Geronimo - Life and Leadership in War Resistance - Research Paper Example

?To the American society, the character of Geronimo is the perfect embodiment of the American spirit of courage, determination and strong will to succeed against all odds. The actual story of Geronimo, a character subject to numerous myths is astounding, shrouded in a resolute attempt to fight imperialism, oppression and human right abuses. This paper explores the role of Geronimo in the Indian resistance wars. In particular, it examines the events that led to his leadership in the war, his role in the resistance and the importance of the Apache wars. According to Aleishire (38), Geronimo’s actual name at birth was Goyahkla meaning “the one who yawns” among the Bedonkohe Apache people. Currently, the native Apache group mainly live in Arizona and New Mexico. The exact year of his birth in unknown and Aleishire approximates it to have been around 1823 to 1825 in the present-day New Mexico in the area around upper Gila River (44). Before investigating the events that led Geronimo to his leadership of the Indian resistance, it is crucial to examine the life of the native apache people before the war. Before 17th century, the apache people relied mainly on small-scale crop cultivation and hunting animals in their mountainous ancestral land (Lockwood, 51). Later, they began supplementing their livelihoods by raiding Mexican settlements, a tradition that continued on the immigrating settlers from Europe. Due to their hunting tradition, the apache groups perfected the guerilla warfare techniques to guard their mountainous ancestral land zealously from foreign incursions. The critical importance of the natural resources motivated them to resist colonial settlements by both North Americans and Mexicans for many generations. The apache group was well organized in bands that were headed by prominent chiefs such as Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, Juh, and Victorio (Lockwood, 99) Geronimo later emerged as the most famous of all leaders that had led the apache people in wars. The early 19 century witnessed an increased immigration of foreigners into the apache ancestral land to exploit the discovered mineral resources. In 1848, gold was discovered in California and thousands fortune seekers and prospectus immigrated into the region in search of more precious metals such as silver, copper and gold (Keleher, 160). This foreign incursion spread up to the established settlements of the Apache and Yavapai lands. The unwelcomed settlements initiated tensions that eventually resulted to conflicts between the natives and the foreign fortune hunters spanning to over 40 years. The native Indians sought to establish peaceful coexistence with the foreigners, but the incomers treated them with disdain (Lieder and Page, 58). The epitome of disrespect to the natives was demonstrated by the physical whipping of Mangas Coloradas who was then a prominent Apache chief by the miners. According to Keleher (17), Mangas Coloradas intervention was not meant to attack the miners but to negotiate for peaceful agreement between the two parties. The whipping of their leader humiliated the natives and they developed intense hatred toward the white and Mexican miners. Consequently, the natives began conducting frequent attacks on the settlers, stealing their properties and killing them in the process (Keleher, 23). In 1861, Cochise, a nephew to the Mangas Coloradas who had previously resisted to join his uncle in attacking the settlers was implicated with stealing 20 heads of cattle and kidnapping of a white boy (Lockwood, 76). Although a different band of apache had stolen the cattle and kidnapped the boy, the American army was contacted by the boy’s father to recover the stolen property and his son from Cochise. A contingent of American army led by Lieutenant George Bascom was assigned the responsibility and they immediately began seeking the arrest of Cochise whom they suspected of being involved in the crime. According to Lieder and Page (22), Cochise who was then about 50 years old and a prominent Apache leader voluntarily sought audience with George Bascom’s troops. His wife, two children, two nephews and one brother accompanied Cochise to the meeting but Lt Bascom’s troops arrested all of them after Cochise denied the allegations. However, Cochise managed to escape after a daring attempt but his family members were retained in the confinement. In the ensuing struggle, the troops killed one apache and abducted the others (Lieder and Page 27). Later, Cochise kidnapped several whites in order to compel the troops to engage in negotiation for the release of the captured apache natives, but instead, the troops hanged six of the captives, including his brother and nephews. Cochise became increasingly desperate because his wife and children remained under the custody of the army. To secure their release, he presented three white settlers he had kidnapped to the troops but they rejected the offer. This prompted him to kill all the three white captives triggering series bloody conflicts between the apache and the settlers that claimed over 5,000 people in a period of about twenty years. Historians refer the turn of events as the “Bascom affair” and credit it for triggering the apache war (Wooster, pp 40-44) In the meantime, Geronimo had grown into a respectable and valiant warrior of the Bedonkohe tribe, a subgroup of the Chiricahua apache. Besides engaging in hunting and raiding the settlements of the Mexicans, Geronimo was a successful trader making long trading trips to cater for expanding family that included his mother, wife and three children. It was during such trips in 1850’s that Mexican soldiers ambushed Geronimo’s homestead, killing his mother, wife and the three children. In addition, the Mexicans stole valuable items and destroyed their houses (Aleishire, pp 24-28). On returning from the trading trip, Geronimo discovered the massacred bodies of his family and mother and this proved to be the turning point of his life. According to Aleishire (37), Geronimo was psychologically devastated and he was engulfed with intense grief. He shaved his hair, and in accordance with the apache traditions, burned all the remaining possessions of his departed family to mourn them. This episode galvanized his hatred towards the Mexicans and the non-Indians and he swore to avenge the deaths of his loving family. According to Aleishire (49), Geronimo had nothing to live for but to avenge for their deaths. Before his family was murdered, Geronimo was already an established medicine man, a revered person in the apache community. These powers granted him the authority to foretell the fortunes of the people and be a war leader among his Bedonkohe tribe. Marshall (17) argues that the concept of power among the apache people was fundamental in their beliefs. Hence, Geronimo’s claim of possessing mystic powers that could protect him from the enemies’ bullets attracted fanatical following from the warriors and the community at large. A combination of his mystic powers and the motivation for avenging the massacre of his family ultimately propelled him into the leadership of the apache war. Meanwhile, Cochise war against the American continued and he invited the support of Geronimo, who had established reputation of fighting fearlessly against armies of well-armed Mexican soldiers (Lockwood, 83). The outbreak of the American civil war in 1861 reduced the US army involvement in apache lands. However, in 1863 Chief Mangas Coloradas was captured tortured and then murdered by the American military. Cochise became the chief of the apache and he led a stiff resistance against the American army and white settlements for the next ten years. After the death of Cochise, Geronimo became the war leader of the Chiricahua. The white settlements incursions into the apache ancestral land continued being a major cause of conflict between the two parties. The United States Army under General George Crook created federal reservations for the community and promised the apache that they would retain their ancestral lands. Although the strategy worked for a short time, the concentration of all the apache bands in the San Carlos Reservation created more problems, resulting to insurgencies (Marshall, 147). The conditions at the reservation were appalling, and Geronimo led a band of Chiricahuan apache warriors out of the camp and settled along the border with Mexico. However, he was recaptured and returned to the reservation but did not last for long before escaping again in 1885 when conditions at the camp became unbearable for Chiricahuan apache. The United States army intensified the efforts to arrest him and he eventually surrendered in September 1886 (Aleishire 93). The surrender of Geronimo marked the end of Indian armed resistance against the settlement of Europeans in their ancestral lands (Lockwood, 61). After his capture, the Chiricahuan apache community was transferred from the San Carlos settlement to Florida where they were subjected to more severe and dehumanizing treatment. Those who survived in Florida were transported to Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Mt Vernon in Alabama (Lieder and Page, pp 84-87). Geronimo finally died of tuberculosis in 1909 in Oklahoma, as a prisoner of war numerous miles away from his ancestral land that he had fought for so gallantly. At the time of his death, he had lost most people that meant a lot to him, his children, wife, relatives and majority of his tribesmen, but he never lost his will. The Indian insurgency inflicted a heavy loss to the Americans and all the parties involved in the conflict. The American army lost several hundred soldiers and the residents of Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico suffered heavier casualties. The apache bore the heaviest cost of the war. Besides the heavy loss of lives, the community was displaced from their ancestral land, losing their culture and land to foreign settlers who had regarded the natives as savages and uncivilized (Keleher, 63) The apache wars are of critical importance to the history of the United States because they highlight blatant human right abuses by the army and foreign settlers towards the native Indians. Geronimo does not only represent the suffering of the natives at the hands of foreign settlers and the government but also a determined resolve to defend and stand for their rights. His war against the army and Mexicans to demand fair treatment, justice and respect for the native people resulted to him being regarded as a criminal in his home country. The United States government failed to protect the interests of the community, contrary to the country’s constitution founded on respecting freedom, human rights and dignity. The apache war resulted to formation of closer ties between the United States and the Mexican governments to combat cross bonder crime perpetrated by the native Indians across the two countries (Lieder and Page, 59). This cooperation remains up to date, in attempts to control illegal immigrants from the South American country and drug trafficking. The San Carlos Reservations, established to accommodate the apache and weaken their resistance remains up to date. However, Aleishire (105) notes that the region is one of the poorest in the United States, with over half of the population living below the poverty line and high levels of unemployment. The apache war continues providing valuable lessons to the American military on how to deal with insurgency operations especially in foreign countries. One of the major failings of the United States military during the war was ignoring the concerns of the native Indians and lack of understanding about the community. More importantly, the war demonstrates that using superior weapons and military equipment cannot be an alternative to involving the local people in maintaining peace and order (Wooster, 85). Work cited Aleishire, P. The Fox and the Whirlwind, General George Crook and Geronimo: A Paired Biography. New York: John Wiley and sons, 2000. Keleher, W. Turmoil in New Mexico, 1846-1868. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982. Lieder, M and Page, J. Wild Justice: The People of Geronimo vs the United States. New York: Random House, 1997. Lockwood, F. The Apache Indians. New York: McMillan Company, 1938. Marshall, S. Crimsoned Prairie: The Indian Wars on the Great Plains during the Winning of the West. New York: Scribner, 1972. Wooster, R. The Military and the United States Indian Policy, 1865-1903. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Read More