Geronimo: Twenty-Three Years as a Prisoner of War

by W. Michael Farmer

Overview

When Geronimo and his warriors surrendered to the US Army, General Miles made a number of promises for the surrender terms that were in fact false. Geronimo: Prisoner of Lies provides insights into how Chiricahua prisoners of war lived while held in captivity by the United States Army in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as seen through the eyes of their war leader Geronimo. The indignities and lies they suffered, and how they maintained their tribal culture in the face of great pressure to change or vanish entirely, are brought to life and provided new context through this book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493042005
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

W. Michael Farmer combines more than ten years of research into nineteenth-century Apache history and culture with Southwest living experience to fill his stories with a genuine sense of time and place. A retired PhD physicist, he has also written award-winning essays and short stories for anthologies. His first novel, Hombrecito's War, won a Western Writers of America Spur Finalist Award for Best First Novel in 2006 and was a New Mexico Book Award Finalist for Historical Fiction in 2007. His other novels include: Hombrecito’s Search; Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright: The Betrayals of Pancho Villa; Conspiracy: The Trial of Oliver Lee and James Gililland; Killer of Witches: The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, Mescalero Apache, Book 1;and Blood of the Devil: The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, Mescalero Apache, Book 2.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface viii

Prologue x

Part I Surrender 1

Geronimo's Relationship with Naiche 2

Geronimo's Last Warriors 8

Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood, the Bluecoat Geronimo Trusted 12

The Decision to Surrender 18

The Apache Prisoner of War Train Stops in San Antonio 27

The Last Apaches to Surrender in 1886 32

Part II Apache Prisoners of War in Florida and Carlisle, Pennsylvania 37

Life at Fort Marion, Saint Augustine, Florida 39

First Days of Apache Children at Carlisle 44

Student Life at Carlisle 49

Apache Prisoner of War Life at Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida 54

Part III Prisoners at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama 59

Apache Prisoner of War Life at Mount Vernon Barracks 60

Geronimo's Wives 65

Geronimo, Mount Vernon Barracks Schoolmaster 71

General Crook's 1890 Mount Vernon Barracks Visit 76

Apache Prisoners of War Become an Army Unit 81

Geronimo Counsels Corporal Fun and His Wife 84

The Apaches March to Mobile and Back 88

George Wratten, Friend of the Chiricahuas 92

Geronimo Tries to Fire George Wratten 98

Chiricahua Prisoners Make Their Case for a Move, August 29, 1894 103

Part IV Prisoners of War at Fort Sill, Oklahoma 109

The Chiricahua Prisoners of War Go to Fort Sill, Oklahoma 110

Apache Prisoner of War Life at Fort Sill 114

Geronimo on the Array Payroll 118

Eldridge Ayer Burbank Paints Geronimo 121

The Chiricahua Breakout Panic at Fort Sill 126

Geronimo Escapes! 130

Geronimo, Superstar 133

Geronimo at the Saint Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition 138

Geronimo's Contemporaries: The Great Chiefs 143

Geronimo's Children 148

Eva Geronimo 154

Robert, the Son Geronimo Didn't Know He Had 158

Geronimo's Power 161

Geronimo Looks For the Jesus Road 166

Geronimo Dictates His Autobiography 171

Geronimo the Witch 176

Geronimo's Last Two Wives, Sousche and Sunsetso 179

Geronimo Rides the Ghost Pony to the Happy Place 182

Epilogue 189

Notes 193

Additional Reading and Information Resources 200

Index 202

About the Author 213

Editorial Reviews

W. Michael Farmer is that rare author who can bring instant clarity to a complicated story. His sparse but crisp prose brings the past to life with grace and compassion in this telling of Geronimo's long years of imprisonment. Farmer's careful research and deft handling of this tragic episode from our history is an amazing story of the triumph of the human spirit.

Paul Andrew Hutton

W. Michael Farmer is that rare author who can bring instant clarity to a complicated story. His sparse but crisp prose brings the past to life with grace and compassion in this telling of Geronimo's long years of imprisonment. Farmer's careful research and deft handling of this tragic episode from our history is an amazing story of the triumph of the human spirit.  —Paul Andrew Hutton, author of the WWA Spur-award winning The Apache Wars.

From the Publisher