Geronimo (1829-1909), Native American, chief of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, born in present-day Clifton, Arizona. After his wife, children, and mother were killed by Mexicans in 1858, he participated in a number of raids against Mexican and American settlers, but eventually settled on a reservation. In 1876 the U.S. government attempted to move the Chiricahua from their traditional home to the San Carlos Reservation; Geronimo then began ten years of intermittent raids against white settlements, alternating with periods of peaceful farming on the San Carlos reservation. In March 1886, the American general George Crook captured Geronimo and forced a treaty under which the Chiricahua would be relocated in Florida; two days later Geronimo escaped and continued his raids. General Nelson Miles then took over the pursuit of Geronimo, who was chased into Mexico and captured the following September. The Native Americans were sent to Florida, Alabama, and finally to Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, where they settled as farmers. Geronimo eventually adopted Christianity. He took part in the inaugural procession of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. Geronimo dictated his memoirs, published in 1906 as Geronimo's Story of His Life. He died at Fort Sill on February 17, 1909.
Geronimo
Geronimo, an Apache chief born in Arizona, became famous in the late 19th century for his impressive resistance to forced reservation life. When the United States government attempted to move the Chiricahua Apache people to San Carlos Reservation from their traditional home, Geronimo began a series of periodic raids on white settlements that lasted ten years. He escaped from federal authority several times, but in September 1886 he surrendered for the last time. Federal troops then moved the Apache and many other tribes to Oklahoma Territory. Geronimo died in 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, three years after he published his memoirs.
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