Publisher's Synopsis
Geronimo (Mescalero-Chiricahua: "the one who yawns"; June 16, 1829 - February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader from the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe. From 1850 to 1886 Geronimo joined with members of three other Chiricahua Apache bands-the Chihenne, the Chokonen and the Nednhi-to carry out numerous raids as well as resistance to US and Mexican military campaigns in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona. Geronimo's raids and related combat actions were a part of the prolonged period of the Apache-American conflict, that started with American settlement in Apache lands following the end of the war with Mexico in 1848. The Apache-American conflict was itself a direct outgrowth of the much older Apache-Mexican conflict which had been ongoing in the same general area since the beginning of Mexican/Spanish settlement in the 1600s. During the centuries of Apache-Mexican and Apache-American conflict, raiding had become embedded in the Apache way of life, used not only for strategic purposes but also as an economic enterprise, and often there was overlap between raids for economic need and warfare. Raids ranged from stealing livestock and other plunder, to the capture and/or violent killing of victims, sometimes by torture. Mexicans and Americans responded with retaliation attacks against the Apache which were no less violent, and were often indiscriminate. The raiding and retaliation fed the fires of a virulent revenge warfare that reverberated back and forth between Apaches and Mexicans and later, Apaches and Americans. This was a deadly, brutal and barbaric business for all sides. From 1850 to 1886 Geronimo as well as other Apache leaders conducted raids and carried on revenge warfare, but Geronimo accumulated a record during this time that matched any of his contemporaries, and his fighting ability extending over 30 years form a major characteristic of his persona.
