Scoop’s Views

Never let what may be the great day in the lift of Geronimo, the late Apache chief. That day – September 4 — is today.

It was on that day when Captain Henry Lawton, who had command of B Troop, 4th Cavalry, which was based out of Fort Huachuca, Arizona. It was Lawson who had been tapped by General Nelson Miles to lead an expedition to capture, in typical cowboy fashion – dead or alive – the Apache chief the U.S. government considered a renegade: Geronimo.

Despite a variety of stories surrounding the capture — or surrender — of Geronimo, as well as the person who captured or the person to whom Geronimo surrendered, history is clear that it was Lawton who had been given orders to lead operations, south of the U.S. border with Mexico. Good thing the fence wasn’t built back then, but then again, it still isn’t built.

In Lawton’s after-action report, which he presented on September 9, 1886, he summed up his troop’s actions and credited a number of soldiers for their efforts in bringing back Geronimo alive.

Geronimo, for his summation of the final encounter, said it was Lawton’s tenacity which had worn down the Apaches through constant pursuit. The great Apache chief and his followers, he said, never had time to rest, let alone stay in one place for any extended length of time.

Having agreed to surrender, Geronimo and his band of Apache warriors, returned with Lawton. They all met up with Gen. Miles on September 4, 1886 in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

It was that surrender — giving himself up to the U.S. Army troops willingly — that was a act that showed he was a gentleman, not the savage the U.S. Government tried to make others believe he and his warriors to be in the various arguments designed to anger. By willingly laying down his weapons and willingly becoming a prisoner of the United States, he did something that would deprive the U.S. Government of the thing they most wanted: to kill the Apache chief and brag about the kill, much like a hunter who kills for a trophy.

By willingly laying down his arms, Geronimo saved the lives of his warriors, and though he spent the rest of his days in captivity and put on display like a trophy. Instead of seeing it as defeat, Geronimo saw it as a feasible option to prevent the U.S. Army and the White Man — the people he saw as invaders in his land — from killing off his people.

Geronimo and his warriors were sent, at prisoners, to Fort Pickens, Florida; his family was sent to Fort Marion, Florida, and were reunited in May 1887, when they were moved to Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama for five years. Then, in 1894, they were moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

In old age, Geronimo became, according to many tales, a "celebrity" of sorts. He appeared at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, rode in President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural parade, made appearances art many fairs, and sold souvenirs and photos of himself to spectators. In context of the White Man, Geronimo was little more than a sideshow. He was never allowed to return to his place of birth.

Geronimo died of pneumonia – a prisoner – at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was buried in the Apache Prisoner of War cemetery located at the fort.

Some honor for a high ranking official of a sovereign nation, the Apache nation. Then again, the rest of the White Man’s dealings with all the Indigenous Nations of the United States, follows the same pattern: all despicable, underhanded, and still lacking respect, let alone other things, but that’s another story entirely.

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