Geronimo, War Hero Geronimo Was in Many

Geronimo, War Hero Geronimo was in many ways an exemplary human being. He was brave, loyal, passionate, spiritual, truthful, strong, and wise. Raised in the Apache tradition, his real name was Goyathlay (meaning one who yawns). The name Geronimo was given him by his enemies (the Spanish-Mexicans, who called out to St. Jerome -- or Jeronimo -- when Goyathlay attacked (Welker, 2011).

To the Spanish-Mexicans and the Americans, the man they dubbed Geronimo was a savage, but to his own people -- and indeed to many Americans who met him after his surrender -- Geronimo was a noble soul and a great leader as opposed to the villain the propagandists tried to make him out to be. This paper will show what made Geronimo such a noble man. The war between the Mexicans and the Apache was indeed brutal.

But it was a war over land -- and both sides committed what might today be called atrocities in raids upon the other's homeland. In a Mexican raid, Geronimo's family was slaughtered. Geronimo, therefore, joined a party of revenge and became the war chief of the Apaches.

As war chief, Geronimo excelled in leading his men in battle -- and his view of the enemy was definitive: in the Southwest in the 19th century, the law was kill or be killed -- and Geronimo followed this law to the letter: "I have killed many Mexicans; I do not know how many, for frequently I did not count them. Some of them were not worth counting. It has been a long time since then, but still I have no love for Mexicans.

With me they were always treacherous and malicious…I am old…. If I were young, and followed the warpath, it would lead into Old Mexico" (Geronimo, 1906, p. 89). These words were written, of course, after his surrender to the United States government. And by that point he had converted to Protestant Christianity (which later expelled him for gambling). His spiritual beliefs were as noble as his ideas as a warrior: he was not concerned with dialoguing -- for him war was personal and, as he said, was with Mexico.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the United States government sought to put the Apache on a reservation. Led by Geronimo, these Apaches began to raid the settlers who had displaced them. The U.S. gave chase and a campaign against Geronimo ensued. Geronimo's initial reaction was to surrender peacefully, but "rumors of impending trials and hangings" caused him to flee once more with a small handful of Apache warriors and a few followers. Geronimo was finally surrounded in the Sonora Mountains, and in 1886 he surrendered (Weiser, 2010).

However, Geronimo escaped again that same year and -- that same year -- was once more surrounded, this time in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. Geronimo and his band were moved by rail to Florida. Eight years later, he arrived in Oklahoma and began a period of assimilation. As a retired old war chief assimilated into American life (often appearing at fairs and, famously, in "Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade" (Weiser), Geronimo's fame grew to legendary proportions: everyone wanted to know about the warrior chief who walked among them.

Indeed, his obituary appeared on 18 February 1909 in The New York Times, citing him "as the leader of the warring Apaches of the Southwestern territories in pioneer days, [who] gained a reputation for cruelty and cunning never surpassed by that of any other American Indian chief. For more than twenty years he and his men were the terror of the country, always leaving a trail of bloodshed and devastation" (Old Apache Chief Geronimo is Dead, 1909).

The obituary notice, of course, was stilted in the sense that it meant to show Indians as savage. However, in Geronimo's own words (which were never apologetic), the war chief is seen as fierce, practical, honest, spiritual, and intelligent -- just as, say, Gen. Patton has been portrayed. The only difference of course is that Patton was a United States war hero, and Geronimo was an Apache war hero. In fact, part of the legend surrounding Geronimo testifies to the greatness of the man.

It was due to the fact that he courageously faced greatly uneven odds to defend his people and his homeland. It is a testament to his courage and belief that the Mexicans felt the need to call on the assistance of the saints when they met him in battle.

Geronimo may have been fierce and unyielding when it came to war -- but in his old age he embraced the teachings of Christ, which consisted of mercy and charity and explained the afterlife in a way that the Apaches could not. Geronimo was not biased or prejudiced: he simply fought with both hands an enemy that threatened his livelihood. For these reasons, his own people followed him and hailed him as a great medicine man, spiritual leader, and war.