Geronimo

Geronimo

Born in 1829 in Mexico, Geronimo, grew up to become the great Apache leader referred to for times on end. History has it that Geronimo was a gifted huntsman, who, all through his younger years, ate hearts of first kills and consistently lived a successful life.

He was ever on the run and this greatly defined his lifestyle. He was a member of the Bedonkohe which was a part of the Chiricahua tribe. The tribe contained a total population of approximately 8,000 people. They were however were enclosed by enemies. These enemies were composed of the Mexicans, Comanches and the Navajo.

The Apache lifestyle was mainly on raiding the surrounding neighbours. In order to prevent this, the Mexican government decided to take a serious keen into the Apache community. However, this did not do much as expected since it did not prevent Geronimo and his people. By the time Geronimo was seventeen years of age, he had successfully carried out a substantial number of successful raids, a fete achieved by no other. 

Geronimo fell in love  with Alope and were fortunate enough to have three children during their marriage. Unfortunately, his marriage was short lived as Mexican soldiers attacked and killed his whole family leaving the man widowed with no sires. On receiving this news, Geronimo returned home with a heavy heart and gave his family a befitting burial which involved setting their bodies on fire so that they could join their ancestors in a more peaceful manner.  After this Geronimo left for the wilderness to grief for the loss of his dear ones.

While in the wilderness, as he was crying alone, he heard a voice telling him that no gun will ever kill him. The voice further told him that it will take away the bullets from the Mexican’s guns and it will guide his arrows.Geronimo wanted vengeance for what had been done to his family and since Geronimo had enough skill and power, all he needed was a small army to defeat the people who killed his family. Geronimo ended up forming an army composed of 200 men in search of the Mexican who had done him great harm.  His search took longer than expected and lasted close to a century.

At the end of the Mexican-American in the year 1848, the U.S government grabbed the Mexican land and even took the land of the Apache. A lot of tension spurred up which made the Apaches to improve on the level of their attacks. They harassed and killed many of the Mexicans.

By then, his father-in-law was their leader. He was called Cochise. What annoyed Geronimo was when the chief called to end the war on the account of him agreeing to settle them on a very small piece of their own land.

A few years later after the death of Cochise, the federal government went against their promise renewing their initial plans to move the people of Apache north of their land and occupy their land. This act itself made Geronimo quite unhappy and initiated a new round of fighting.

In his fighting, Geronimo proved to be very tactful and very dangerous since he was driven by his aggressiveness. Unfortunately, he was caught and he was sent to reservation in year 1877. He got stressed up with this kind of difficult life for four years but luckily he managed to escape.

Geronimo with his followers fought across all places but more so in the southwest of the country. During this time, Geronimo received media attention since he was been equated to a hero or more so a legend to his people. The media even reports that his army which was composed of about five thousand men was once hunted down but no single individual could be

However 1886, he run out of luck and after being surrounded decided to give up with some members of his army. They were then caught and thrown into prisons. It is indicated that they spend over 27 years in prison something that stressed up their lives in a great way. However, he did not lose his focus. They were taken to several prisons. First it was in Alabama, before being moved to Fort Sill located in Oklahoma.

He became a celebrity while in prison. Ten years later, many people wanted to see this famous Indian warrior. He managed to publish his autobiography in 1905. It was during this time that Geronimo had private audience the then president of the United States President Theodore Roosevelt who attempted to convince Geronimo to let his Apache people return to Arizona though Geronimo would hear nothing of it.

Four years later, Geronimo passed on after falling off from a horse in his home. He spent a very cold night but luckily a friend found him but his health had worsened. He passed on six days later.

On his deathbed, Geronimo said that he could have never surrendered. He said that he could have fought till he could remain alone. This proved that indeed Geronimo was a person who could hardly give up.