Documentary, American Experience - S01E08 - Geronimo and the Apache Resistance (November 22, 1988)
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00:00Tonight on the American Experience.
00:04He spoke of peace until they killed his family and took his land.
00:08Now he chose to fight. He would become the U.S. Army's
00:12most wanted renegade. Apaches were taught, fight when you've got the
00:16strength and it's best to die young. Geronimo
00:20and the Apache Resistance. Tonight on the American Experience.
00:30Piano music
00:48Piano music
00:51Piano music
00:54Hello, I'm David McCullough.
01:21Our film tonight breaks new ground.
01:25I think it's also one of the most beautiful in our series.
01:29It's called Geronimo and the Apache Resistance.
01:33Who was the legendary Geronimo?
01:35Who were the Apache?
01:36Or more to the point, who were the Chiricahua Apache?
01:40And what was their story in reality?
01:43To an Apache, the past is traditionally a closed subject.
01:47To speak of the dead is taboo.
01:50So the Chiricahua have kept their experience largely to themselves, until now.
01:56What you're about to see is a privileged view.
01:59The Chiricahua have agreed to talk on camera as they never have before.
02:05For 20 years Geronimo and his people fought to keep their land and their way of life.
02:10For 27 years, they were held prisoners of war, longer than anyone in our history.
02:16Theirs, too, is a powerful American story.
02:27The Apaches traveled light and left little behind them.
02:44But like a great wind, they left a powerful memory of their passing.
02:56They were nomadic, hunters, gatherers, and warriors.
03:01They called themselves the people.
03:06One of the most celebrated Indian warriors the land has ever known was Geronimo, the legendary
03:11war shaman of the Chiricahua Apaches.
03:17Geronimo and the Chiricahua became so entangled in myth that until the 1930s, less was known
03:23about them than any other major group of North American Indians, though they had dominated
03:28the history of an entire region for generations.
03:44This is the story of a clash of cultures and of a people's love for the land.
03:50But even more important, it is the search for the reality behind the Apache myth.
03:57The myth says that there was a single Apache nation.
04:00In reality, there were many separate groups spread across the southwest.
04:05One of these was the Chiricahua Apaches, and this is their story.
04:12The myth says that the Chiricahuas were warlike, bloodthirsty savages.
04:17In reality, they never wanted war.
04:20They fought to survive and to defend their right to the land.
04:25The myth says that Geronimo was a Chiricahua chief.
04:29In reality, he was a medicine man, the influential mentor of Naichi, the true hereditary leader of
04:36their people.
04:39This story will be told as never before by the direct descendants of those who were there.
04:44Naichi, my grandfather was with Geronimo all through the time, while most of the time when
04:53the fighting was going on, he was with one of the men in Geronimo's band.
05:00My grandfather said that our people needed to survive, and these things took place.
05:07And it wasn't only our menfolk that were agile.
05:11The ladies also, some of the ladies were also trained as warriors.
05:15My grandmother and my father had been out on the warpath with Geronimo, and my grandmother
05:24said that she was tired of running and hiding and tired of being hungry.
05:30I think they withstood things that very few others could have withstood, and we had moral standards
05:43that were really strong, and they called us savages.
05:49The Apaches would permit no challenge to their right to the land, for Apache culture was inseparable
06:00from the natural world.
06:02The giver of life is everywhere.
06:04The very fact that you breathe the air you breathe in, you talk to the air, it's the giver
06:10of life.
06:11The very fact that it's a life, it's God, the giver of life.
06:19The land was beauty, harmony, and power, and everything in it was invested with life.
06:29An essential link with this world were medicine men like Geronimo.
06:34He was a holy man with special access to the supernatural power in the land.
06:40My father said he was a great medicine man.
06:46See, a medicine man blessed all the war equipment that the people used, and they didn't think
06:53that a bullet would touch them.
06:55In those days, everybody believed in the medicine man.
06:59That's when they say the power of the Indian religion was strong yet.
07:06Geronimo, he had this power of the coyote.
07:10And the coyote, you know how he is.
07:15You can see him running around out there.
07:16Pretty soon he'd be over here, pretty soon he'd be over there.
07:20Or else he'd be on this side here.
07:24He can outfox anybody.
07:28He can outfox you, he can outfox the white people.
07:32The soldiers were coming, and yet the soldiers passed them without even seeing them, because
07:40they turned to whatever's around them, they turned to that.
07:44The soldiers don't see them, they just ride by them.
07:51The power of these mountains is a power that you can't explain.
08:04You have to believe.
08:10Right now, you can go to the Guadalupe Mountains.
08:16You can hear crown dancers, you can hear singing in these caves, and there's nobody there.
08:28This is the reason why we believe in our crown dancers in this way, to protect from evil.
08:35Can you imagine in your mind, you've got a big bonfire out there.
08:41Many times the dominant society did not understand who we were.
09:06They called us raiders, they called us thieves, they called us a war in people.
09:13But we had to do some of those things in order to survive and remain a people that we are.
09:20And above all, to hold our lands as much as we could.
09:27In the early 1800s, Apache country was part of Mexico.
09:39Mexico did not recognize the Apaches' right to the land as original inhabitants, and conflict
09:44between them was constant.
09:50During the 1840s, the Apaches were faced with the threat of extermination, since they would
09:55surrender neither their land nor their way of life.
10:01In Mexico, American bounty hunters like Stephen Meek could earn a hundred dollars for the scalp
10:06of an Apache man, fifty dollars for a woman's, and twenty-five for a child's.
10:15Violence like this was a part of the Apache experience when Geronimo was growing up.
10:20And on March 5th, 1851, he himself was dealt a crushing blow by Mexican brutality.
10:28400 Mexican soldiers attacked an undefended Apache camp, slaughtering women and children.
10:35Among the twenty-one dead were Geronimo's wife, mother, and children.
10:41He was never a renegade like what people said about him until the time when he was on his
10:50way to talk about peace, and behind him, his family was slaughtered, his wife and children.
11:02In his autobiography, Geronimo said,
11:05I did not pray, I had no purpose left.
11:08And whenever I saw anything to remind me of my former happy days, my heart would ache for revenge.
11:14In spite of such violence, the Apaches were never subdued by Mexico.
11:27But international events were about to complicate their lives.
11:31Apache country was part of a vast territory that the United States had just won in a war with Mexico.
11:37Completing an American dream of control over the southwest.
11:45But from the Apache point of view, the land was not Mexico's to give away.
11:50For over their own homelands, Apaches held virtually undisputed control.
11:58Since the dawn of time, the land had sustained the people.
12:03But soon, there would be a new presence in Apache country, American settlers.
12:10One traveler wrote,
12:12It was a surprise how luxuriant the grass was on this mesa,
12:16and what an inexhaustible support it affords for cattle.
12:20It was a luxury to breathe the air.
12:23Nothing more pure or more invigorating could exist upon Earth.
12:28When the white people started coming, it was kind of like just watching them to see what, you know, what would come of it.
12:38And being friends with them and trying to understand them and why they did things in certain ways.
12:47My mother's people were German people, and they were immigrants from Germany.
12:57And they came by covered wagon into this area.
13:03They were three or four years on the trip with their wagon train because they were poor people, and they worked along the way.
13:15There was mining there, and the people did a lot of prospecting, and it was surprising where they'd find gold maggots.
13:24Most of them, I think, at that time were looking for gold, especially gold.
13:34Eugene said that his father would go and just watch what they were doing, like building a cabin.
13:42Then they started trusting them.
13:44After they found gold, miners would come in and start digging around, moving them, shooting at them, chasing them away from their little places where they were living.
13:55He said they started getting bigger, bigger pieces of land, and then told them not to go on there and not to hunt.
14:03And they were just pushing them and pushing them.
14:06Then they started mistrusting each other, and it just went from bad to worse.
14:17Mining and overhunting created conflict between the settlers and the Apaches.
14:23Treaties were violated by lawless elements in the white population for whom the only good Indian was a dead Indian.
14:31Although there were some settlers who befriended them, Apaches were seen mostly as an obstacle to white exploitation of the land.
14:40By 1861, the uneasy standoff in Apache country collapsed, and war was on.
14:46When the people were invading the area, they were coming in, the pioneers, the Mexicans, and everybody trying to come in and settle the area.
14:54You know, where the Apaches said that they had lived all their lives as far back as they can remember, that was their home.
15:01And if somebody come into your house there and is going to take it, nobody's going to stand for that.
15:06At least Geronimo didn't.
15:10This was the beginning of the Apache resistance, and the warfare to crush it tore the southwest apart for 25 years.
15:17White hatred for Apaches deepened.
15:22Vigilante groups were formed, and by 1871, it was more dangerous for Apaches than for the settlers.
15:29William Oury, a prominent Tucson, Arizona citizen, led a hundred men against a camp of Apaches suspected of raiding.
15:38It was called the Camp Grant massacre, and more than a hundred Apache women and children were slaughtered.
15:45The resulting public outrage helped force the government toward a new policy that would hopefully secure and pacify the West for whites and Indians alike.
15:55For some time, an idea had been gathering support in Washington for the establishment of colonies where Indians would settle.
16:05This was to be the government's guarantee that the Indians would always have a place to live.
16:10It was to become the reservation system.
16:13By 1872, there were reservations for the major groups of Apaches in Arizona on their respective homelands.
16:21The Chiricahua Apaches were one of these, and their reservation was in southeastern Arizona near Fort Bowie,
16:28which had been established a decade earlier at the beginning of the Apache Wars.
16:35The reservation was in southeastern Arizona.
16:38Enemies once, the Chiricahua and the soldiers even became friends.
16:42The matter of liking reservations, I guess it's, it's, it mostly has to do with being at peace and not being on the run.
16:58The reservation down in the Chiricahuas, it was their homeland, I guess, their stronghold.
17:08And they were free. They had hunting and water. They were just happy in the mountains.
17:22The government wanted the Chiricahuas to farm the land and agreed to provide them with equipment
17:27and food supplies. The land was not good for farming, but the Chiricahuas were willing
17:33to try raising cattle. The government wouldn't help them do that, and it even failed to deliver
17:39the promised supplies. The Chiricahuas faced starvation. Even so, they kept the peace.
17:48If they were given the cattle and horses, they loved those two things. And if they were taught
17:55how to raise the cattle and take care of their horses and raise the feed for their livestock,
18:05I think a lot of them would have made it.
18:08In spite of these problems, there appeared to be a chance for peace. In four years, the
18:13Fort Bowie records show so little military activity that it was even suggested that the Sleepy
18:19Fort be closed. But by 1876, there was a disastrous new federal policy, one which would close the
18:29Chiricahuas reservation and move them to San Carlos with most of the other Apaches in Arizona.
18:36The commander at Fort Bowie warned that the Chiricahuas might go to war if their reservation
18:41were closed. The federal government thought it would be efficient to centralize control of
18:46all Apaches. They also saw it as a way of opening the Chiricahuas' land to settlement and mining.
18:57A military escort came to Fort Bowie to take the people to San Carlos. A third of them agreed
19:03to go, anxious for peace at any cost. But Geronimo refused. Betrayal had once taken his family.
19:10Now it was taking the land. Along with about 400 other Chiricahuas, he escaped to Mexico. And because
19:19he had been a spokesman for this resistant group, he gained instant notoriety.
19:23And so he stood up. He stood up and said, let's keep our land. And he had the nerve enough to say,
19:30nobody's gonna take us off of this land. We're gonna stand up and fight. The reason why we fought so hard was that without the land we would not be a people that we are. Our belief was a part of the land. And everything that grew on it, this is how we were placed on earth. And we could not see any way around it.
19:43Within a month, enraged Chiricahua warriors had killed 68 settlers in the area that had for four years been a model of peace. One Arizona newspaper said, the kind of war needed for the Chiricahua Apaches is steady, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting.
19:51Slaying men, women, and children.
19:51News media places said, the fear of sin is to be канал for murderers, unrelenting,
19:53us to have income
20:19The news media played these instances up a whole lot.
20:23These people that were moving into the southwest,
20:26they felt that they needed to do away with some of these people that are standing in the way.
20:30They are savages. They don't have a way of life except to kill others.
20:36It was clear to the army that the struggle might be a long one
20:39unless Geronimo and the dissidents could be forced to come in and settle on the reservation.
20:46Geronimo was against the white people.
20:50The other leaders tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't listen.
20:55He was always hyped up, I guess, and he was ready to go.
20:59They saw him when he raided.
21:01He just went ahead and killed people and ran off their horses.
21:05It was Geronimo.
21:09Pretty soon, everything was Geronimo.
21:12Geronimo had become a wanted man.
21:14The Indian agent at San Carlos learned of his whereabouts in New Mexico
21:19and, with his Apache police force, trapped Geronimo and took him in chains to San Carlos.
21:25This was the first and only time Geronimo was ever captured.
21:29The Chiricahuas cared neither for the terrain nor the other Apaches at San Carlos.
21:37The government didn't understand what an explosive situation it had created
21:41by concentrating so many Apaches here.
21:44They wanted all the Apaches to go to San Carlos Reservation, and they hated that place, and they didn't want any part of it.
21:53It was dry, and it is the same way today.
21:56You just go there, and you can see why they disliked it after they were in the mountains where there was trees and water and everything that they were used to.
22:07And then to be taken out of that and taken to San Carlos, that was just, that was just terrible.
22:15They lined us all up, he said, and they gave us whatever name came along.
22:20He says, this man just went down the line and said, this and this is your name, he said.
22:26So he said, that's where we got our name, Smith, he said.
22:31The grandfather told of many instances, and his account of being on the reservation was when he was quite young.
22:40He said it was dusty and more barren than anywhere around there.
22:47He said some of the Indian agents were not really interested in helping the people.
22:56Many times the supplies and things were far short because someone else had taken them before they ever reached the reservation.
23:04The soldiers were rude to them, the soldiers treated them like they were, oh, animals, sort of, you know, seemed to have no more thought for them than you'd have for an undesirable kind of dog.
23:26After two years at San Carlos, the government moved the Chiricahuas to the adjacent Fort Apache Reservation.
23:34It was 1878, and the war for the land appeared to be over.
23:40But there was another equally devastating war against Apache culture.
23:45It affected everything from language to religion.
23:52A powerful native religious movement threatened to unite all Apaches.
23:57The army brutally suppressed it, killing an influential medicine man.
24:01Only the Sierra Madre seemed safe now.
24:08Old fears were rekindled.
24:11Geronimo and young Chief Nietzsche fled to Mexico, taking with them 400 of their people.
24:16General George Crook, the government then decided, was the last hope for peace.
24:25Unlike many soldiers and officials, he treated the Apaches like fellow human beings.
24:30It was a cardinal rule with him, never lie to an Indian, never break a promise.
24:36At this point, the only Apaches off the reservation were the Chiricahuas, now deep in Mexico.
24:46Crook resolved to find them in the Sierra Madre and persuade them to come back peacefully if possible.
24:51But General Crook could imagine nothing more difficult.
24:56He wrote,
24:57It would be practically impossible with white soldiers to subdue the Chiricahuas in their own haunts.
25:04The tendency of military drill and discipline is to make the individual soldier a machine.
25:09He cannot compete with an enemy whose individuality is perfect.
25:12My dad says that the cavalry used to come in there and they would have practice.
25:22And they would watch them.
25:23The Apaches would watch them.
25:26And they would be standing out there and they'd say,
25:29Ready, aim, fire.
25:32And the Apaches thought it was funny.
25:35Because there's no way in the world that they could hit the Apaches, you know,
25:38standing up there, ready, aim, and fire.
25:39So they always moved like a cottontail.
25:43When he runs from me, you know, he jumps like that.
25:45Or a deer.
25:46So they learned to move like that.
25:48The Apaches were taught.
25:50I think that's the reason they were such good fighters.
25:53It's better to die young than to let yourself get old and have someone taking care of you.
25:59That's the thing that they used to tell the young people.
26:01That fight when you've got the strength and ready to, when your body's healthy.
26:06That's when you can fight.
26:07And it's best to die young.
26:09And it's best to die young.
26:11Crook knew that regular soldiers would be no match for the skill and ferocity of Chiricahua Apache warriors.
26:18So he enlisted other Apaches as army scouts.
26:23These scouts made up over three quarters of the command he now led in pursuit of Geronimo and the Chiricahuas.
26:30These Apaches served because they saw Geronimo's people as a threat to peace.
26:37Crook's task must have seemed impossible.
26:46But an Apache scout called Peaches knew where to look.
26:51He led the way into the Sierra Madre where after 40 days they finally found the Chiricahuas.
26:58Crook promised them that he would improve conditions on the reservation.
27:01They believed him and agreed to return.
27:07But within two years of return, the strict regimentation of reservation life became intolerable for Geronimo,
27:14Nietzsche, and about a hundred others.
27:17Again they escaped.
27:19Again the army pursued them.
27:21Again they agreed to a peace conference with General Crook.
27:24The rendezvous took place at Canyon de los Embudos, 15 miles south of the border.
27:35It was early in 1886 and it looked like it might be the end of the Apache Wars.
27:44Charlie Roberts, the son of Crook's aide-de-camp Captain Roberts, was brought along on this historic trip.
27:51Seventy-eight years later he described it in a tape recording.
27:54I was a well-grown boy of about 12 years.
28:00The latter part of March, General Crook took my father's aide and permitted me to accompany them.
28:10They could see Geronimo's camp about a half a mile away on a ridge on the other side of the canyon.
28:19Crook wrote in his diary,
28:21A thousand men could not have surrounded them with any possibility of capturing them.
28:26I will have to play a heavy bluff game with them.
28:31I was conscious that any incident which might excite their suspicion would result in my death.
28:38Arrangements were made and conferences held with Geronimo during the next day or two.
28:45General Crook took no troops with him at all.
28:48The only white men in the expedition were my father and Captain Burke and a few civilian packers.
28:56A transcript of the meeting was made.
29:01Geronimo said,
29:03There are very few of my men left now.
29:06They have done some bad things, but I want them all rubbed out now, and let us never speak of them again.
29:12Crook said to Geronimo,
29:14You must make up your own mind whether you will stay out on the warpath or surrender unconditionally.
29:21What's more, Crook also told him that going back to the reservation right away was out of the question.
29:26The next day, they met again.
29:29Crook wrote in his diary,
29:31Had private interview with Geronimo,
29:33Naichi,
29:34Chihuahua,
29:35and a couple of others with reference to their leaving this country for the east,
29:38to remain there until they change their ideas,
29:41and the feeling against them here dies out.
29:44Though younger than Geronimo,
29:46Naichi was the true chief,
29:48and Geronimo always deferred to him.
29:50Together, they and the others agreed on a compromise with Crook.
29:54They would surrender,
29:56then after a couple of years of exile from the southwest,
29:59they could return to the reservation.
30:01Geronimo said,
30:04I give myself up to you.
30:06Do with me what you please,
30:08I surrender.
30:09Once I moved about like the wind,
30:11now I surrender to you,
30:13and that is all.
30:14The reason why Chihuahua and Loco and them surrendered,
30:18they didn't want to fight.
30:20It was useless because they felt like
30:22there were too many white people
30:26and too many Mexicans,
30:28and that eventually they'd just be all killed off.
30:31Geronimo surrendered for the same reason.
30:35He said that he didn't want the tribe to disappear.
30:41Just after they agreed to surrender,
30:43a renegade white man panicked Geronimo
30:45by telling him he would be hanged for murder in Arizona.
30:48Geronimo had reason to be afraid.
30:54He was under indictment for murder.
30:58He and Night Chi,
31:00with their small band,
31:01fled south into the Sierra Madre again.
31:03Determined to continue with his campaign,
31:08Crook went to the nearest railroad station
31:10and telegraphed his commanding officer,
31:13General Sheridan, with the news.
31:17Crook wired,
31:17During last night, Geronimo and Night Chi,
31:20with 20 men and 13 women, left camp.
31:25Sheridan replied,
31:27It seems strange that Geronimo and party
31:30could have escaped without the knowledge of the scouts.
31:33The scouts, Crook said, were thoroughly loyal
31:35and would have prevented the hostiles leaving
31:37had it been possible.
31:40General Crook remained confident
31:41that his men could find Geronimo.
31:46Sheridan disagreed
31:47and ordered Crook to change his strategy.
31:50This lack of support angered the seasoned general.
31:54I believe, Crook said,
31:56the plan upon which I have conducted operations
31:58is the one most likely to prove successful in the end.
32:02It may be that I am too wedded
32:04to my own views in this matter,
32:06and as I have spent nearly eight years
32:08of the hardest work in my life in this department,
32:11I respectfully request
32:12that I may now be relieved from its command.
32:18Now the Apaches faced a different kind of war.
32:22General Nelson A. Miles was Crook's replacement.
32:26He wrote,
32:27With our superior intelligence and modern appliances,
32:30we should be able to surpass
32:31all the advantages possessed by the savages.
32:36To try and capture the 39 Apaches,
32:38Miles put 5,000 men in the field.
32:41That was one quarter of the regular army of the day.
32:44He intended to harass the Chiricahuas into submission.
32:48The diary of Dr. Leonard Wood
32:50tells just how difficult that proved to be.
32:54He wrote,
32:54When we reached the Yaqui River country,
32:56it was found impossible to make use of the cavalry,
33:00the mountains being almost impassable.
33:04Started back to camp,
33:06reaching there about midnight,
33:08nearly breaking my neck over the side of a canyon
33:10down which my mule and I took an ugly roll.
33:14The non-Indian had marveled at the distance.
33:17The group had gone in a day.
33:20Some were horseback and some were on foot.
33:28They knew that the horse soldiers were still coming.
33:33They knew the distance they were at.
33:37They would fight and disappear.
33:39They just couldn't find them.
33:44Dr. Wood wrote,
33:45Corporal Scott was badly shot in the fight
33:53near the Santa Barbara Peaks.
33:55They amputated his thigh today.
33:59Allsup, no use.
34:00Afraid to go out any distance.
34:05Geronimo knew the lands.
34:07He knew the water holes.
34:10And he would take them from one safe place to another.
34:13Many times we could not build fire
34:17or that it would give us away the smoke
34:22or the actual light.
34:25And we survived.
34:27And many times our horses were tired.
34:32And we asked the horses to give a little more,
34:36and they did.
34:37And we survived again.
34:38The Chiricahuas had eluded the army for six months,
34:43but they were tired of life on the run.
34:46Word reached Fort Apache that Geronimo
34:48might be ready to talk surrender.
34:51A lot of the elderly people really hated him
34:55because he had caused a lot of their relatives to be killed.
35:00They said that he was causing a lot of deaths unnecessarily
35:05of very innocent children and mothers
35:12just so that he could prove his cause, you know,
35:20to hold back the people and keep the land.
35:24And in doing that, well, he lost a lot of lives.
35:28And people actually begged him to surrender.
35:34A Chiricahua named Keita
35:36and a relative of his named Martine
35:39were enlisted as army scouts
35:41and given the extremely dangerous assignment
35:43of finding Geronimo in Mexico.
35:47Lieutenant Charles Gatewood,
35:49a young officer well known to Geronimo,
35:51went with them to offer terms of surrender.
35:54The two Indian scouts
35:57that took the soldiers,
36:00the American army,
36:02into Mexico,
36:04and they were the ones
36:06who were largely responsible
36:09for talking with Geronimo first.
36:13Those people were relatives of Geronimo
36:15and people in that band.
36:17They were all one family.
36:18They were all one.
36:19They all belonged together.
36:20And it's not likely that he,
36:26under that circumstance,
36:28would have killed them.
36:31Keita and Martine followed the small band
36:34to the base of a well-known stronghold
36:36high in the Taurus Mountains,
36:3850 miles south of the border.
36:40The two scouts left Gatewood's party
36:46at the river below.
36:50Hoping that they would be recognized
36:51and allowed to approach unharmed,
36:54they climbed to where the hostiles were hidden.
36:56My grandfather, in his account,
37:00he said he was a lookout person
37:03with binoculars.
37:05And he said at a given time,
37:09then he had seen movement
37:11way down in the bottom of the canyon.
37:14And he said he saw movement
37:17and instantly he knew who they were.
37:21They were carrying a white flag
37:23and they were a part of our people.
37:26They had quite a discussion
37:28about those people coming.
37:31And at a given time,
37:33they said not to let them approach.
37:38Martine is my dad's father.
37:41The soldier stayed behind
37:42and just those two men went up there.
37:46Geronimo had his gun right here
37:49all the time, ready to shoot.
37:51But somehow, I guess these two men
37:55just persuaded him not to shoot.
37:58But they came for a good cause.
38:02I don't think they necessarily
38:03talked them into surrendering,
38:05but they mostly talked them into
38:07coming out and considering it
38:09as a possibility.
38:12After several hours of tense discussion,
38:15Martine and Keita were able
38:17to persuade Geronimo,
38:19Nietzsche, and the rest
38:20to meet with Gatewood
38:21down by the river.
38:24Gatewood said they must either surrender
38:25or fight it out to the bitter end.
38:29To persuade them to surrender,
38:31he told them that their families
38:32at Fort Apache
38:33were being shipped as prisoners of war
38:35to Florida,
38:36and Rui Darrow's father
38:37was on that train.
38:41Papa was about 16,
38:43but he was at Fort Apache,
38:46and he says they called him in,
38:49and the soldier said,
38:50well, there's going to be a roll call.
38:53So all the Apaches came together,
38:56and he said they just put them on wagons
38:59and took them up to Holbrook.
39:01Then they piled them on the train.
39:04He said, like cattle.
39:06With all the other Chiricawas
39:07on their way out of the southwest,
39:10Geronimo and the small band
39:11felt totally isolated.
39:13Before they surrendered,
39:21they talked it over
39:23among themselves.
39:27They got together
39:29and had a meeting.
39:36Geronimo and Naichi
39:40and a few other people were there,
39:44and they decided
39:47that they didn't want
39:50to have any more
39:52of their people killed.
39:54They was always running.
39:57I believe this is the reason
39:59why most of the chiefs
40:01gave themselves up
40:03on kind of the women folks
40:05and the elderlies
40:07and the kids.
40:07If they were by themselves,
40:15probably they'd be still out there
40:17with all the power they had.
40:28At a place called Skeleton Canyon
40:30in southeastern Arizona,
40:32there is a pile of rocks
40:34where the band formally surrendered
40:35to General Miles.
40:38It is said that some army officers
40:40who were there
40:40piled up the rocks
40:42to mark the spot
40:43where 25 years
40:44of Apache warfare
40:45came to an end.
40:56The Chiricawas
40:57were the last Indians
40:58of the southwest
40:59to lay down arms
41:00in defense
41:01of their way of life.
41:05From now on,
41:07this land would exist
41:08for the Chiricawas
41:09only in memory,
41:10for the Chiricawas
41:11were about to face
41:12the toughest
41:13and most prolonged test
41:15of their lives.
41:19Within a day of surrender,
41:21Geronimo and Naichi
41:22were prisoners of war
41:23at Fort Bowie,
41:24but they weren't
41:25the only ones.
41:26Keita and Martine
41:28and other Chiricawas
41:29army scouts
41:30were taken prisoner too.
41:32And here,
41:33these Apache scouts
41:34were actual soldiers.
41:37I always felt like
41:38they'd done them
41:39a real bad injustice.
41:41They used them
41:41to guide them
41:43and help them find
41:44the last group
41:46to surrender.
41:48The Chiricawas
41:49felt doubly betrayed.
41:51Not only had
41:52the loyal scouts
41:52been taken prisoner,
41:54but General Miles
41:55had overruled
41:57the terms of surrender
41:58already agreed upon
41:59by the Apaches
42:00and General Crook.
42:01They made promises
42:03and they never
42:03kept their promises.
42:06And treaties,
42:10fire people,
42:12your word is your life.
42:14They had thought
42:14probably when they
42:15surrendered
42:16they would eventually
42:16go back to their home
42:18in Arizona,
42:19but it never
42:20did happen.
42:22And they had not
42:23ever foreseen
42:24a life
42:27without going home.
42:29They were promised
42:30that they would be
42:31sent back in two years.
42:33That's the reason why
42:34he's,
42:35one of the reasons also
42:36that he was willing
42:38to surrender
42:38because they promised
42:39him that they would
42:40return him in two years.
42:43But it turned out
42:44to be 27 years.
42:48Geronimo and Naichi
42:49and their small group
42:50were forced onto the train
42:52that would take them
42:52to Florida
42:53and out of their
42:54homelands forever.
42:57You got so much
42:58emotional feelings
43:00of how our people
43:02were treated,
43:04how they were heard
43:06into boxcars
43:07just like a bunch
43:08of cattle.
43:10You didn't have to be
43:11there to see it.
43:12You could just visualize
43:13it in your mind
43:14what happened.
43:18They were herded
43:19on trains.
43:21It was crowded
43:21conditions,
43:22very unsanitary.
43:24And sometimes
43:25the rations,
43:27the food they were
43:27given,
43:28weren't really good.
43:30Sometimes some of it
43:31was spoiled.
43:33I just visualized
43:34these poor people
43:35that didn't understand.
43:38A lot of them
43:38didn't understand
43:39the language
43:39and to be moved
43:41from a train
43:42to another train
43:44in these,
43:46what you call
43:47a cattle train
43:48and not knowing
43:49where they're going.
43:50You know,
43:50my heart just ached
43:51for them.
43:57The people in Arizona
43:58wanted to have them
44:00go just as far off
44:02as they could
44:02possibly send them.
44:04Politicians were
44:04influential enough
44:05to have it done.
44:06so that's as far
44:07as they could go
44:08with St. Augustine,
44:09Florida.
44:10And that's where
44:11they sent them.
44:14Nietzsche and Geronimo
44:15and other warriors
44:16went to Fort Pickens
44:17in western Florida.
44:19400 went to
44:20Fort Marion,
44:21built to hold
44:22only 80.
44:24This fort was
44:24in St. Augustine
44:25on Florida's
44:26Atlantic coast.
44:28When they were
44:29in Florida,
44:30my father says
44:31it was so hot
44:32and they were all
44:33crowded inside
44:34the little fort.
44:35and people
44:36were getting sick
44:37and they hadn't
44:38drank the water
44:39out of the well
44:40in there.
44:40And he said
44:40the water
44:41made them sick.
44:44It's real muggy
44:45and it's quite
44:46an adjustment
44:47for people
44:47that lived
44:48in the southwest.
44:50There was malaria
44:50present,
44:52a sickness
44:52that they didn't
44:53know about
44:54and yellow fever.
44:56That one place,
44:57daily,
44:58there were people
44:59being taken out
45:00because they had
45:01died from
45:01these sicknesses.
45:03our people
45:04still remained
45:06in the center
45:07and we tended
45:10to our way
45:11of life,
45:11our beliefs
45:12and we kept
45:13together
45:14and this is how
45:15we made it
45:16through all
45:16that sickness.
45:17my father
45:21was just a small
45:22boy.
45:23He must have
45:24been about
45:24four or five
45:24years old
45:25somewhere around
45:26in there.
45:27When he got to
45:28St. Augustine,
45:29he used to tell
45:30them about the
45:31waves and they
45:32fascinated him
45:32because he said
45:33they used to sit
45:35on the wall
45:35of the fort
45:37and watch the waves
45:39come in.
45:40The government
45:46sent all
45:47Chiricahua children
45:48over 12 years
45:49of age
45:49to a school
45:50for Indians
45:51in Carlisle,
45:52Pennsylvania.
45:55The Chiricahua's
45:57land had been
45:57taken.
45:59Now they had
45:59to face
46:00the loss
46:00of their children.
46:02Their parents
46:03didn't want
46:03them separated.
46:04It was very
46:05hard for them
46:06because due
46:07to the weather
46:08and the climate
46:09and all
46:10that they
46:11developed
46:11tuberculosis
46:12and a lot
46:14of the children
46:14didn't come home
46:15and that was
46:16another thing
46:17that they hated
46:18and they didn't
46:19want their children
46:20to leave them.
46:22That was when
46:23they first cut
46:24my father's hair.
46:26When he first
46:26went he had
46:27long hair
46:27and he dressed
46:28us like all
46:29the other Apaches
46:30and he had
46:35a haircut
46:35and then they
46:36put white man
46:38clothes on him.
46:40He was still
46:41Indian,
46:42he was still
46:42Apache first
46:44and foremost
46:45but when he
46:47cut his hair
46:48he became
46:49more adaptable.
46:52There's no
46:53going back
46:53to what was
46:55nor living
46:57the way
46:57they used
46:58to live.
46:58it was clear
47:07the Chiricahuas
47:08were not likely
47:08to survive
47:09this confinement.
47:11After a year
47:12and a half
47:13they were moved
47:13to Mount Vernon
47:14Barracks
47:14near Mobile,
47:15Alabama.
47:16They set up
47:17a small village
47:18there but conditions
47:19were not much better.
47:20The wind
47:21just barely moves
47:22it doesn't blow
47:23across your face
47:24and cool
47:25it just kind
47:26of is cloying
47:27like little
47:29you know
47:29damp
47:30little damp
47:32fingers maybe
47:33and that's
47:35what I feel
47:36so strongly
47:37when I go
47:37around there.
47:38I walk down there
47:39and I think
47:40they walked
47:41on this road
47:42and I know
47:45what it was like
47:46because I can
47:49feel it.
47:51In the 40 years
47:52since their first
47:53contact with
47:54white Americans
47:54the tribe
47:55had dwindled
47:56from several
47:56thousand
47:57to 388.
48:00It was 1896.
48:02After eight years
48:03in the deep south
48:04they were moved
48:05again to land
48:06provided by the
48:07Comanche
48:07and Kiowa
48:08Indians
48:09at Fort Sill
48:10near Lawton,
48:11Oklahoma.
48:11As they went
48:13to Lawton
48:14it was in the
48:14evening
48:15so they camped
48:16before they
48:18got to Lawton
48:19and when it
48:23became dark
48:24well they could
48:25hear the coyotes
48:26and the old
48:27ladies in the
48:28tribe
48:29they all
48:29started crying
48:31because they
48:32just felt like
48:33that they had
48:34come home.
48:36At Fort Sill
48:37they had cattle
48:39and they worked
48:40together
48:41and they had
48:42a reservation
48:43a real reservation
48:44they felt like
48:46they had a good
48:47life.
48:49The former
48:50terror of the
48:51southwest
48:52settled down
48:53to life
48:53as a grandfatherly
48:54figure
48:55though the memory
48:56of the murder
48:57of his first
48:58family in Mexico
48:58never ceased
48:59to haunt him.
49:02A legend
49:02in his own
49:03time
49:03he became
49:04a drawing card
49:05at wild west
49:06shows.
49:07Geronimo dictated
49:08his autobiography.
49:11Nietzsche
49:12became a devout
49:13convert to
49:13Christianity.
49:15Even Geronimo
49:15went to church
49:16a few times.
49:18But he still
49:19used his magical
49:20powers to heal
49:21the sick
49:21and to conduct
49:22traditional
49:23ceremonials.
49:25He had always
49:26boasted that his
49:26power would protect
49:27him from death
49:28in battle
49:29but his power
49:29was failing now
49:30and could not
49:31protect him from
49:32the case of
49:33pneumonia
49:33to which he
49:34succumbed in
49:351909
49:36at more than
49:3780 years of age.
49:40In myth
49:41he was an
49:42implacable savage.
49:45In reality
49:46he was a man
49:47who had risked
49:48everything for his
49:48home and his
49:49way of life.
49:59I believe
50:00that he wished
50:00he had fought
50:01it out.
50:03I think Geronimo
50:04probably
50:05toward the end
50:07of his life
50:08wished that he'd
50:09stayed there
50:09and died there.
50:11Most of his
50:11power
50:12he didn't hand
50:16it down to no
50:17one because
50:19he said that
50:20most of his
50:20power was
50:21dangerous
50:21and he didn't
50:24want nobody
50:24to have it.
50:27So he just
50:28went with it
50:29took it with
50:30him.
50:34In 1913
50:35after 27 years
50:37of captivity
50:37the Chiricahuas
50:39were released
50:39as prisoners
50:40of war.
50:42The government
50:42told them they
50:43must now leave
50:44the land they
50:44had come to
50:45think of as
50:45theirs.
50:47The land was
50:48annexed to the
50:48Fort Sill Army
50:49base and the
50:50Chiricahuas were
50:51faced with a tough
50:52choice.
50:52They had a
50:54choice to make
50:55the Chiricahua
50:56Indians to
50:58either remain
50:59in Oklahoma
51:00or relocate
51:03at Mescalero.
51:0482 of them
51:06stayed in
51:07Oklahoma.
51:10187 came
51:11to Mescalero.
51:14They went by
51:15train to join
51:16the Mescalero
51:17Apaches on their
51:18reservation in
51:19southern New
51:19Mexico leaving
51:20those behind who
51:22wanted to farm
51:22plots of land.
51:24They wanted to
51:25come to Mescalero
51:26because the
51:27Mescaleros were
51:28good to them and
51:29befriended them and
51:31they came to the
51:32Mescalero reservation
51:33more than one time
51:35when they were on
51:36the run.
51:37The Chiricahuas
51:38found the strength
51:39to make a new
51:40beginning but the
51:42memory of
51:42traditional homelands
51:44that were taken from
51:45them has never
51:45died.
51:46I realized how
51:51much they truly
51:52loved their
51:52homeland in
51:53Arizona and New
51:54Mexico and
51:56that's a real
51:57deep feeling that
51:59I didn't realize
52:00I had until
52:02last in 86
52:04when I went to
52:05Fort Bowie and
52:07stood in a place
52:08like Skeleton
52:09Canyon where the
52:10Geronimo surrendered
52:12and rode down the
52:14trail where my
52:16grandfather and my
52:17grandmother walked
52:20down the trail to
52:22Fort Bowie and were
52:24taken prisoners of
52:25war.
52:27In September of
52:281986 exactly 100
52:30years after surrender
52:32hundreds of
52:33Chiricahuas returned to
52:34Arizona and the pile of
52:36rocks at Skeleton
52:37Canyon to honor the
52:38memory of their
52:39ancestors.
52:44I feel as though
52:46someone mentioned
52:47that it made a
52:48complete circle and
52:49I think they didn't
52:50get to come here
52:51but I represent a
52:54group that has
52:55always wanted to
52:56come back into
52:58the area and I
53:00feel like that I
53:02coming here has
53:03meant that we did
53:06get back through
53:07me.
53:09I see it for them
53:10and all my life I
53:12wanted to see this
53:13place and see the
53:15country where they
53:17came from and I've
53:19read about it just
53:20like everyone else
53:20has read about it and
53:22I've heard about it as
53:23a child.
53:24It's just something
53:26for me to be back
53:27here.
53:28We have a
53:29background we're
53:30proud of and we
53:33are proud people.
53:34We are a
53:35progressive tribe
53:36back in the
53:37school.
53:38Our people have
53:40said we are going
53:42to survive we're
53:43going to make it.
53:45This is how we were
53:46taught and we were
53:47told.
53:48We have the sacred
53:49mountains, the lakes
53:50we're going to see
53:52them again.
53:54So we are the
53:55descendants alive
53:56today.
53:58Excuse me.
54:00I'm very emotional
54:01because my grandfather
54:02had been with
54:03John Moe's band
54:04and these people are
54:06direct descendants of
54:07these very warriors.
54:08that time was our
54:11time and that was
54:12the time that made
54:13us who we are.
54:15That's our history.
54:17That's how we grew.
54:19That's how we were
54:20molded.
54:22They tried to adapt
54:23to Christianity as
54:25much as possible.
54:27But the old ways and
54:29the way they believed
54:31were still there.
54:33And they are still in
54:36fact there.
54:41Whereas you talk
54:43about a tradition and
54:44you think perhaps it
54:46might just be singing a
54:48song or speaking your
54:50language, but tradition
54:52is also something that
54:54you feel and something
54:55that you know.
54:56And that's what we are.
54:59And it was never gone.
55:00It was never gone.
56:00A production of WGBH Boston.
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