Geronimo's Apache War 1876-1883

The restrictive life on the reservation did not agree with the Apache, especially when game was scarce and their families were hungry. After several drunken Apache killed a white station master, the US troops tried to remove hundreds of innocent Indians to a more remote reservation, war erupted again. Roving Apache bands led Geronimo (1829-1909) terrorized most of the Arizona and New Mexico territories, killing prospectors and herders and stealing horses and guns. When army troops came too close, they fled over the border into Mexico, where the Americans could not follow. The Apache continued their raids from across the border, where they were joined by Comanche Indians and other renegades. Geronimo's people took refuge in the Sierra Madre mountains, from which they ventured forth to steal cattle and ammunition. Troops led by US Generals George Crook (1829-90) and Nelson A. Milnes (1839-1925) battled the Indians under Geronimo for a number of years until an Apache turncoat led Crook's men to Geronimo's stronghold in the mountains in 1883. The Indians were taken by surprise, and Crook induced them to surrender. They agreed to start anew on the White Mountains reservation.

References

Dictionary of Wars, 26.

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