Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Geronimo, one of the ten greatest Americans who ever lived.

"I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive." Geronimo's dying words.

He fought the imperial centralized tyrannical federal government, just like Lee and Jackson had done. There was no other alternative for an honorable man. I don't know all there is to know about him but I have always viewed Geronimo with great respect.

Didn't he die drunk in back of a ford?

He became a drunk. He fell off of his horse coming back from Lawton one evening headed to Ft. Sill and wasn't found until the next morning. He got pneumonia and died.

He even went to the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo

Well, some of the folks I've admired thru the years were drunks.

Hemingway


Ruark


Crane



Poe


Kephart


Gogol


Mussorsky




Just to name a few

He reportedly even had nightmares about the women and children he butchered. Great guy.

His drinking was the white mans way of gaining the compliance and dependence of the Indians.

Don't forget about Travis.....

It is understandable that a great man reduced to doing happy Indian tricks for a quarter and living with the regret of lost loved ones and not having gone down fighting, would become a drunk.

They could purchase booze with their EBT cards?

Oh! And the one the Cherokee called "Big Drunk"!

Well there is a more gracious assessment of the man. I suppose I might imbibe under those conditions too.

From book report by some liberal:

Three times he went off the reservation. Finally in May of 1885, he led 42 warriors and about 90 women and children, weighted down by infants and babies and lacking any dependable source of food, clothing, or shelter, into Mexico. Some 5,000 well-supplied U.S. Army cavalry troops and their 500 enlisted Apache Scouts hunted them, along with 3,000 Mexican troops and some 1,000 scalp bounty hunters. With a quarter of the entire U.S. Army in hot pursuit, Geronimo drove, hid, and fed his people for a year and a half through thousands of miles of desert where summer temperatures reached a killing 120 degrees and over craggy, snow-covered peaks. The Army chased; the Apaches scattered and vanished, only to reassemble as if by magic for more raids. For much of that time, many of the region’s Mexican and American settlers lived in terror or fled for safety. That outbreak stands as an unmatched record of resistance in modern military history.

H. Res. 132

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,
February 23, 2009.

Whereas Goyathlay or Goyaalé, called Geronimo by the soldiers against whom he fought, was born in June 1829 to the Bedonkohe band of the Apache people in No-Doyohn Canyon on the Gila River, which was then part of Mexico;

Whereas in 1858, Mexican soldiers attacked the Bedonkohe people within the current borders of Mexico, setting in motion a war between that nation and the Apache that would last for three decades;

Whereas Goyathlay, a spiritual and intellectual leader, became recognized as a great military leader by his people because of his courage, determination, and skill;

Whereas Goyathlay led his people in a war of self-defense as their homeland was invaded by the citizens and armies first of Mexico, and then of the United States;

Whereas that homeland was healthy, thriving, and beautiful with ample running water, extensive grasslands, and ancient forests and was a place beloved and revered by the Apache people, who had lived there for countless generations;

Whereas Goyathlay’s band, along with other Apache peoples, were forcibly removed by the United States Army, interned at San Carlos, Arizona, subjugated, and deprived of their rights as a free people, including the right to practice their traditional spiritual beliefs and maintain long-standing political and social structures;

Whereas Goyathlay led fewer than 150 men, women, and children out of captivity and for several years evaded fighting forces consisting of one-quarter of the standing United States Army, as well as thousands of Mexican soldiers;

Whereas upon surrendering to Unites States forces, Goyathlay and his band were promised a return to their homeland but were instead interned in military prisons in Florida and Alabama, far from their homeland;

Whereas Goyathlay, promised respect as a prisoner of war, was put to hard labor for eight years;

Whereas Goyathlay and other Apache prisoners of war were removed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894;

Whereas after his death on February 17, 1909, Goyathlay was not granted the promised return to his homeland but instead was buried in the military cemetery at Fort Sill;

Whereas Goyathlay’s byname, “Geronimo”, became a war cry uttered by paratroopers fighting against the totalitarian enemies of the United States during World War II, a name used with respect and honor for a great warrior and leader;

Whereas to this day, the Apache people continue to honor and hold sacred what Goyathlay represented to a people separated and destroyed by historic and disruptive United States governmental policies of the past; and

Whereas there still exists a need for spiritual healing among Apache people, stemming from the captivity and mistreatment of their ancestors under past policies of the United States Government, that can commence by honoring the memory of Goyathlay and his valiant efforts to preserve traditional Apache ways of life and the health of Ni’gosdzá’n, the Earth: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) honors the life of Goyathlay, his extraordinary bravery, and his commitment to the defense of his homeland, his people, and Apache ways of life; and

(2) recognizes the 100 anniversary of the death of Goyathlay as a time of reflection of his deeds on behalf of his people.

Attest:





Clerk.

Essentially, yes.

Geronimo was a good Methodist!

Late one afternoon when returning from town we were met by a few women and children who told us that Mexican troops from some other town had attacked our camp, killed all the warriors of the guard, captured all our ponies, secured our arms, destroyed our supplies, and killed many of our women and children...when all were counted, I found that my aged mother, my young wife, and my three small children were among the slain. There were no lights in camp, so without being noticed I silently turned away and stood by the river. How long I stood there I do not know, but when I saw the warriors arranging for a council I took my place...
"I had no weapon, nor did I hardly wish to fight, neither did I contemplate recovering the bodies of my loved ones, for that was forbidden. I did not pray, nor did I resolve to do anything in particular, for I had no purpose left...I was never again contented in our quiet home. True, I could visit my father's grave, but I had vowed vengeance upon the Mexican troopers who had wronged me, and whenever I came near his grave or saw anything to remind me of former happy days my heart would ache for revenge upon Mexico..."
That was the beginning of the violent career of Geronimo, one of the most feared Indian fighters of the old West. His people decided to go on the warpath and sent him to woo the support of other tribes, which he did. About a year later, the Apache and their allies encountered the Mexicans. They chose Geronimo to lead them.
"I was no chief and never had been, but because I had been more deeply wronged than others, this honor was conferred upon me, and I resolved to prove worthy of the trust. I arranged the Indians in a hollow circle near the river, and the Mexicans drew their infantry up in two lines, with the cavalry in reserve. We were in the timber, and they advanced until within about four hundred yards, when they halted and opened fire. Soon I led a charge against them, at the same time sending some braves to attack the rear. In all the battle I thought of my murdered mother, wife, and babies--of my father's grave and my vow of vengeance, and I fought with fury. Many fell by my hand, and constantly I led the advance. Many braves were killed..."
Geronimo harassed the Southwest for many years, but was captured in 1886. He escaped and renewed his raids. It took the U.S. army eighteen months to nab him. He remained in military custody until his death in 1909, but was allowed to raise stock.
On this day, July 1, 1903, the Apache fighter was baptized into the Methodist Church in Medicine Creek, Oklahoma Territory. "Believing that in a wise way it is good to go to church, and that associating with Christians would improve my character, I have adopted the Christian religion...I am not ashamed to be a Christian...I have advised all of my people who are not Christians, to study that religion, because it seems to me the best religion in enabling one to live right."
Was he really born again into Christ by the Holy Spirit as Methodists teach? If so, Geronimo "backslid," for he soon drifted back into alcoholism and out of church fellowship. However, he was not completely hardened. A sense of dissatisfaction with his course made him ask later if he could be reunited with the church; and he was

I'm a bigger fan of Chief Joseph! Growing up in his homeland had that influence I'm sure!

You're thinking of Hank Williams , Sr.

Geronimo was a GM man!

Sycamore, I never heard that song before- thanks.

Commentary from WIKI:

Murphey was inspired to write "Geronimo's Cadillac" by a photograph showing Apache chief Geronimo at the wheel of a luxury roadster: this photograph was reproduced as a drawing on the back album cover of Geronimo's Cadillac and also on the picture sleeve of the single. The July–August 1987 issue of American Songwriter quotes Murphey as saying: "the two images together Geronimo and a Cadillac just struck me as a song title. It was every irony I could ever think of about our culture in two words. Their attempt to make of him what we would define as a civilized person. That was the reason they put him in a Cadillac in the first place. He was actually in jail at the time." The photograph was taken at a show for the US press held June 11, 1905 at a ranch located southwest of Ponca City, Oklahoma: Geronimo, then imprisoned at Fort Sill, is actually posed in a Locomobile rather than a Cadillac.[1]

RW

PM sent!

I will probably buy a couple of books on Geronimo soon.

What little I know about him is quite compelling.

He fought in self defense for tribe and extended family. When they ran him to ground and tried to break him he rolled with the punches for a while, then organized that last defiant ride that took 25% of the entire US Army to find him and capture him.

I admire righteous defiance to the deepest depths of my bone marrow.

He had no other honorable course of action to follow. Just like Robert E Lee said in retrospect after the war was over; he had NO regrets even in light of the mountains of bodies at Cold Harbor and Petersburg and all. NO regrets. Righteous fight of self defense and honor allowed no other course.