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The Rise of Geronimo by Bill Markley
Geronimo was unknown to the White Eyes until the 1870s. He and his band of Bedonkohe remained independent, at times associating with Juh and his Nednhi in Mexico as well as with Cochise and his Chokonen in Arizona. From the winter of 1870-71 until the spring of 1872, they recovered from the U.S. army attack, staying with Victorio and his Chihenne at Ojo Caliente in New Mexico.
Government officials had earlier led Cochise and his Chokonen to believe they could settle at Ojo Caliente. However, the Indian agent, Orlando Piper, and the new military commander for the Department of New Mexico, Colonel Gordon Granger, told Cochise, Victorio, and other leaders that the Chiricahua must move seventy miles to the northwest to the cold, desolate Tularosa Valley. This infuriated all the Chiricahua. They believed Tularosa was haunted with evil spirits. At the end of March 1872, Cochise and his Chokonen began their return to Arizona.
Geronimo and his Bedonkohe most likely left at the same time with the Chokonen. Victorio held a four-day feast and dance for the departing Bedonkohe. Geronimo later said, “No one ever treated our tribe more kindly than Victoria [sic] and his band. We are still proud to say he and his people were our friends.”
By mid-May, the Chokonen and Bedonkohe had left Arizona for Mexico, joining Juh and his Nednhi outside Janos where they attempted to negotiate a peace treaty and receive rations from the Chihuahua government. However, Sonoran troops crossed the state line in early July, attacking and destroying Juh’s rancheria. This convinced Cochise and most of the Chiricahua to return to Arizona where Cochise established his rancheria in the Dragoon Mountains and from which his warriors resumed their raiding and killing. Geronimo and his Bedonkohe must have joined them at some point that summer.
Many in Arizona, including [Lieutenant Colonel George] Crook, doubted Cochise was sincere about desiring peace. Crook had wanted to hunt down all Apache not on reservations and had sent out notices that any Apache not on their reservations by the middle of February 1872 would be considered hostile and attacked. However, President Grant took matters out of Crook’s hands and ordered him to suspend his attacks. Grant had appointed a commissioner to negotiate peace with the Apache.
The commissioner was Brigadier General Oliver Otis Howard. Howard had seen lots of action during the Civil War, losing his right arm in battle. After the war, President Andrew Johnson had appointed him head of the Freedman’s Bureau tasked with protecting the rights of freed slaves in the South. Howard, a devout Christian, was nicknamed “Christian General.”
Howard outranked all other officers in Arizona and New Mexico and was given full power to do what was necessary to preserve peace between the government and the tribes and to convince them to go to permanent reservations. Howard believed his main objective needed to be “to make peace with the warlike Chiricahua under Cochise.”
After spending the summer trying to locate Cochise, Howard met with Tom Jeffords at Fort Tularosa, New Mexico, on September 7, 1872. Jeffords, who was Cochise’s friend, agreed to take Howard to Cochise, but he told Howard he could not take along an escort of soldiers if he ever wanted to see Cochise.
While Howard was at Fort Tularosa, he met with Victorio and Loco who complained about conditions at Tularosa and wanted their reservation relocated to Cañada Alamosa. Howard agreed to let them return, thinking it would be easier to convince Cochise to go there for his reservation.
It took several days for Jeffords and Howard to select the men to accompany them. By September 19, the party consisted of Jeffords and Howard, Chie and Ponce both relatives of Cochise, Zebina Streeter, who was closely associated with the Chihenne, Howard’s assistant, Lieutenant Joseph Sladen, Jake May, a Spanish interpreter, and J. H. Stone, a cook.
Meeting Nazee, a Chokonen leader, he told them Cochise was in the Dragoon Mountains, and if they wanted to have a chance to meet him, they needed to reduce their party, so Howard sent Streeter, May, and Stone to Fort Bowie with a note to the commander stating not to send any patrols in the direction of the Dragoon Mountains.
Howard and his party reached Cochise’s camp in the Dragoons on September 30. Cochise was not there, however, he arrived the next day. Cochise was willing to talk, but first he wanted to call in all his leaders for the discussions, and he wanted Howard to go to Fort Bowie to make sure no soldiers would be attacking his men as they traveled to the conference site. Howard rode forty miles to the fort, issued those orders, and returned to Cochise’s camp with his entire party and gifts for the Chiricahua—2,000 pounds of corn, sacks of coffee, sugar, and flour, and cloth.
After most of the leaders and warriors, about fifty, had arrived, the talks got underway. Geronimo acted as Cochise’s interpreter translating from Apache to Spanish. Howard said the Chiricahuas could have their reservation at Cañada Alamosa. Cochise dropped his bombshell—he wanted his reservation in the Chiricahua Mountains. The discussions went on for a long time, finally Howard gave in and said yes to the Chiricahua Mountains reservation.
On October 11, Cochise insisted Howard send for Captain Samuel Sumner, commander of Fort Bowie, and his officers to be present at the conference, which Howard did. As Sumner and his three officers rode out to the Dragoon Mountains the next day, Howard, Cochise, and his warriors prepared to ride out and meet them.
Howard agreed to ride double with Geronimo. He later wrote, “…as I was willing, he [Geronimo] sprang up over my horse’s tail and by a second spring came forward, threw his arms around me, and so rode many miles on my horse. During that ride we became friends, and I think Geronimo trusted me…”
After Howard and the Chiricahua rendezvoused with Sumner and his men, they continued their negotiations at the Dragoon Springs Overland Mail station ruins and came to an agreement. The reservation boundaries were immense, stretching from the western foothills of the Mule and Dragoon Mountains at the Mexican border north to Dragoon Springs, then northeast to Stein’s Peak, then south along the New Mexico border to the Mexican border. Fort Bowie would remain within the reservation boundaries. Cochise also wanted Jeffords to be his agent, and Howard agreed although Jeffords was not too keen on the idea. Cochise made peace with the Americans. He would stay on the reservation and protect the Tucson Road. In return, the Americans would give him food and supplies.
Howard told Cochise his people needed to stop raiding into Mexico. However, in Cochise’s mind, he did not make peace with the Mexicans, and since the southern border of his reservation was the Mexican border, the Chiricahuas would continue to raid into Mexico, and Mexicans would continue to chase them into the United States.
Geronimo later said, “He [Howard] always kept his word with us and treated us as brothers.” He went on to say, “We could have lived forever at peace with him.”
Lieutenant Joseph Sladen had noticed Geronimo was wearing a high-quality shirt, one that would not have been found in a trader’s store. He got close enough to Geronimo to see there was an embroidered name at the bottom of the shirt—“Cushing.” Could it be Geronimo was Lieutenant Howard Cushing’s killer? [Cushing was ambushed and killed near the Babocomari River on May 5, 1871.]
President Grant would issue an executive order on December 14, 1872, officially establishing the Chiricahua Reservation and setting its boundaries. Jeffords went to work immediately establishing the agency in a small building rented from Nick Rogers at his Sulphur Springs Ranch, ten miles east of the Dragoon Mountains. From there, he distributed rations to the Chiricahua. The agency would remain at Sulfur Springs until August 1873 when it was moved to San Simon, then moved again to Pinery Canyon that November, and fnally on May 14, 1875, to Apache Pass near Fort Bowie.
Jeffords’s management style was easygoing compared to other Indian agents at other reservations. Although they were restricted to the reservation, the Apache could go wherever they wanted within its boundaries, where at other reservations, Indians were required to live close to the agency building so the agent could count them daily. Jeffords did not force them to wear identity tags or appear in person to receive their rations. He did make frequent trips to their rancherias to count the members.
Crook agreed with the citizens of Arizona—Cochise’s Chiricahua could not be trusted. They were sure Cochise would soon break the peace. However, he and his warriors did keep the peace—in the United States.
On November 15, 1872, Crook, who would become a brigadier general in 1873, began his offensive against western Arizona Apache, attacking their rancherias to force them to their reservations. They learned even though he was relentless in warfare, he was true to his word and began calling him Nantan Lupan, Chief Grey Wolf.
After Cochise and Howard’s peace council, Geronimo returned to Mexico and arrived at his rancheria outside Janos where Juh and his rancheria were located. Late in November, Geronimo and his Bedonkohe and Juh and his Nednhi, totaling roughly three hundred people, traveled to the Chiricahua Reservation. After meeting with Cochise and Jeffords, they settled there. In late December 1872, there were 1,244 Chiricahua—700 were living at Cochise’s reservation and 544 were at Tularosa, New Mexico.
In the spring of 1873, the Chihenne leader Nana, who was married to Geronimo’s sister, Nahdos-te, and other Chihenne and Bedonkohe leaders left the Tularosa Reservation with 150 people to visit their relatives and friends on the Chiricahua Reservation. Most set up their rancherias near Geronimo and Juh’s in the Chiricahua Mountains. Things were quiet until mid-June 1873, when a combined force of Chiricahua, including Geronimo and Juh, left on a month-long raid through Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico.
Geronimo returned to the Chiricahua Reservation with a captive Mexican boy, Panteleon Rocha. Jeffords learned about the boy and rode to Geronimo’s rancheria where he negotiated with Geronimo for Panteleon’s release and eventually reunited him with his parents.
Nana and his people returned to Tularosa at the end of July 1873. Sometime during that time period, Mexican troops crossed the border and attacked Geronimo’s rancheria, but he and his warriors repelled them.
The Mexican government was pressuring the United States to stop Apache raiding into Mexico. The U.S. government in turn demanded Jeffords put an end to it. He convinced Cochise if the raids did not stop, the government would remove him as their agent and disband the reservation. In early November 1873, Cochise held a council with all the Chiricahua leaders. He told them he was in charge of the Chiricahua Reservation, and all raids into Mexico must stop. If any of them did not like that, they would have to leave the reservation. Geronimo and Juh would not give up raiding. They led their people of the reservation and into Mexico.
Traveling south along the Sierra Madre Mountains, Geronimo’s Bedonkohe would either kill or take prisoner anyone they came upon so no one could tell the Mexican troops their whereabouts. They set up their rancheria in the Sierra Madre Mountains near Nacori in Sonora, and from there they began their raids on villages, never having any major encounters with the Army. They would remain south of the border for a year.
Meanwhile back in Arizona, Cochise, who was now about seventy years old, had been sick with stomach ailments. His family believed a Chihenne witch had cursed and poisoned him. He had two sons, Taza and Naiche. Knowing he was going to die, Cochise told the tribal leaders he had selected Taza, his older son, to take his place. He made Taza and Naiche agree to keep the peace with the White Eyes. On June 8, 1874, Cochise died in the East Stronghold of the Dragoon Mountains.
The prospects for the continuation of the Chiricahua Reservation were dismal. Only about half the Chiricahua on the reservation accepted Taza as their leader. The Mexican government continued to complain to the U.S. government about Apache raids from the reservation. The U.S. government wanted to consolidate the Apache on fewer reservations. It wanted the Chiricahua Reservation eliminated to open it up for settlement. The government was just waiting for the right excuse.
In September 1874, the government abandoned the Tularosa agency and allowed Victorio and the Chihenne to return to Ojo Caliente and Cañada Alamosa for their reservation. Government administrators believed this would be a good place to consolidate all the Chiricahua. Jeffords said if the government tried to force his Apache to move, they would fight.
Another Apache reservation the government was interested in moving the Chiricahua to was to the northwest, the White Mountain Reservation with an agency at San Carlos and Fort Apache to the northeast. On August 8, 1874, twenty-two-year-old John Clum became the agent at San Carlos. Clum began feuding with the army and trained his own Apache police force so he would not have to rely on soldiers. He believed there was only one right way to do things, and that was his way. Clum believed the Chiricahua needed to be moved to San Carlos where he could better manage them than Jeffords.
Geronimo and his band returned to the Chiricahua Reservation a year after he had left for Mexico, which would make that sometime in the fall of 1874. He claimed he remained in Arizona for about a year.
During 1875, the Indian Office began consolidating reservations in Arizona and New Mexico for administrative efficiency. General Crook was against consolidation, but it did not matter. In March 1875, the army transferred Crook to the northern plains where he would take command of the Department of the Platte. On March 22, 1875, Colonel August Kautz took command of the Department of Arizona.
Then on April 16, 1875, a special commissioner from Washington proposed to move the Chiricahua from their reservation to the Ojo Caliente Reservation, but the Chiricahua leaders said no. In November 1875, a federal Indian Inspector, Edward Kemble, toured the reservations and also recommended the Chiricahua removal to the Ojo Caliente Reservation.
Apache raids in Mexico would continue into the spring of 1876. Geronimo said, after a year in Arizona, he returned to Mexico for a year. However, it would have been less than that, as he was known to be back on the Chiricahua Reservation the frst part of June 1876. Juh had returned to the reservation in early April, so this is probably when Geronimo returned, too.
While in Mexico, Geronimo and Juh’s people joined together establishing their rancherias in the Sierra Madre Mountains near Nacori as before. They were organizing their first raids when their scouts discovered two companies of Mexican cavalry approaching their camps.
Taking sixty warriors, Geronimo and Juh left their rancherias and attacked the troops five miles away. The troops retreated to a hilltop where they dismounted and took up positions, firing on the Chiricahua. The fighting lasted for hours. No warriors had been hit, but the Mexicans had lost a few men. Geronimo led his men in a charge up the hill, overwhelming the Mexicans and killing them all. That night, Geronimo and Juh moved their rancherias eastward, crossing from Sonora into Chihuahua. The rest of their time in Mexico, they were not attacked by troops. Geronimo most likely returned to the Chiricahua Reservation in early April 1876.
On April 6, Pionesenay, a Chokonen who’s half-brother, Skinya, was an opposition leader to Taza, and a companion rode to Nick Rogers’s ranch at Sulfur Springs. They had learned Rogers had a barrel of whiskey, and he was selling the liquor. They had been raiding in Mexico and bought several bottles of whiskey for ten dollars’ worth of stolen gold dust.
Pionesenay returned the next day with a nephew for more whiskey, which Rogers sold to him. After consuming much whiskey, Pionesenay picked a fght with Skinya. Two of their sisters tried to stop the fight. Pionesenay shot and killed them both. He and his nephew returned to Rogers’s ranch for more whiskey. Fred Hughes, one of Tom Jeffords’s assistants, later claimed Geronimo was with them. Rogers refused to sell him more. Pionesenay and his nephew shot and killed Rogers and his partner Orisoba Spence on the spot, then ransacked the building taking all the whiskey, food, and ammunition. They next killed Gideon Lewis and raided along the San Pedro River.
Arizonans were outraged. Tucson newspapers called for slaughtering the Chiricahua. On May 1, 1876, Congress passed legislation mandating the removal of the Chiricahua from their reservation to San Carlos at the White Mountain Reservation, and later that year on October 30, the reservation would be dissolved by executive order.
On May 3, 1876, John Quincy Smith, Commissioner of Indian Afairs, sent a telegram to John Clum telling him to take charge of the Chiricahua Reservation and “if practicable” take the Chiricahua to San Carlos. On June 5, Clum arrived at the Apache Pass agency with fifty-six Apache police and fve companies of the Sixth Cavalry to escort the Chiricahua to San Carlos.
The first thing Clum did was relieve Jeffords of his duties. Clum next met with Taza, telling him the Chiricahua had to leave. Taza was reluctant and said many of the people would not want to go, but Clum convinced him it was for the best.
When Geronimo and Juh heard Taza had agreed to the removal to San Carlos, they said Taza, a Chokonen leader, could not speak for them. They said they needed to meet directly with Clum himself. On June 7, Geronimo, Juh, and another Nednhi leader, Nolgee, rode into the agency at Fort Bowie. They met with Clum who insisted they must go with him to San Carlos. Geronimo spoke for the three of them, saying they needed twenty days to gather their people who were away from the rancherias. Clum was suspicious and gave them only four days, which they agreed to before riding away.
The next day, Clum’s Apache police paid a visit to Geronimo, Juh, and Nolgee’s rancherias. They were deserted. The Bedonkohe and Nednhi were gone, taking only what they could carry. They had killed the dogs so their barking would not give them away, and they had killed any horses left behind so they would not whinny to the departing horses. The Bedonkohe and Nednhi trail led south to Sonora.
Bill Markley’s Geronimo and Sitting Bull: Leaders of the Legendary West won a Will Rogers Medallion Award Silver Medal in the Western Biography category for 2022. A long-time Western Writers of America member, Bill has written for True West and Wild West and published ten historical books and one novel—Deadwood Dead Men. In 2015, he was also sworn in as an honorary Dodge City Marshal.
