Quest For Knowledge Mini History Lesson For Today: On September 4, 1886, famous Apache war Chief Geronimo (Spanish for Jerome) or Goyathlay (one who yawns), surrendered to U.S. troops after thirty years of fighting. Geronimo was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache who fought against Mexico and Texas for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. At this time for Geronimo, surrender was his only option. He and his band of less than 150 warriors had left their reservation, and in turn were pursued by U.S. troops. For three years, Geronimo and his men were chased around the southwest, until eventually they were forced to surrender, exhausted and enormously out-numbered by the army of General Nelson Miles. At Fort Bowie, on the Arizona-New Mexico border, Geronimo turned himself and his band of Chiricahua warriors back over to the U.S. Government. Geronimos final surrender was the last significant Indian guerrilla action in the United States. He then bounced around from reservations in Fort Marion, Florida and Mt. Vernon barracks in Alabama before ending up at a reservation in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. There, in 1905, he settled down into the quiet life of a farmer, converted to Christianity, and wrote his autobiography. Also, in 1905, he received a private audience with President Theodore Roosevelt, unsuccessfully pressing the American leader to let his people return to Arizona. While riding home from Lawton, Oklahoma in February 1909, he was thrown from his horse. He survived a night out in the cold, a ditch filled of water, where a friend found him the next day; Geronimos health was rapidly deteriorating. He passed away six days later of pneumonia with his nephew at his side. Geronimo died on Feb. 17, 1909. While he became a celebrity, he spent the last two decades of his life as prisoner of war, unable to return to his homeland. He confessed to his nephew that he regretted his decision to surrender I should never have surrendered, Geronimo, said on his deathbed. I should have fought until I was the last man alive. He is buried in the Indian Prisoner of War Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. https://youtube/watch?v=5DQAsUo44jM
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 12:18:41 +0000
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