Geronimo, a leader of the Chiricahua Apache who spent much of his life fighting against efforts by Mexico and the United States to push his people out of their homeland, was born on this day in 1829. He was born in either Arizona or New Mexico to a tribe of around 8,000 people. When he was in his early 20s, Mexican soldiers killed his mother, wife, and children; he made it his mission to resist subjugation at all costs.
When the Mexican-American war ended, massive swathes of land were granted to the U.S. A couple of decades later in 1872, various Apache tribes were forced onto a reservation in Arizona. Geronimo escaped and was caught several times, becoming a public figure as word of his resistance spread in the newspapers.
In 1885, he led a large group out of the reservation, moving at a rapid pace over hundreds of miles into Mexico and raiding civilian towns along the way. American troops managed to find and convince Geronimo to surrender the next year. But when the Apache leader realized he might be executed, he slipped away again with a group of only 40 or so followers. Five thousand U.S. soldiers and thousands more Mexican and Native American troops pursued Geronimo for six months before he made his final surrender in September 1886.
He spent his last 14 years imprisoned, occasionally being sent to fairs where he was literally put on display for festival goers. He died of pneumonia in Fort Sill, Okla., in 1909.
