Geronimo real name
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Geronimo (1829-1909) was an Apache leader and medicine man best known for his fearlessness in resisting anyone–Mexican or American—who attempted to remove his people from their tribal lands.
He repeatedly evaded capture and life on a reservation, and during his final escape, a full quarter of the U.S. standing army pursued him and his followers. When Geronimo was captured on September 4, 1886, he was the last Native American leader to formally surrender to the U.S. military. He spent the last 23 years of his life as a prisoner of war.
Geronimo’s Early Life
Geronimo was born in the upper Gila River country on June 16, 1829 (there is debate over whether his birthplace is in present-day Arizona or New Mexico). His birth name was Goyahkla, or "one who yawns." He was part of the Bedonkohe subsection of the Chiricahua tribe of Apaches, a small but mighty group of around 8,000 people. By the time he came of age, the Apaches were at war with Mexicans to the South, the U.S. government to the North and neighboring Comanche and Navajo tribes. He showed early promise as a hunter and
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November is Native American Heritage Month. Visit National Archives News for more information on related events and resources. Today’s post comes from Callie Belback from the National Archives History Office.
Entering a library or a bookstore, one might see the autobiography Geronimo: His Own Story sitting on the shelves. At the end of his days, unable to write and edit a manuscript but still able to tell a story, Geronimo commissioned writer S. S. Barrett to help share his life story with the public.
Geronimo was part of the Chiricahua Apache community, one of several divisions within the Apache tribe of North America. Located in the Southwest, the Apache people resisted colonization of their lands by both Spanish and North American peoples. After being admitted to the warriors’ council in 1846, Geronimo participated in Apache raids that took place in modern day Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico.
In 1874, the U.S. authorities forcibly removed approximately 4,000 Apaches to a reservation in San Carlos, Arizona. Located in the east-central part of the state,
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The first great outrage came with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American war. Part of the agreement involved Mexico ceding much of the Apache Nation’s land to the United States. Then in 1854, the United States used the Gadsden Purchase to pay Mexico $10 million for 29,670 square miles that would later become part of Arizona and New Mexico — pretty much the remainder of Chiricahua Apache territory.
Just four years later, while he was away on a trading trip, Mexican soldiers led by Colonel Jose Maria Carrasco attacked Geronimo’s band. They murdered dozens of Apache, including Geronimo’s mother, wife, and three young children. “I had lost all,” he said in his autobiography.
Geronimo’s followers also believed that he had spiritual powers, and it was during this life-changing tragedy that he received a remarkable vision. While he was holding a ceremony after the slaughter of this family, he says a voice told him: “No gun will ever kill you…. I will guide your arrows.” From that moment on, he devoted his life to avenging the brutal ki
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