Geronimo and 16 Apache warriors were shipped by train to Ft. Pickens, Florida, in 1886 to begin 27 years of imprisonment, ending over two decades of the Apache Wars in the Southwest. When Geronimo and his band had finally surrendered in September, 1886, his group numbered only 34 men, women, and children. He was the last Apache to wage war against the United States. The tiny band had outrun and outfought 5,000 U.S. soldiers and 3,000 Mexican troops for over five months without that huge military force ever capturing a single one of Geronimo’s people. The renegades surrendered to Brigadier General Nelson Miles, who promised Geronimo that he and his band could return to their ancestral home in Arizona after a period of exile in Florida, but Miles’ promise was never fulfilled. Geronimo died in captivity.
Geronimo was a Chiricahua Apache living in the mountains of Southern Arizona when he was admitted to the warriors’ council in 1846. He participated in raids into Mexico to capture horses and steal provisions to provide for his fellow Apache. He became a lifelong, violent enemy of Mexico when a band of 400 Mexicans raided his encampment in his absence, murdering and scalping many, including Geronimo’s mother, wife, and three small children.
Geronimo and his fellow Apache fought alongside another famous warrior and Apache, Chief Cochise, turning to violent guerilla raids on both American and Mexican settlements, often killing civilians to protect the Apache way of life and to avoid capture by the U.S. Army. Their attacks on U.S. forces and settlers led the military to negotiate numerous peace treaties, which did not hold.
In 1874 the U.S. military forced 4,000 Apache onto San Carlos Reservation to make room for white settlers who wanted Apache land. San Carlos was located in an arid, inhospitable area which offered no resources and poor soil for farming. Rations were scarce and most of the Apache were hungry. They were deprived of tribal rights and they were homesick, so they looked to Geronimo, who had eluded capture until 1877 when he was finally captured and brought to San Carlos in chains. Because of Geronimo’s well-established reputation as a religious and military leader, San Carlos Apache turned to him to lead their break from the reservation to resume their nomadic lifestyle. They were caught repeatedly and returned to the reservation, only to escape again.
When their final escape occurred, General George Crook led over 5,000 troops against the Apache for ten months and over a thousand miles. The band surrendered in Sonora, but reneged on the treaty, and Geronimo led his small group to escape under cover of darkness. After that escape, they covered as many as 70 miles per day to avoid the American cavalry and Apache scouts on their trail. After five months of eluding their pursuers, Geronimo and his band were weary of life on the run. On September 4, 1886, they finally surrendered to Brigadier General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. Geronimo was the last Indian leader to formally surrender to the United States military.
Geronimo and his small band, including the Apache army scouts who had helped to catch him, were sent to Ft. Pickens in Florida, where they were labeled as prisoners of war and begin their exile at hard labor on the island of Santa Rosa, which guarded the entrance to Pensacola Bay. Their wives and children were sent to Ft. Marion at St. Augustine, where many of them died of malaria.
Geronimo and his warriors were first intended for Ft. Marion, as well; but a group Pensacola businessmen petitioned the Army to send the men to Ft. Pickens where military leaders claimed they would be able to provide more secure, less crowded quarters for the prisoners.
The actual reason for the request was that the businessmen thought the famous warriors would be a great tourist attraction for the city. THE PENSACOLIAN, the city’s newspaper, congratulated the businessmen and the local congressman for their coup, stating that Geronimo “would be an attraction which would bring here a great many tourists.” They were correct. After the Apache leader and his men arrived at Ft. Pickens on October 25, 1886, tourists arrived by train, hired boatmen to ferry them across the bay, and paid 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children to view the “bloodthirsty savage” at Ft. Pickens. In one day Geronimo had 459 visitors with an average daily attendance of 20 during the duration of his captivity. A sympathetic guard taught the illiterate Geronimo to write his name, thus allowing the “savage” to make pocket money, selling his autograph to the gawking tourists. The great warrior was reduced to a side show spectacle.
After two years, the families of the prisoners were granted a transfer from Ft. Marion to Ft. Pickens to live with their husbands/fathers in rooms intended for officers’ quarters. When the families arrived, the city of Pensacola held a “Corn Dance” to welcome them, and 300 local citizens were invited to attend – more tourist attractions featuring the savages. The Apache prisoners and their families were moved to Mount Vernon Barracks, Mobile, Alabama, in 1888 because of a yellow fever scare.
Despite the promise that they could return to their homeland in Arizona after their Florida exile, the prisoners completed their 27 years of imprisonment at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. They were given a reservation of 50,000 acres to farm there in 1894, but they were not finally granted their freedom until 1913, five years after Geronimo’s death.
The old warrior was given permission to travel under military guard when he joined the Pawnee Bill Wild West Show for a time, billed as the “Apache Terror” and the “Tiger of the Human Race.” He sold autographed pictures. Wearing war paint, Geronimo rode a pony down Pennsylvania Avenue in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. Spectators shouted, “Hooray for Geronimo!” He met Roosevelt five days after the inauguration and took the opportunity to plead with the President to send the Apache back to their homes in Arizona. “I pray you to cut the ropes and make me free,” he said. The President refused. Even after 20 years of captivity, Geronimo was considered too much of a danger to be released. The Federal Government finally freed the remainder of the Apache prisoners in 1913.
Geronimo became something of a celebrity and was invited to attend numerous special events, such as the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, always under guard. When he and his armed guards rode trains to these events, travelers bought the buttons off Geronimo’s shirt as souvenirs. Seeing an opportunity to make a little money, the shrewd old Apache purchased buttons at train stops, sewed them on his shirt, and continued to ply his tourist trade.
Geronimo died of pneumonia at Ft. Sill in 1909, still a prisoner of the government. He was buried in Beef Creek Apache Cemetery at Ft. Sill. Not even in death was he allowed to return to his ancestral homeland to be buried.
