Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place (1993) By Angie Debo
 
On September 5, 1886, the entire nation rejoiced as the news flashed from the Southwest that the Apache war leader Geronimo had surrendered to Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles. With Geronimo, at the time of his surrender, were Chief Naiche (the son of the great Cochise), sixteen other warriors, fourteen women, and six children.
 
Yet the surrender that day was not the end of the story of the Apaches associated with Geronimo. Besides his small band, 394 of his tribesmen, including his wife and children, were rounded up, loaded into railroad cars, and shipped to Florida. For more than twenty years Geronimo&;s people were kept in captivity at Fort Pickens, Florida; Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama; and finally Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They never gave up hope of returning to their mountain home in Arizona and New Mexico, even as their numbers were reduced by starvation and disease and their children were taken from them to be sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
 
In the popular idiom, Geronimo is the stereotype of the Indian warrior - fierce, intractable, master of the surprise attack; in actual fact he was also a victim, first of neighboring Mexicans, later of Manifest Destiny and the US Indian Office which promised land "forever" and reneged, then relentlessly pursued and briefly imprisoned him. Debo, aware of the difficulties of establishing a chronology, has consulted a wide range of 19th-century sources and the few 20th-century survivors; even so, the facts are frequently elusive, accounts contradictory, and much about the man remains uncertain, including date and place of birth and the origin of his name. Aroused early when his mother, wife, and three children were savaged by treacherous Mexicans, he got the "Power," a gift of prophecy that recurred periodically and strengthened his position as a leader. Debo is adept at detailing the Southwest maneuvers (border raids, intercepted pack trains, uneasy truces) and following the circuitous trails of Geronimo himself, his numerous wives, children, and relocated tribal factions. After his fourth and final surrender, he became relatively docile and accepted many white ways, developing into a kindly, enterprising old man who signed autographs, peddled photographs of himself, and cleaned up doing Wild West shows. A steadfast, absorbing portrait of an enigmatic figure - the only one available.
 
Soft Cover
480 pages 
In Good condition