The Untold Story Of Apache Chief Geronimo: The Carnage That Led To Revenge!

The Untold Story of Apache Chief Geronimo: The Carnage That Led To Revenge! How is it when in one moment everything goes normally, and in the next you lose everything you love? How does a person feel then? Full of hatred, pain and eager for revenge, you go into a war, regardless of the strength of the enemy! Blinded by that desire for revenge, you don’t worry about what else you can lose! You only have one thing in mind! It’s bloodshed! Some say an eye for an eye, but how does it actually go? Geronimo was born in No-doyohn Canyon, Arizona, to the Bedonkohe Apache tribe in June 1829, near present-day Clifton state in Arizona. He was the fourth child of a family of four boys and four girls, and he was known as Goyathlay, or the One Who Yawns. He was accepted to the Council of the Warriors in 1846, when he was seventeen, allowing him to finally get married. He soon gained permission, married a woman named Alope, and the couple had three children. The group, which was at peace with the Mexican cities and surrounding Indian tribes, ventured into Old Mexico in the mid-1850s to trade. They slept for many days outside the Mexican town of Kas-ki-yeh. The majority of the men walked into town to trade, leaving a few warriors to protect the camp. On their way back from town, they were greeted by a group of women and children who informed them that Mexican forces had invaded their camp. When they arrived at camp, they discovered that their guard warriors had been slaughtered and that their horses, food, supplies, and weapons had been stolen. Even more concerning, many of the women and children had been slaughtered. Goyathlay’s wife, mother, and three children were among those who were murdered and as a result, he despised all Mexicans for the rest of his life! The massacre of his family transformed him from a gentle Indian into a fearless warrior! Soon after, he joined the formidable Chiricahua Apache tribe and participated in multiple raids in northern Mexico and over the border into U.S. territory, which is now known as the states of New Mexico and Arizona. His Mexican opponents earned him his nickname Geronimo, which is the Spanish translation of the name Jerome. Geronimo battled in ever-increasing numbers against both Mexicans and white settlers as they began to conquer much of the Apache homelands. By the early 1870s, however, Lieutenant Colonel George F. Crook, the commander of the Department of Arizona, had achieved considerable peace in the area. His successors’ management, on the other hand, proved to be the least disastrous! In 1876, the United States was interested in relocating the Chiricahua from their ancestral homeland to the San Carlos Reservation, a bleak wilderness in east-central Arizona known as Hell’s Forty Acres. They revolted because they were deprived of their traditional tribal privileges, they were short on food and supplies, and were isolated. Encouraged by the actions of Geronimo, hundreds of Apaches escaped to Mexico, beginning their struggle against the invaders. Geronimo and the soldiers he recruited began a ten-year era of occasional attacks against white villages, interspersed with times of peaceful farming on the San Carlos reservation.
Back to Top