#geronimo

Geronimo, 69 years old (1898, after he had surrendered and was living as a p.o.w. at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.)

Victor Daniels 

April 12, 1899 – December 1, 1955

☆ (aka Chief Thundercloud) was an American character actor. His portrayal of Native American characters, particularly in Westerns, helped shape the image of Native Americans in early cinema.

His roles were mostly that of the noble warrior or wise elder, often depicted as a fierce yet honorable figure.

His powerful presence and authenticity made him one of the most recognized Native American actors of his time. His title "Chief" was a Hollywood invention, a stage name.

Geronimo

Geronimo (Goyahkla, l. c. 1829-1909) was a medicine man and war chief of the Bedonkohe tribe of the Chiricahua Apache nation, best known for his resistance against the encroachment of Mexican and Euro-American settlers and armed forces into Apache territory and as one of the last Native American leaders to surrender to the United States government.

During the Apache Wars (1849-1886), he allied with other leaders such as Cochise (l. c. 1805-1874) and Victorio (l. c. 1825-1880) in attacks on US forces after Apache lands became part of US territories following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Between c. 1850 and 1886, Geronimo led raids against villages, outposts, and cattle trains in northern Mexico and southwest US territories, often striking with relatively small bands of warriors against superior numbers and slipping away into the mountains and then back to his homelands in the region of modern-day Arizona and New Mexico.

He surrendered to US authorities three times, but when the terms of his surrender were not honored, he escaped the reservation and returned to launching raids on settlements. He was finally talked into surrendering for good by First Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood (l. 1853-1896), under the command of General Nelson A. Miles (l. 1839-1925), in 1886. None of the terms stipulated by Miles were honored, but by that time, Geronimo felt he was too old and too tired to continue running. Geronimo's surrender to Gatewood is told accurately, though with some poetic license, in the Hollywood movie Geronimo: An American Legend (1993).

Geronimo was imprisoned at Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida, before being moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Toward the end of his life, he became a sensation at the St. Louis World's Fair (1904) and President Theodore Roosevelt's Inaugural Parade (1905) as well as other events. Although one of the stipulations of his surrender was his return to his homelands in Arizona, he was held as a prisoner elsewhere for 23 years before dying in 1909 of pneumonia at Fort Sill.

Name & Youth

His Apache name was Goyahkla ("One Who Yawns"), and, according to some scholars, he acquired the name Geronimo during his campaigns against Mexican troops, who would appeal to Saint Jerome (San Jeronimo in Spanish) for assistance. This was possibly Saint Jerome Emiliani (l. 1486-1537), patron of orphans and abandoned children, not the better-known Saint Jerome of Stridon (l. c. 342-420), translator of the Bible into the Vulgate and patron of translators, scholars, and librarians.

Geronimo was born near Turkey Creek near the Gila River in the region now known as Arizona and New Mexico c. 1825. He was the fourth of eight children and had three brothers and four sisters. In his autobiography, Geronimo: The True Story of America's Most Ferocious Warrior (1906), dictated to S. M. Barrett, Geronimo described his youth:

When a child, my mother taught me the legends of our people; taught me of the sun and sky, the moon and stars, the clouds, and storms. She also taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom, and protection. We never prayed against any person, but if we had aught against any individual, we ourselves took vengeance. We were taught that Usen does not care for the petty quarrels of men. My father had often told me of the brave deeds of our warriors, of the pleasures of the chase, and the glories of the warpath. With my brothers and sisters, I played about my father's home. Sometimes we played at hide-and-seek among the rocks and pines; sometimes we loitered in the shade of the cottonwood trees…When we were old enough to be of real service, we went to the field with our parents; not to play, but to toil.

(12)

After his father died of illness, his mother did not remarry, and Geronimo took her under his care. In 1846, when he was around 17 years old, he was admitted to the Council of Warriors, which meant he could now join in war parties and also marry. He married Alope of the Nedni-Chiricahua tribe, and they would later have three children. Geronimo set up a home for his family near his mother's teepee, and as he says, "we followed the traditions of our fathers and were happy. Three children came to us – children that played, loitered, and worked as I had done" (Barrett, 25). This happy time in Geronimo's life would not last long, however.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Chapter 5 of "A Very Merry Geronimo Christmas," from the Geronimo Saga by @rebellingstagnationblog This is my interpretation of the chapter, with a few of my own touches, but I think it turned out well even though I'm not an expert^^'

I'd like to say it's my favorite chapter of that Christmas fic, but nope, all the chapters are favorites x3 Actually, I planned to make this comic for Christmas last year, but I didn't even manage to start it then, but this time I did!

He had vanished into mountains where entire armies had failed to track him down… And yet, the formidable Apache leader Geronimo spent his final days behind prison walls, far from the land he had sworn to defend.

For decades, Geronimo led a relentless resistance against Mexican and American forces across the searing deserts and rugged canyons of the American Southwest.

Soldiers spoke of merciless pursuits, of Apache warriors crossing impossible terrain only to dissolve into the desert heat like phantoms.

But in September 1886, after years of pursuit, hardship, and exhaustion, Geronimo was finally compelled to surrender near Skeleton Canyon, in the Arizona Territory.

Many Apaches still believed that, once peace was restored, they would one day be allowed to return home… But that promise was never fulfilled.

Under armed guard, they were deported thousands of miles away from their sacred mountains and turned into prisoners of war.

As the years passed, Geronimo was held in a succession of military forts, including Fort Pickens and Fort Sill. The contrast was heartbreaking: the man who had once ridden freely through canyon lands now lived hemmed in by soldiers, fences, and prison walls.

In the final photographs taken of him, his face—etched by time—still bore the piercing gaze of the warrior he had once been. Visitors came from far away simply to look upon him, as though he were a living remnant of a vanishing world.

Yet behind that public fascination lay a profound tragedy: Geronimo pleaded again and again to be allowed to return home… and every plea was denied.

In February 1909, old and weakened, he was thrown from his horse while traveling through freezing rain. Left exposed to the cold for hours, he developed pneumonia. On February 17, 1909, Geronimo died at Fort Sill, far from the mountains and desert that had shaped the whole of his life.

According to tradition, one of his final regrets was his surrender. He is said to have declared: “I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until the last man alive.”