Geronimo

Gerónimo (Arizpe, Sonora, June 16, 1829 - Fort Sill, Oklahoma, February 17, 1909), (in the Chiricahua language he was Goyaałé (AFI [ gojaːˈɬe], transliterated into English as Goyathlay, meaning "the one who yawns") was a prominent military chief of the Bendoke Apaches who, between 1858 and 1886, fought against the Mexican and American armies throughout northern Mexico, alongside Juh, Victorio, and Lozen.

The attacks led by Gerónimo were the continuation of the so-called Apache Wars, started by the Indian chief Mangas Coloradas.

Biography

He was born in an Apacheria town, which at that time was in the territory of the Mexican state of Sonora, within the Bedonkohe Apache tribe, of which his grandfather Mahko had been chief, in the Nodoyohn Canyon, near of the Gila River. He was the son of Taa Di Tlish Hn and Gha Den Dini (& # 34; she who is pierced by light & # 34;).

In 1880 the troops of the military governor of Sonora murdered his wife, his three children and his mother. Gerónimo then swore revenge and associated with Cochise, the chief of the Chiricahua Apaches. Together they attacked Sonora, where numerous Mexican soldiers were killed. In the following years there were attacks on various Mexican cities.

When Cochise died, his father, Naiche, proclaimed Geronimo chief of the tribe. However, in 1884 he was forced to enter an Indian reservation. Gerónimo refused to remain in that arid piece of land and went to Mexico in 1885, accompanied by a group of warriors including Chihuahua Mangas (son of Mangas Coloradas) and Nachez. From then on, he went back and forth between the two places, haranguing his people so that they would not accept being confined to a reservation and living as prisoners; staging various attacks on convoys and settlers in a tireless manner.

In 1886, after one more escape by Gerónimo, this time along with approximately thirty other Apaches, the order was given to search for and capture Gerónimo, sending 3,000 soldiers (a third of the US Army at the time).) and offering himself a reward of US$20.

Gerónimo was found in the Sierra Madre and after discussions with the United States Army, he decided to turn himself in. Next, the Apaches (both followers of Gerónimo and those who served the US army) were sent to Fort Marion, in Florida, USA, where the living conditions to which they were subjected caused numerous deaths from diseases. Gerónimo was confined in the Fronteras prison (Sonora), where valuable memories are kept in the museum that today bears his name, where he remained for three years. After this time, he was forced by the United States to remain on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, without him having the opportunity to see his people again. There he spent the last years of his life, having to assume what was called at that time an "exemplary Indian", participating in a presidential parade and in the Universal Exposition of San Luis in 1904. At the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition (1901), where the organizers reserved within the Midway, an environment for entertainment, a space for the Indian Village, where the customs of the original peoples of North America were represented. About seven hundred indigenous people representing forty-two tribes made up the Indian Congress, among them Crazy Snake and Gerónimo, leaders of the Indian resistance, taken prisoner by the Federal Government, who were taken to the meeting heavily guarded by soldiers. All of them could be seen standing next to a horse that added and subtracted and a chimpanzee whose many abilities included using cutlery, riding a bicycle, and playing the piano. Gerónimo was also at the Universal Exposition in San Luis (1904) where he sold bows and arrows and autographed photographs of himself. He died at the age of 79.

Denunciations of the theft of his skull

Portrait of Geronimo, by Edward S. Curtis, 1905.

Geronimo as a prisoner of war of the United States in 1905.

Six members of the Yale secret society Skull and Bones, including Prescott Bush, served as army volunteers at Fort Sill during World War I. Various parties and organizations in the United States have accused them of having stolen Geronimo's skull and some of this Apache chief's personal items, including his silver reins, from the Apache Prisoner of War Cemetery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Alexandra Robbins claimed that these objects were at the sect's Yale headquarters.

In 1986, former San Carlos Apache President Ned Anderson received a letter and a photo with the skull at Skull & Bones. Skull & Bones has met several times with officers to discuss the rumor; the group's prosecutor, Endicott P. Davidson, denies that they have the skull and alleges that the 1918 desecration and theft is a myth, rejecting it. In 2006, Marc Wortman discovered a 1918 letter from a member of the Skull & Bones Winter Mead, addressed to F. Trubee Davison, confirming the theft:

The skull of the worrying Geronimo, the Terrible, was exhumed from his tomb in Fort Sill by our club... is safe in our tomb ("The tomb" is the headquarters of the Skull and Bones) in Yale and would also be a femur and its silver reins.

Letter of 1918 from the member of the Skull & Bones Winter Mead to F. Trubee Davison

But Mead was not at Fort Sill, and Cameron University history professor David H. Miller claimed that Geronimo's grave was unmarked at the time. The revelation led Harlyn Geronimo of Mescalero, New Mexico, wrote to President George H. W. Bush (also a member of the Skull & Bones) requesting the return of the remains:

According to our traditions, the remains of this kind, especially when the tomb was desecrated so that [the remains] were used for purposes that violate our dignity... they need to be resurrected with the appropriate rituals... to restore their dignity and allow their spirit to rest in peace.

Letter from Harlyn Gerónimo de Mescalero, New Mexico, write to President George H. W. Bush.

In 2009, Ramsey Clark represented Geronimo's descendants in a return of remains lawsuit against Barack Obama, Robert Gates, and the Skull and Bones, demanding the return of Geronimo's bones. An article in The New York Times states that Clark "acknowledges that he has no substantial evidence that the story is true". They do not have further information, but they expect the court to investigate.

Researchers ranging from Cecil Adams to Kitty Kelley reject the story. A Fort Sill spokesman told Adams: "There is no concrete evidence that the bones are anywhere other than in the grave." Jeff Houser, chairman of the Apache tribe of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, also called the story a myth.

There is currently a petition before the United States Congress to repatriate Geronimo's skull.

Pop Culture

• In many movies and TV series, the characters who are adventing themselves in free fall often shout their name as a way of gaining courage in the face of the jump. Custom has ended up transcending for colloquial language in general and for any physically risky situation, with jumps or not. According to the most widespread version, the expression was born in 1940 within an American regiment of paratroopers that was training, which would have seen together a film about the Apache shortly before making its first jumps.
• In 2002, the British singer Roger Waters on the Flickering Flame album: The Solo Years Vol. 1 added the song "Flickering Flame" in which it refers to the spirit of attack and never surrendering from Geronimo.
• In 2014, Pottsville's hard rock band, Pennsylvania Crobot included in his album Something Supernatural the song "Skull of Geronimo" where he tells the legacy of the apache leader and the myth that envelops the desecration of his remains.
• In 2015, the Mexican Christian singer Jesús Adrián Romero made the video clip of his song "I let you win" (which is part of his album Soplando vida) where he talks about the "Monumento to surrender", built in honor of Gerónimo.

Gerónimo is mentioned in the following works:

• Quadrinhos Geronimo e seus Apaches Assassinos
• In movies and television:
  • Geronimo's Last Raid (1912)
  • Hawk of the Wilderness (1940)
  • Geronimo (1930)
  • Stagecoach (1949)
  • Valley of the Sun (1948)
  • Fort Apache (1948)
  • Broken Arrow (1950)
  • I Killed Geronimo (1950)
  • Outpost (1951)
  • Son of Geronimo (1952)
  • The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)
  • Apache (1954)
  • Geronimo (1962)
  • Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
  • "The Indian Geronimo" The three twins (2003)
  • "Sound Desert" (2019)
  • Doctor Who, "Gerónimo" is the typical phrase of the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor (Matt Smith, 2010-2013).