Geronimo

Geronimo (Goyathlay)

Chiricahua Apache

Warrior, Prisoner of War, American Icon

A most combative Apache leader, Geronimo resisted all government attempts to confine his people to reservations. “I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.” A masterful warrior-chief, he fought Anglo-American and Mexican encroachment for thirty years, and suffered exile as a prisoner of war to a Florida jail, later to a guarded area in Alabama, and finally returned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Much of Geronimo’s military prowess was attributed to spiritual knowledge, partly expressed in his autobiography: “When a child, my mother taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection.”