On This Day in History, Geronimo Surrenders to the U.S. Government

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On September 4, 1886, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to U.S. government troops. For 30 years, the Native American warrior had battled to protect his tribe’s homeland; however, by 1886 the Apaches were exhausted and outnumbered.

General Nelson Miles accepted Geronimo’s surrender, making him the last Native American warrior to formally give in to U.S. forces and signaling the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest.

Geronimo was born in 1829 and grew up in what is present-day Arizona and Mexico. His tribe, the Chiricahua Apaches, clashed with non-Native settlers trying to take their land. In 1858, Geronimo’s family was murdered by Mexicans. Seeking revenge, he later led raids against Mexican and American settlers.



U.S. General Nelson Miles

In 1874, the U.S. government moved Geronimo and his people from their land to a reservation in east-central Arizona. Conditions on the reservation were restrictive and harsh and Geronimo and some of his followers escaped.

READ MORE: How Geronimo Eluded Death and Capture for 25 Years

Over the next decade, they battled federal troops and launched raids on white settlements. During this time, Geronimo and his supporters were forced back onto the reservation several times. In May 1885, Geronimo and approximately 150 followers fled one last time. They were pursued into Mexico by 5,000 U.S. troops.

In March 1886, General George Crook (1829–90) forced Geronimo to surrender; however, Geronimo quickly escaped and continued his raids. General Nelson Miles (1839–1925) then took over the pursuit of Geronimo, eventually forcing him to surrender that September near Fort Bowie along the Arizona-New Mexico border.

Geronimo and a band of Apaches were sent to Florida and then Alabama, eventually ending up at the Comanche and Kiowa reservation near Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory. There, Geronimo became a successful farmer and converted to Christianity. He participated in President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in 1905. The Apache leader dictated his autobiography, published in 1906 as Geronimo’s Story of His Life

He died at Fort Sill on February 17, 1909.

WATCH: Native American History Documentaries on HISTORY Vault

Source: YT

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7 COMMENTS

  2. The major aspect of cultural genocide is the historical christian or islamic mission, most times done by force. The Jesuits in Southamerica protected their christianiced Indigenes. But to be protected they had to give up their culture. In our days we talk about cultural marxism we have to fight. A hundred years ago it was nothing else than antique-cultural marxism. And the antique Karl Marx was called Paulus.

  3. “They took our hearts under a dark blanket/ it was a twenty-year-old general turquoise eyes blue jacket/ now our bodies lie at the bottom of Sand Kreek …” are two lines from an Italian singer poet and you will know Sand Creek refers to.
    The opinion of many is that the discovery of America was the greatest disaster in history.
    When its 500th anniversary was celebrated in Italy in 1994, there was a cartoon captioned “Discovery of America” and a little man lifting the lid of a garbage can and a cartoon saying “what a stench cover it.”
    America was actually “discovered” from the West by the Phoenicians then on their routes by the Greeks and Romans (before the ignorance of Pliny the Elder and science in his day on the subject denied it and ended their frequentation) and to the East by the Polynesians.
    From the West in 1494 perhaps this was the downfall of those who expected peaceful traders and not adventurers with lust for power for the King. Sand Kreek and Geronimo are the resilient awareness of the last bulwark against the invasion that began after 1494. Kudos to them.
    If nothing is learned from history we who celebrate will be the next to end up like them.
    The Conquistadors of then are the Mondialistas of today.

    • As african, i believe it so, even with all the enslavement, europeans didn´t managed to whipe africans in those numbers, they could have enslaved more but the genocide against americans were the outmost in human chrimes.

  4. An amazing historical character who resisted assimilation into the European culture and wanted to remain a “human being”.

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