The U. S. Army made good use of Apache Scouts. They knew how to track Geronimo’s band across the deserts and into the mountains. They located Geronimo’s last hiding place.
The U. S. Army made good use of Apache Scouts. They knew how to track Geronimo’s band across the deserts and into the mountains. They located Geronimo’s last hiding place.
Life at San Carlos improved. Geronimo’s band lived at Turkey Creek near Fort Apache. Here they found clear water and pine forests. Game was plentiful. The U.S. government wanted the Apaches to become farmers. The agents gave them plows, seeds, and tools. The plan failed. The warriors thought farming was below them. They left such work to women.
The Apaches brewed tiswin, a beer made from corn. When they drank, the Apaches got into fights. The Army passed rules against making tiswin, as well as on many other things. These limits on their freedoms angered the Apaches. They hated reservation life. They decided to become free.
On May 17, 1885, Geronimo again led his band south. Headlines read: “The Apaches Are Out!” A reporter asked Lieutenant Charles Gatewood, “How many Apaches are in the field?” “Just forty-two [men] and about ninety [women] and children,” Gatewood answered.1
En route to the border, the Apaches killed seventeen settlers. Some died during raids. The Apaches killed others to keep them from reporting their presence. Within months, 2,000 soldiers and scouts searched for the Apaches. Geronimo raided throughout the Southwest and northern Mexico. In six weeks (November through December 1885), his band traveled 1,200 miles. During that time, they killed thirty-eight more people. They also stole 250 horses and mules. For months, the Apaches eluded the troops. In January 1886, Army scouts found Geronimo’s hideout in Mexico. They captured all his horses and supplies. The band scattered. They moved north, close to the border. Geronimo sent word to Crook. He wanted a meeting.
On March 25, 1886, Geronimo’s band met with Crook. Crook reminded them of Geronimo’s promise that peace would last. Crook told Geronimo what would happen if he gave up. He would serve two years in prison in the East. Then he could go back to his people. On March 27, Geronimo surrendered. A day later, he heard a rumor that the soldiers would hang him at the border. He fled into the mountains. Only thirty-eight Apaches went with him.
Geronimo’s escape angered President Grover Cleveland. He wanted Geronimo hanged. Crook resigned and General Nelson Miles replaced him. Miles dismissed the Apache scouts. He massed 5,000 troops, a fourth of the entire army. The soldiers fanned out across the Southwest and northern Mexico. They could not find Geronimo. Miles rehired the Apache scouts. This time, the soldiers said, we will find and defeat him.
In late August, the Army had success. Scouts saw a woman from Geronimo’s band. She was loading three ponies with supplies. They tracked her to a nearby canyon.
The scouts came to Geronimo under a white flag. They told him, “The troops are coming after you from all directions. They aim to kill everyone of you if it takes fifty years. Everything is against you. If you awake at night and a rock rolls down the mountain or a stick breaks, you will be running. You even eat your meals running. You have no friends whatever in the world.”2 Geronimo agreed. He asked to talk with Miles.
The two men met on September 3, 1886. Miles told Geronimo that the Army had sent his band to Florida. If he gave up, he could join them within five days. The next day, Geronimo gave himself up. “This is the fourth time I have surrendered,” he said. “And I think it is the last,” Miles replied.3 He and Miles placed a large stone on a blanket. The peace, they agreed, would last until the stone crumbled.
Geronimo, shown here with Natchez, was almost 60 when he made his final surrender in 1886. General Miles had promised he could settle in Arizona. Instead, he was sent to prison in Florida.