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Warriors Past

Geronimo -- 1886-1913
POW on American Soil

No one can run forever. Geronimo surrenders to the United States Army on condition that his people will be held for only two years, then returned to their own land. Hauled away to prisons in Alabama, Pensacola, the notorious fortress of San Marcos, Florida -- where countless Indian leaders, including Osceola, have languished -- and finally to Fort Sill (Indian Territory), they remain prisoners of war for twenty-seven years.

"...above all living men I respected Geronimo. He was the embodiment of the Apache spirit, of the fighting Chiricahua....As long as Geronimo lived, he regretted having surrendered. He often said he wished he had died fighting in Mexico."
- Daklugie, Nednhi.

"When I had given up to the government they put me on the Southern Pacific Railroad and took me to San Antonio, Texas, and held me to be tried by their laws. In forty days they took me from there to Fort Pickens [Pensacola], Florida....For nearly two years we were kept at hard labor in this place and we did not see our families until May, 1897....After this we were sent with our families to Vermont, Alabama, where we stayed five years....I looked in vain for General [Nelson A.] Miles to send me to that land of which he had spoken....During this time one of my warriors, Fun, killed himself and his wife. Another one shot his wife and then shot himself."

- Goyathlay (Geronimo), Bedonkohe.

"There is no climate or soil which, to my mind, is equal to that of Arizona...that land which the Almighty created for the Apaches. It is my land, my home, my father's land, to which I now ask to be allowed to return. I want to spend my last days there, and be buried among those mountains....Could I but see this accomplished, I think I could forget all the wrongs that I have ever recieved...."

- Goyathlay (Geronimo), Bedonkohe.

"What is the matter that you don't speak to me?...I'd be better satsfied if you would talk to me once in a while. Why don't you look at me and smile at me? I am the same man: I have the same feet, legs, and hands, and the sun looks down on me a complete man. I want you to look and smile at me."

- Goyathlay (Geronimo), Bedonkohe, to General George Crook, United States Army.

"We are vanishing from the earth, yet I cannot think we are useless or Usen would not have created us....For each tribe of men Usen created, He also made a home. In the land created for any particular tribe He placed whatever would be best for the welfare of that tribe....Thus it was in the beginning: the Apaches and their homes each created for the other by Usen himself. When they are taken from these homes they sicken and die. How long will it be until it is said
there are no Apaches?"

- Goyathlay (Geronimo), Bedonkohe.

Usen gave us this land,
Through our forefathers
It has come to us.
It was our land
Before the White Eyes came;
It is still our land.

- Nednhi song