lead the expedition that brought Geronimo and his followers back to the reservation system for a final time.<ref name="Chiefs">{{cite book |last=Capps |first=Benjamin |title=The Great Chiefs |publisher=Time-Life Education |year=1975 |page=240 |isbn=978-0-316-84785-8}}</ref> Lawton was given orders to head up actions south of the U.S.–Mexico boundary, where it was thought that Geronimo and a small band of his followers would take refuge from U.S. authorities.<ref name="Chiefs" /> Lawton was to pursue, subdue, and return Geronimo, dead or alive, to the United States.<ref name="Chiefs" />

Lawton's official report dated September 9, 1886, sums up the actions of his unit and gives credit to a number of his troops for their efforts. Geronimo gave Gatewood credit for his decision to surrender as Gatewood was well known to Geronimo, spoke some Apache, and was familiar with and honored their traditions and values. He acknowledged Lawton's tenacity for wearing the Apaches down with constant pursuit. Geronimo and his followers had little or no time to rest or stay in one place. Completely worn out, the small band of Apaches returned to the U.S. with Lawton and officially surrendered to General Miles on September 4, 1886, at [[Skeleton Canyon]], Arizona.<ref name="GeronimoStory">{{Cite book |url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/B/geronimo/geroni15.htm |title=Geronimo's Story of His Life |access-date=May 12, 2011 |chapter=In Prison and on the war path |editor-first=S. M. |editor-last=Barrett |orig-year=1909 |year=1915 |location=New York |publisher=Duffield & Company |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211234958/http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/B/geronimo/geroni15.htm |archive-date=December 11, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Chiefs" />

When Geronimo surrendered, he had in his possession a [[Winchester Model 1876]] [[Lever action|lever-action]] rifle with a silver-washed barrel and receiver, bearing Serial Number 109450. It is on display at the [[United States Military Academy]], [[West Point, New York]]. Additionally, he had a [[Colt Single Action Army]] revolver with a nickel finish and ivory stocks bearing Serial Number 89524, and a Sheffield [[Bowie knife]] with a dagger type blade and a stag handle made by George Wostenholm in an elaborate silver-studded holster and cartridge belt. The revolver, rig, and knife are on display at the [[Fort Sill]] museum.<ref name="GeronimoStory2" /><ref name="FamousFirearms">{{cite book |last=Herring |first=Hal |title=Famous Firearms of the Old West: From Wild Bill Hickok's Colt Revolvers to Geronimo's Winchester, Twelve Guns That Shaped Our History |publisher=TwoDot |year=2008 |page=224 |isbn=978-0-7627-4508-1}}</ref>

The debate remains as to whether Geronimo surrendered unconditionally. He repeatedly insisted in his memoirs that his people who surrendered had been misled, and that his surrender as a war prisoner in front of uncontested witnesses (especially General Stanley) was conditional. General [[Oliver O. Howard]], chief of US Army Division of the Pacific, said on his part that Geronimo's surrender was accepted as that of a dangerous outlaw without condition. Howard's account was contested in front of the [[US Senate]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

According to ''National Geographic'', "the governor of Sonora claimed in 1886 that in the last five months of Geronimo's wild career, his band of 16 warriors slaughtered some 500 to 600 Mexicans."<ref name="autobio">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pt3ys6DmI1cC |title=My Life: The Autobiography of Geronimo |publisher=Fireship Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-935585-25-1 |access-date=November 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407191054/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pt3ys6DmI1cC |archive-date=April 7, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>''[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]'' Vol 182 1992</ref> At the end of his military career, he led a small band of 38 men, women and children. They evaded thousands of Mexican and American troops for more than a year, making him the most famous Native American of the time and earning him the title of the "worst Indian who ever lived" among white settlers.<ref name="The American Experience, We Shall Remain: Geronimo">{{cite web |title=The American Experience, We Shall Remain: Geronimo |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/weshallremain/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216153318/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/weshallremain/ |archive-date=February 16, 2019 |access-date=November 12, 2009 |website=[[PBS]]}}</ref> According to James L. Haley, "About two weeks after the escape there was a report of a family massacred near [[Silver City, New Mexico|Silver City]]; one girl was taken alive and hanged from a meat hook jammed under the base of her skull."<ref>{{cite book |last=Haley |first=James L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RAfJwmMeq5IC&pg=PA381 |title=Apaches: a history and culture portrait |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=1997 |isbn=0-8061-2978-6 |page=381 |access-date=November 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105060931/https://books.google.com/books?id=RAfJwmMeq5IC&pg=PA381 |archive-date=January 5, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> His band was one of the last major forces of independent Native American warriors who refused to accept the United States occupation of the [[American West]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}