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N0KFQ > TODAY 17.05.08 04:45l 70 Lines 3385 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - May 17
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Sent: 080516/1605Z @:N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA #:18945 [Branson] FBB7.00i $:18945_N
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To : TODAY@ALLUS
May 17, 1885
Geronimo flees Arizona reservation
For the second time in two years, the Apache chief Geronimo
breaks out of an Arizona reservation, sparking panic among
Arizona settlers.
A famous medicine man and the leader of the Chiricahua Apache,
Geronimo achieved national fame by being the last American Indian
to surrender formally to the United States. For nearly 30 years,
Geronimo and his followers resisted the attempts of Americans to
take away their southwestern homeland and confine them to a
reservation. He was a fearless warrior and a master of desert
survival. The best officers of the U.S. Army found it nearly
impossible to find Geronimo, much less decisively defeat him.
In 1877, Geronimo was forced to move to the San Carlos, Arizona,
reservation for the first time, but he was scarcely beaten.
Instead, Geronimo treated the reservation as just one small part
of the vast territory he still considered to belong to the
Apache. Fed up with the strictures and corruption of the
reservation, he and many other Apache broke out for the first
time in 1881. For nearly two years, the Apache band raided the
southwestern countryside despite the best efforts of the army to
stop them. Finally, Geronimo wearied of the continual harassment
of the U.S. Army and agreed to return to the reservation in 1884,
much on his own terms.
He did not stay long. Among the many rules imposed upon the
Apache on the reservation was the prohibition of any liquor,
including a weak beer they had traditionally brewed from corn. In
early May 1885, Geronimo and a dozen other leaders deliberately
staged a corn beer festival. Reasoning that the authorities would
be unlikely to try to punish such a large group, they openly
admitted the deed, expecting that it would lead to negotiations.
Because of a communication mix-up, however, the army failed to
respond. Geronimo and the others assumed the delay indicated the
army was preparing some drastic punishment for their crime.
Rather than remain exposed and vulnerable on the reservation,
Geronimo fled with 42 men and 92 women and children.
Quickly moving south, Geronimo raided settlements along the way
for supplies. In one instance, he attacked a ranch owned by a man
named Phillips, killing him, his wife, and his two children.
Frightened settlers demanded swift military action, and General
George Crook coordinated a combined Mexican and American manhunt
for the Apache. Thousands of soldiers tracked the fugitives but
Geronimo and his band split into small groups and remained
elusive.
Crook's failure to apprehend the Indians led to his eventual
resignation. General Nelson Miles replaced him. Miles committed
5,000 troops to the campaign and even established 30 heliograph
stations to improve communications. Still, Miles was also unable
to find the elusive warrior. Informed that many of the
reservation Apache, including his own family, had been taken to
Florida, Geronimo apparently lost the will to fight. After a year
and a half of running, Geronimo and his 38 remaining followers
surrendered unconditionally to Miles on September 3, 1886.
Relocated to Florida, Geronimo was imprisoned and kept from his
family for two years. Finally, he was freed and moved with this
family to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. He died of pneumonia at
Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909.
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