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Documentary, The Real Wild West 5-6 - Geronimo 1829-1909
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00:04Unwilling to compromise the land and the people he loved,
00:08Geronimo did whatever it took to defend their interests.
00:11And for that, he paid a heavy price.
00:13His was a life on the run, relentlessly hunted by a vengeful American army
00:17bent on taming the fiercely proud clan and capturing its fearless leader.
00:22His quest was ultimately unsuccessful, but his fight for freedom made him a legend.
00:27Geronimo, the last renegade.
00:39Geronimo, the last renegade.
01:00There have been more descriptions given to this one Native American
01:03than perhaps any other in the history of the Southwest.
01:06Often the facts are muddled in fiction, and separating the man from the myth isn't easy.
01:11Geronimo was born in Apache, and he attained the status of being one of the greatest Indian warriors of the
01:16West.
01:16He is best remembered for his use of guerrilla warfare, and his ability in later years to keep a quarter
01:21of the American army at bay with a band of just 36.
01:26His reputation for wisdom, bravery, and brutality have become a symbol in the American Indians' fight for freedom.
01:35Trying to figure out who Geronimo was is not an easy thing to do.
01:39It's hard to see him as a full person with all the attributes that human beings have.
01:46Most of them have been set aside, and emphasis has been placed on the warrior, the savage, the killer, the
01:55defender of his way of life.
01:59Geronimo is best noted for four decades of waging war and winning against even the most aggressive enemy.
02:05And according to the Apaches, his secret to successfully guiding them was due to a special gift.
02:10He was a man that possessed and exercised tremendous power in a sacred sense, and was well known among his
02:21people for the extent of his power.
02:26This is power with a big P, acute powers of extrasensory perception, and powers of prophecy.
02:37He was thought to have the power to stop time, to stop clouds in the sky, to control the environment
02:47and his surroundings.
02:49There was an awful lot of respect for his abilities as a medicine man.
02:53His word was listened to, and his advice frequently followed.
03:00Geronimo's faith in this force was absolute, figuring prominently into his life as both a seer and a soldier.
03:08He claimed the power spoke to him, giving him the assurances that would arm him with the faith to fight.
03:14Then it spoke.
03:17No gun can ever kill you.
03:19I will take the bullets from the gun so they will have nothing but powder, and I will guide your
03:24arrows.
03:26Geronimo.
03:28Geronimo lived during a time when the West was still wild, when the land was yours until taken away.
03:32He was born a Badankohe Apache, but eventually joined the Chiricawas.
03:37The Apaches were not one tribe, but several groups separated into what they call bands.
03:41They were peaceful people who lived throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.
03:46They were free to roam this rugged area they called home.
03:48They were extremely fit.
03:51They had to be to live in the desert and mountain terrain.
03:55They were nomadic in that they followed the seasons and they followed the hunt for their food.
04:00And by and large, they lived a very simple life.
04:06They did not consider themselves to be impoverished.
04:09They considered themselves to be wealthy, rich in terms of their health, their relations with their families, and especially with
04:19their children.
04:19The Apaches had land that others desired, and this left them with a constant struggle for survival.
04:25It was the terrain that made them tough, but it was their training that saved their lives.
04:30From a very early age, the Apache children had to learn how to survive.
04:37They needed to know their area, where to find water, and where to find food.
04:42They needed to be able to travel long distances.
04:47Some of the Apaches could travel well over a hundred miles a day for several days at a time.
04:55They were trained to be able to escape from their enemies who would, on occasion, try to capture them or
05:04kill them.
05:05And the children had to know what to do.
05:10The Apaches were a peaceful people who had been faced with fighting for years.
05:14Their love of the environment was firmly rooted in their homeland, and caused them to wage war against anyone who
05:19tried to take that away.
05:22That was our land.
05:24Even though it was rugged, it might be a mountainside or a cave in the mountain, but that was home.
05:32That's where we lived.
05:34And that was ours.
05:37And then somebody come and disrupt our home.
05:41Well, that would put fire in anybody.
05:44Geronimo and the Apaches were united against the enemy.
05:47Their land was more than home.
05:48It was holy.
05:49They felt their god, Usain, had given them this gift, and protecting it meant protecting the life ways of their
05:54culture.
05:57Thus it was in the beginning.
05:59The Apaches and their homes, each created for the other by using himself.
06:04When they are taken from these homes, they sicken and die.
06:08How long will it be until it is said, there are no Apaches?
06:15Geronimo.
06:19For Geronimo and the Apaches, fighting to remain in their region had become a way of life.
06:24They engaged in combat with first the Spanish and then the Mexicans.
06:27But it was a battle over family, not freedom, that raised Geronimo from warrior to war leader.
06:33About 1850 Mexican soldiers fell on the camp of Chiricahuas and killed Geronimo's mother and his wife and, I think,
06:46two children.
06:47And so this planted in Geronimo a determination to exact revenge that lasted him the entire rest of his life.
07:00For Geronimo, revenge came in the form of bloody raids on the Mexicans.
07:04And when the white settlers came west, Geronimo and the Apaches added another enemy to the list.
07:12When the white settlers first came in, it interrupted the Chiricahua way of life.
07:18It interrupted their migrations with the seasons.
07:21It interrupted their hunting because, of course, the settlers wanted the same food.
07:27They were all after the same food.
07:28And while the food was not scarce, the settlers were protected by the army who established forts out here.
07:37And because the Chiricahuas wanted the same things and wanted to protect their land, the army decided that they were
07:45enemies.
07:46And the army then tried to subdue the Chiricahuas.
07:50By the 1860s, the Apaches were forced to live on reservations.
07:54Geronimo moved with a neighboring band of Chiricahuas to the Apache Pass Agency.
07:58This was still part of their territory, but time would change that, too.
08:04In 1876, the government began to put into operation their plan to concentrate all Apaches at San Carlos.
08:12And so the Chiricahuas from that Apache Pass reservation were all uprooted and taken to San Carlos.
08:21That's when Geronimo decided he did not want to go there.
08:27Geronimo's hatred for the place really is based on the fact that it wasn't his land.
08:33It wasn't his traditional homeland.
08:35It was an outrageous proceeding, one for which I should still blush had I not long since gotten over blushing
08:42for anything the United States government did in Indian matters.
08:46Lieutenant John Bork, United States Army.
08:50To discuss the move, Geronimo called for a conference with John Clum, the agent of the San Carlos reservation.
08:57Geronimo agreed to go to San Carlos, but first he went to gather the rest of his band.
09:01He assembled hundreds of men, women, and children, and then fled.
09:07I do not think that I ever belonged to those soldiers at Apache Pass, or that I should have asked
09:13where I might go.
09:16Geronimo.
09:18It was at that point Geronimo and John Clum became enemies.
09:21This would be the first of many breakaways for the war leader.
09:25He and the band would gain notoriety for choosing life on the run instead of the reservation.
09:30They resumed their raids on the settlements, and soon the Apaches were making headlines.
09:34But one man in particular was continually cited as the leader of the violence and devastation that terrorized the West.
09:41There would be an attack someplace, and they'd say Geronimo did it.
09:45And then the same afternoon, several hundred miles away, there'd be another attack, and Geronimo would be blamed for that,
09:51too.
09:51Every time any little band of Apaches, whether or some other band, would attack a stagecoach or a stage station
10:01or a ranch, they always said Geronimo did it.
10:05He probably didn't do more than a tenth of the attacks that he's charged with.
10:15Geronimo was branded a renegade, and John Clum was patiently waiting to have another try at taming the legendary leader.
10:23It would take time, but the two would meet again, fueling the fires of discontent between the warrior and the
10:29white man.
10:39During the years of the Apache fight for freedom, the name Geronimo struck terror in the hearts of Western pioneers.
10:45As long as the free-spirited lifestyle of the rugged Apache conflicted with that of the unyielding settlers, there could
10:51never be peace.
10:57The trouble began while Geronimo was living at the Warm Springs Reservation at Ojo Caliente.
11:03Its close proximity to Mexico provided a safe passageway for continued raids.
11:08The warriors would strike out across international borders, steal livestock, and then herd them back to the agency.
11:13The people of the West worried.
11:15No one was sure when the Indians would attack.
11:18The Apaches, however, knew nothing of the cultural clash they were causing.
11:23They would give these gifts to the people on the reservation, and the people on the reservation would exchange gifts
11:29of blankets or knives.
11:31Some of these things were things that had been issued to the Indians on the reservation.
11:38And the Apaches didn't think they were doing anything particularly wrong to exchange these gifts with their relatives.
11:46It was a confusing situation for all the Indians, including Geronimo.
11:50Geronimo. Raiding was part of the Apache social structure, so they expected to steal and still be able to draw
11:55rations on the reservation.
11:57Geronimo went so far as to have an angry exchange when he was denied the rations missed during his absence.
12:02An army officer witnessed the encounter and informed authorities.
12:06Immediate action needed to be taken, so Geronimo's nemesis, John Clum, was contacted.
12:10His mission? To bring in the renegades and hold them in confinement for robbery and murder.
12:15By the time that John Clum got the message, the sighting had been 24 days old.
12:22John Clum turned to his companion at San Carlos and said,
12:26You and I know that any Apache trail that's even 24 hours old is useless.
12:32But he went anyway, as he was ordered to do.
12:35And it has happened that Geronimo had maintained his camp.
12:39And John Clum sent a messenger to Geronimo's people and said,
12:43Come in, I'd like to talk to you.
12:45Geronimo and the renegades were unaware of the problems,
12:48so they took their women and children and rode to what they thought was a conference, not a confrontation.
12:55Clum sat on a porch with a few men, but his real force was hidden inside the buildings of the
13:00agency.
13:01Eighty Indian policemen patiently waited as the discussion began to unfold.
13:06Clum accused the renegades of stealing, killing, and breaking promises of peace.
13:10He had come to take them in.
13:12Geronimo was furious.
13:14We are not going to San Carlos with you.
13:17And unless you are very careful, you and your Apache police will not go back to San Carlos either.
13:24Your bodies will stay here at Ojo Caliente to make food for the coyotes.
13:31And at that point, John Clum said, You need to surrender right now and give me your gun.
13:36And watched Geronimo put his hand back and start to cock the gun with his thumb.
13:42And at that point, John Clum tipped his sombrero.
13:47And that was the signal for these 80 Apache police to pour out of the buildings at a double-quick
13:54pace
13:54and surround the 100 Apaches and point their guns at them.
13:59I have seen many looks of hate in my long life, but never one so vicious, so vengeful.
14:06Geronimo's mouth had a natural droop on the right-hand side, so that even in repose he seemed to sneer.
14:12But when I took his rifle from him, his lip tightened and the sneer was accentuated.
14:17The scar on his face completed the picture that has remained very clearly in my memory for 55 years.
14:24John Clum, 1932.
14:27They succeeded in seizing Geronimo, shackling and ironing him, and taking him to San Carlos.
14:36The idea was they would turn Geronimo over to the civil authorities in Tucson,
14:40where he could be tried for murder.
14:42This was always a prescription for confusion and even disaster,
14:48to try Indians in the white man's court.
14:53Geronimo was never tried in the white man's court,
14:55but the impact of this one incident would have a tremendous effect on the war leader.
15:00He would always remain aware of the white man's hatred toward him.
15:03In 1877, Geronimo was forced to obey the white man's laws.
15:07He and the other Apaches were forced to San Carlos,
15:10or what was known as Hell's Forty Acres.
15:13The creator did not make San Carlos.
15:17He just left it as he found it.
15:19He did not do any work around there at all.
15:22Take stones and ashes and thorns with some scorpions and rattlesnakes thrown in,
15:27set the United States Army after the Apaches,
15:30and you have San Carlos.
15:34Owen Wister, photographer.
15:36San Carlos was a terrible place.
15:39It was in the Gila River bottoms.
15:42It was malarial.
15:43The soil was unproductive.
15:45The weather was beastly, summer and winter alike.
15:50And it was simply a place that nobody liked to live.
15:54Geronimo and his people hated San Carlos.
15:58You have to realize that he was forced to live among all kinds of Apaches,
16:03and some even non-Apaches.
16:06And they did not want to live with these people.
16:08They did not see themselves as Apaches.
16:11They saw themselves as members of a band.
16:13Plus, Indian agent John Clum wanted them to change their ways.
16:17He wanted them to grow crops and do it in a prescribed manner.
16:23He really wanted them to become Americanized.
16:26That was a big mistake.
16:31Geronimo was finally freed of shackles, and John Clum had quit.
16:36But still, the combination of cultural differences and alien environment
16:39caused the warrior to want more freedom.
16:42San Carlos was not home.
16:43It was merely an area filled with unhappy captives and corruption.
16:47When Geronimo had had enough, he simply pulled up stakes and left.
16:53These came to be known as bust-outs.
16:57When conditions on the reservation and when the white man's rules got intolerable,
17:02you simply bust out and head south.
17:05His own people were divided about which course to take.
17:10Most of them did not support Geronimo continuing the fight for freedom in their life way.
17:17They felt that in the end they would lose more than they might gain by fighting.
17:23So most of them stayed on a reservation instead of joining him.
17:27For four years, Geronimo would repeat the pattern of busting out and then returning to San Carlos.
17:32In September of 1881, Geronimo made another break, but he returned once more,
17:37this time to free those Apaches imprisoned by the white man's ways.
17:41The Indians he considered his people were under the leadership of Loco
17:44from the neighboring Membrano Apaches.
17:47Geronimo simply swooped down on the reservation with a raiding party one day
17:51and forced Loco and his people to go with him back to Mexico.
17:57They were running by night, darkness helping to hide their whereabouts.
18:00As daybreak neared, the legend has it that Geronimo helped his people escape by using his power.
18:05He sang a song that stopped the sunrise until the band had melted into the safety of the mountains.
18:10The Apaches were keeping an eye on their back trail because American soldiers were following them
18:17and not paying attention to their fun when the Mexicans fell on them
18:23and really worked a big slaughter on these people.
18:29Despite the devastation, Geronimo had been successful in assembling the largest number of Apaches in many years.
18:35They were living in the safety of the Sierra Madre, but their sanctuary would soon become unstable.
18:47The Apaches were home at last, but a free-roaming Apache was a terrifying thought to Western settlers.
18:54Pressure to subdue them mounted.
18:56Desperate action was taken.
18:58The situation spiraled out of control for Geronimo and his band
19:01when the United States employed not just Indians, but Apaches
19:05to aid in the capture of Geronimo's elusive group.
19:08This strategic move would mark the beginning of the end of the great war leaders' fight for freedom.
19:21Geronimo and the Apaches were still secure in the Sierra Madre.
19:24After many years, life resembled that of a freer time.
19:28They helped guard their safety spiritually.
19:30Blessings were held by the light of bonfire, and the crown dancers rhythmically warded off evil.
19:36Many had died to get them here, but at last they were home.
19:39They were again living off the land and raiding to collect all other provisions for survival.
19:44As long as the Apaches roamed free, the people across two borders lived in fear.
19:50But in 1882, Geronimo and the Apaches found their safety at stake
19:55when one man, General George Crook, was assigned to San Carlos
19:59to restore order to both the Southwest and Mexico.
20:02General Crook had demonstrated a real skill at guerrilla warfare,
20:09at employing the Indians' methods against the Indians.
20:14And so everyone in the government thought that if anybody could handle
20:19this highly unstable situation in Arizona, it was General Crook.
20:25With Crook in command, it meant unconventional warfare.
20:28His strategy was a departure from the Army's traditional techniques,
20:31and his methods were based on the mindset of the Indian warrior, not the white man.
20:36One of his hallmarks was to achieve great mobility,
20:41just as much mobility as the Indians had, by cutting himself free from wagon trains.
20:46And he developed mule packing to a high art.
20:51All of his supplies were carried on mules, and so he could go anywhere the Indians could go.
20:56The other hallmark of his operation was the use of Indians against Indians.
21:03What better way to grapple with Indians than by their own techniques?
21:09Even better yet, by their own people.
21:13With Geronimo on the run, the conditions at San Carlos were in a constant state of turmoil,
21:18so many Apaches enlisted as military scouts, anxious to end the uneasiness.
21:22We were scouts in order to help the whites against the Chiricahuas,
21:27because they had killed a lot of people.
21:30Apache scout.
21:33For the first time, it was Apache against Apache,
21:35and soon there was no refuge for the renegades.
21:38They managed to locate the base camps of the Apaches in the Sierra Madre,
21:43and this came as a great shock to Geronimo and all of the other leaders who were there,
21:49that their own people were now being used against them,
21:53and that the troops could actually find them in those refuges high in the Sierra Madre.
22:00Geronimo knew the end of their freedom was imminent.
22:02The power had spoken to him again, giving him the ability to predict the Apache Army invasion two days before
22:08it happened.
22:09Tomorrow afternoon, as we march along the mountains, we will see a man standing on a hill.
22:15He will howl to us and tell us that the troops have captured our base camp.
22:21Geronimo had had enemies, but never such a formidable force as that under the command of Crook.
22:31The Sierra Madre no longer offered a hiding place, so all the outlaws were forced to surrender, including Geronimo.
22:37Once again, it was back to San Carlos, but not for long.
22:41I learned from American and Apache soldiers that the Americans were going to arrest me and hang me, and so
22:49I left Geronimo.
22:53It was May of 1885 when Geronimo fled, fearing for his life with 143 Apaches.
22:59This would be his final break from San Carlos.
23:07Crook was sent back on the hunt for hostiles, and once again, the Apache scouts led the search by scouring
23:12the mountains.
23:14For Geronimo and the Apaches, it was back to a life on the run, but after eight months, it was
23:19obvious that nothing could stop the Apache scouts from closing in.
23:24Another meeting with Crook was inevitable, so an agreement was made.
23:27On March 25th, 1886, a conference would be held under the sycamore and cottonwood trees of Canyon de los Embudos.
23:35In March, he said that he would come in and discuss with General Crook a surrender, and then set the
23:42conditions.
23:43Geronimo said when it would happen, where it would happen, and who he would allow to be at those negotiations.
23:50And he specifically said no United States soldiers.
23:56The Apaches were still leery of the white man, so they had strategically positioned themselves for attack.
24:01It was said that as many as a thousand military men could not have captured the 143 armed Apaches.
24:07It would have been simply an impossibility to get white troops to that point, either by day or by night,
24:14without their knowledge.
24:15So suspicious were they that never more than five to eight of their men came into our camp at one
24:20time.
24:21And to have attempted the arrest of those would have stampeded the others to the mountains.
24:26Brigadier General George Crook, 1886.
24:30On the first day of surrender discussions, Geronimo was one of those who spoke, and he spoke at length.
24:40And General Crook asked him, why have you left the reservation?
24:45Why have you gone out raiding again?
24:46Why are you here?
24:48And Geronimo said, I had to leave.
24:52They were going to kill me.
24:54There were soldiers that would come in and tease him and put their finger across his neck as if he
25:02was going to be killed.
25:03And he feared for his life.
25:07Geronimo's fear figured prominently in the surrender discussions, but Crook stood his ground.
25:12A move to San Carlos was no longer an option.
25:15He insisted that they needed to be punished.
25:17The fight for freedom had gone too far.
25:20Crook said, you can stay out if you want.
25:23I don't care.
25:24And if you do, I will keep after you until the last man is killed, even if it takes 50
25:30years.
25:31Or you can surrender.
25:33You can go back east for two years and then come back and live on the reservation.
25:39Take your choice.
25:40I don't care which one.
25:41And Geronimo considered this long and hard and decided that he would accept Crook's terms.
25:51I give myself up to you.
25:53Do with me what you please.
25:56I surrender.
25:57Once I moved about like the wind.
26:00Now I surrender to you.
26:01And that is all.
26:04Geronimo.
26:06In some very powerful words, the war leader had given up his freedom, or so it seemed.
26:11The 143 Apaches were to surrender in the morning.
26:14But in March of 1886, only 107 would turn themselves in, among the missing, Geronimo.
26:21Unfortunately, a whiskey peddler got to Geronimo, and so en route, Geronimo and the rest of them
26:28all got drunk and stampeded back to the mountains.
26:33He later explained, I decided that I wouldn't trust the Americans, that life in Mexico was
26:42safer.
26:43The fact is that he just couldn't bring himself to submit to that kind of a loss of freedom.
26:54Geronimo and a band of Chiricahuas were back on the run.
26:57General Crook was devastated, and the government was furious.
27:01General Crook asked to be relieved of command, and the government began to readdress the situation.
27:05They decided to launch a campaign, one of the largest in military history, to capture the
27:11hostiles.
27:19In the spring of 1886, General Crook had been relieved of command.
27:24Immediate action was taken to replace him.
27:26It was left to General Nelson Miles to rescue the Southwest from the smoldering situation.
27:31The methods of Miles were different from Crook's.
27:34He decided to disband the group of Apache scouts that had been so successful in tracking the
27:39hostiles in the past.
27:40He set up a new system, complete with mirrored stations for communications throughout the
27:44area.
27:45Then he filled the field with soldiers.
27:47A staggering 5,000 men, or what was a quarter of the United States Army, was sent in search
27:53of the Geronimo band.
27:54It was a massive campaign, but still not enough to capture the elusive group of just 36 members.
28:01Ever since they'd been born, they had been placed in a situation where they had to fight,
28:06where they had to hide, where they had to be able to move long distances without leaving
28:11any trails, to be able to go places without being seen, to be able to find water where
28:17there was no water to be found, to be able to survive on whatever was available.
28:23And out of all the Apache people, this group here was a group who had all those skills necessary
28:31to accomplish those things.
28:39After months of failed attempts to capture the Chiricawas, Miles was forced to rethink
28:44his approach.
28:46General Miles thought at first that the right sort of white men could do the job, and he
28:52too found out that that wouldn't work.
28:54And in fact, virtually every white soldier that campaigned in Mexico under General Miles
29:00became worn out and had to return before completing the campaign.
29:06And so General Miles turned somewhat surreptitiously to the tried and proven crook methods.
29:16He began more and more to use Indian scouts.
29:21He kept the regulars out there visible, and they were the ones who were getting the credit,
29:28but the Indian scouts were back into the picture.
29:31Two Apache scouts were enlisted to take a message to the hostiles.
29:35A lieutenant by the name of Charles Gatewood was placed in charge, and the future of Indian
29:39warfare rode into the mountains with just three men.
29:44When the scouts were finally successful in locating Geronimo's camp, they secured a conference.
29:49On August 26, 1886, Geronimo and Lieutenant Gatewood finally met face to face.
29:55By squads, the hostiles came in, unsaddled, and turned out their ponies to graze.
30:01Among the last to arrive was Geronimo, Lieutenant Charles Gatewood, United States Army.
30:07When Gatewood met with Geronimo, he had one high card that came as a shocker to Geronimo.
30:16Geronimo was prepared to surrender if he could go back to the reservation.
30:21And Gatewood told him then, you can't go back to the reservation, none of your people are there.
30:27They have all been moved back east of Fort Marion.
30:32It was a harsh thing to do, it was in many ways a cruel thing to do,
30:38but there's no denying that it was an effective thing to do.
30:44Geronimo was willing to surrender his freedom for his family.
30:47But again, he would only give himself up to the commander in charge.
30:51So General Miles, like General Crook, was forced to take his military reputation into the field to end the fighting.
30:57On September 4, General Miles would finally meet Geronimo.
31:02One of the brightest, most resolute, determined-looking men that I have ever encountered.
31:07He had the sharpest dark eye I think I have ever seen.
31:11Every movement indicated power and determination.
31:14In everything he did, he had a purpose.
31:17General Nelson Miles.
31:19In September of 1886, at Skeleton Canyon,
31:24Miles was in a mood to tell Geronimo anything he wanted to hear.
31:30And he really did deceive Geronimo about the terms of surrender.
31:36On September 4, 1886, Geronimo abandoned his life as a renegade.
31:41The terms of surrender were set, or so he thought.
31:44He had given up his fight to spend two years in Florida,
31:47where he would be reunited with his family and friends.
31:50This agreement marked a new beginning for Geronimo.
31:52He was now officially a prisoner of war.
31:55We placed a large stone on the blanket before us.
32:00Our treaty was made by this stone,
32:02and it was to last until the stone should crumble into dust.
32:07I do not believe I ever violated that treaty,
32:11but General Miles never fulfilled his promises.
32:21The fight for freedom had ended,
32:23leaving a trail of broken promises behind.
32:25The Apaches would begin not a two-year sentence,
32:27but one that would last almost three decades,
32:30and Geronimo would never see his homeland again.
32:33Geronimo and his people were transported down to the railroad
32:37and loaded onto trains to be taken back to Fort Marion.
32:40And in a supreme historical irony,
32:44the 4th Cavalry Band played Auld Lang Syne.
32:47Auld Lang Syne rang down the curtain
32:50on four centuries of Indian warfare.
33:08In 1886, the Chiricahuas were punished for the wrongdoings of just a few.
33:14So altogether, there were more than 500 that were shipped off as prisoners of war.
33:19These were mostly women and children.
33:21Most of them never fought against the United States,
33:23had followed all the instructions that the United States had given them.
33:27Even the scouts that had been used by the United States
33:31were shipped off as prisoners of war.
33:33There is no more disgraceful page in history
33:36than that which concerns the treachery visited upon the Chiricahuas,
33:41who remained faithful in their allegiance to our people.
33:44Lieutenant John Bork.
33:46It was now completely clear that the terms agreed to while surrendering
33:50would not be honored by the white man.
33:52Geronimo would not see his family for almost two years.
33:54He and 17 warriors were imprisoned at Fort Pickens,
33:57while the rest of the Chiricahuas were sent to Fort Marion and St. Augustine.
34:01Once in Florida, it was a combination of heartbreak and humidity
34:04that began to devastate the entire Apache culture.
34:08The situation as it existed in Florida for the Apaches
34:13was one of totally an alien environment
34:17in terms of the terrain, the temperature, humidity,
34:22the structures, everything was, the weather,
34:27it was all very alien to them.
34:29They fell ill immediately with the white man's diseases,
34:35mainly malaria and tuberculosis,
34:37so that in the first seven or eight months,
34:4218 to 24 people died instantly.
34:49Where they took him is only a place for a person to suffer.
34:55There's nothing there, nothing there for them to live on.
35:01It's a place where a person is sent to to die.
35:09Their Apache ability to adapt had failed them in Florida,
35:13and now the people turned their anger toward the one man
35:15they thought had caused all the trouble.
35:18A lot of our tribal members
35:21were very justifiably of the opinion
35:24that Geronimo was a large part of the reason
35:29that our tribe was imprisoned.
35:32And a lot of people died
35:35as a result of some of the things that Geronimo did.
35:38Within a year and a half,
35:40more than 20 Chiricahuas had died.
35:42The numbers were alarming,
35:43and the only solution was to move the Apaches
35:45to another location.
35:47The Apaches were sent to Alabama.
35:49There was hope that they would adapt better
35:50to the new location,
35:51but only time would tell.
35:55After the people were relocated
35:57from St. Augustine to Mount Vernon,
36:00Geronimo and the other warriors
36:02were permitted to join the rest of their families.
36:06And Geronimo becomes just one of the crowd.
36:11He doesn't stand out as a healer or a leader
36:14or as a special individual.
36:18But I'm sure that was just so they could go on living.
36:25This was a very tough time for the Apaches.
36:28They still did not fare well in Alabama.
36:30They continued to get sick.
36:31There was nothing for them to do.
36:33They just did not adapt well.
36:36Babies were dying from septicemia,
36:39which was the result of all the mosquito bites
36:42and different bug bites that these babies had gotten.
36:47Again, their healing herbs were not available in Alabama.
36:52Their ceremonies were not available.
36:55The people couldn't, didn't know how to handle
36:58the white man's illnesses.
37:01And they died.
37:05By 1894, there were under 300 Apaches alive
37:08out of the 517 imprisoned just eight years before.
37:12They were dying at an alarming rate.
37:14And once again, this disturbing and deadly situation
37:16had to be remedied.
37:17They were moved once more,
37:19this time to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
37:24When the Apaches disembarked from the train
37:26and heard the coyote for the first time
37:28since leaving the Southwest,
37:30they felt like they were back home.
37:32It was a peaceful, settling feeling.
37:35And hearing it was like a good sign, a good omen.
37:42During the first winter,
37:43they built their traditional wiki-ups
37:45with wagon canvas issued by the Army.
37:47When summer arrived,
37:48they began to build their own homes.
37:50Soon, over 200 wooden structures dotted the landscape.
37:54When the Apaches settled
37:56into their more permanent villages,
37:59they were each established based on the extended family.
38:03The head man, the elder of that extended family
38:06had his own village.
38:08So they were able to maintain that hierarchy,
38:11that sense of elder respect.
38:15So that was good.
38:17They also enlisted the men,
38:19all able-bodied men, into the Army.
38:23Prisoners of war, officially,
38:25who are now soldiers of Troop L in the 7th Cavalry.
38:30Life was getting better for the Apaches,
38:32but Geronimo was feeling a bit overlooked.
38:35Geronimo was getting up in years by this time,
38:38and we see some animosity beginning to develop.
38:42He began to get caught up in his own legend
38:45to a certain extent.
38:46Some of the other Apaches didn't like that too much.
38:51Geronimo wanted preferential treatment
38:53even when he was here in the Army.
38:55He felt that because he was well-known,
38:58a personality, that he should gain rank
39:01and status quicker than the other men.
39:05He found out very quickly
39:06that was not going to be the case.
39:09Geronimo deliberately was kept
39:11from being promoted any faster
39:14than any other Apache soldier.
39:18Geronimo was losing ground among his people,
39:20but the white man still admired the bravery
39:22of this fearsome warrior
39:23and was willing to pay for a piece of anything he owned.
39:27He became known as quite an entrepreneur
39:29because he would sell the buttons off of his coat.
39:33He kept a pocket full of buttons
39:35that he kept replenishing them with
39:36and selling them just as fast as he could.
39:39Geronimo began to whittle bows and arrows for sale
39:43to the tourists,
39:45and he learned how to write his name,
39:47so he would sign autographs
39:49and charge the tourists 25 cents for an autograph.
39:54Some of the other neighboring tribes,
39:56such as the Kiowa and Comanches,
39:58would frequently bring their beadwork to him to sell
40:00because they felt he could sell it easier than they could.
40:03He was well-known, people sought him out,
40:06and anything made, used, handled by Geronimo was marketable.
40:12I often made as much as $2 a day.
40:15I had plenty of money,
40:17more than I had ever owned before.
40:20Geronimo, 1906.
40:22This living legend was in demand,
40:24so he began to make numerous public appearances.
40:27He had terrified the West,
40:29and now he was awing audiences around the nation with his presence.
40:34He was seen everywhere,
40:36but his most notable journey took him to Washington
40:38to ride in the inaugural parade for Theodore Roosevelt.
40:43Geronimo was supposed to symbolize a part of the country's past.
40:46He was one of six so-called wild Indians that led the procession.
40:50The administration was making a point.
40:52They could do anything, and that included taming the Indians.
40:56It was probably propaganda at its worst,
40:59but Geronimo saw it as an opportunity to meet the president
41:02and present him with a final plea for freedom.
41:05White men are in the country that was my home.
41:09I pray you tell them to go away
41:11and let my people go there and be happy.
41:14Great Father, my hands are tied as with rope.
41:18I will tell my people to obey no chief
41:20but the great white chief.
41:22I pray you to cut the ropes and make me free.
41:26Let me die in my own country,
41:28an old man who has been punished enough and is free.
41:33Geronimo, 1905.
41:36The request was denied.
41:39Geronimo was sent back to Fort Sill,
41:41but his hopes for freedom to roam his homeland
41:43just one more time remained.
41:45It is my land, my home, my father's land,
41:50to which I now ask to be allowed to return.
41:54I want to spend my last days there
41:56and be buried among those mountains.
41:59If this could be, I might die in peace.
42:04Geronimo.
42:06Geronimo never gave up the dream
42:08of once again seeing the Southwest.
42:10More than two decades after his surrender,
42:12he was still a prisoner of war.
42:14However, he had a certain degree of freedom.
42:16By the time he was in his 80s,
42:18he was allowed to leave the grounds alone
42:19and ride into town to sell his goods.
42:21It was on one of these trips
42:23where Geronimo encountered his final fight.
42:26Coming back late at night
42:28from the town of Lawton,
42:30feeling a little too much whiskey,
42:33fell off his horse
42:34and lay in a gully all night long
42:38in a puddle of water.
42:40He was found the next day,
42:42brought into the post
42:43to the Apache Hospital
42:45that was here on the post
42:46and treated for pneumonia
42:48that he developed.
42:51On February 17, 1909,
42:53the great war leader
42:54had surrendered for the last time.
42:55His struggle to survive had ended
42:57and his spirit was free at last.
42:59The fearsome warrior
43:00had fought his final battle,
43:01leaving only a legend to live on.
43:14The chap was a fun two,
43:15the dead man was forced to die,
43:16but the most likely were
43:20He was also the one who was
43:21to the point where he was
43:21to die on their life.
43:21in the back hope he was
43:21and the of the night
43:23and the other people
43:23that were the first time
43:24and his father
43:24that he would've gotten
43:26and the mother
43:26that was a fairly unique
43:27that he does
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