Legacy worthy of wall

It was in a closet, seconds after the plea to “take this stuff off my hands,” was issued. The piercing eyes met mine and I said Geronimo’s going home with me.

I’m not too sure my friend was even aware that the iconic, framed print leaned against the wall was of infamous Apache warrior Geronimo. It had been given to her with a lot of other stuff and it looked a little creepy to her and getting it gone was a good thing.

Everyone’s heard the word Geronimo, just not everyone associates it with the proper name of one of the bloodiest characters of the Southwest. Billy the Kid probably never killed 21 men but Geronimo did without a doubt.

Even before he was born on Turkey Creek in the Gila Country his people, the Chiricahua Apache that roamed what’s now northern Mexico, eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, were known for decades of raiding and warfare with Mexican soldiers and white settlers as well as other Native American groups. He was to take the bloodshed to all new levels during his lifetime.

During a time of supposed peace with Mexican soldiers, many of the men of Geronimo’s family band returned to their village from a trip to town in 1858 only to find that their horses had been stolen and many of their women, children and those left to guard them had been slaughtered and tortured by Mexican troops. Among the dead were Geronimo’s young wife, three children and mother. The episode set off years of revenge for the warrior.

Geronimo became famous for his feats in battle and ability to disappear into the desert when trouble arrived. Both the Mexican and U.S. governments spent years and small fortunes chasing 38 Indians led by the last great warrior, Geronimo. He surrendered three times and continued to breakout and return to his raiding ways.

Like the grizzly and the buffalo, a being as free and footloose as Geronimo couldn’t be allowed to run unchecked in a country that needed to be tamed.

The U.S. Army relentlessly pursued him ever deeper into Mexico until he was finally forced to surrender. They sent him and his band of warriors off to the swamps of Florida in an effort to take the starch out of the desert warrior.

He was eventually allowed to return to the reservation at Fort Sill, Okla. but never to his old stomping grounds. Though he enjoyed some amount of liberty as his life stretched into his 70s, he remained a U.S. prisoner of war until his death in 1909 at age 79.

His legacy, not unlike Billy the Kid, was mixed even among his own people, some of which blamed his renegade ways for harsher treatment of the Apache people as a whole.

Even in the 21st century that legacy has seen its controversy. While some in the U.S. State Department saw a clear kinship in legacy between Geronimo and Usama bin Laden, enough so to attach the code name Geronimo to the Islamic terrorist during the operation that finally killed him after years of slipping through the grip of the U.S. military. Geronimo’s ancestors weren’t too happy about the notoriety.

As I write this, I haven’t managed to sneak the portrait of Geronimo clutching his rifle into the man cave yet. I figure if I can get it in and hung on the wall my wife won’t have the nerve to mess with it. That’s my plan anyway.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him via email at: [email protected]