New-York tribune., 1909-02-26
THE CAPTIVE GERONIMO.
Ne1o Yorker Tells of Frequent Talks
1Cith Him.
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir The Tribune of February IS has inter
esting and sketch OF the life of Geronimo
the Apache chief who died at Fort Sill. Okla,
February II. While a resident Of Oklahoma IL
my privilege to see Geronimo frequently and
talk with him AS I write have before me one
of his latest photographs which obtained while
visiting in the locality last September Near my
desk hangs war bonnet which I purchased Of
him and which made by his own hands. 1t
closely resembles the he is wearing in the por
trait published in The Tribune. II is decorated
with and grotesque geometrica1 figures. sym
bols of the Indian medicine and bears also his
signature in large characters. Geronimo. done
in red ink which he pressed from wild berries.
The last time I saw him he peered curiously into
the window of the little schoolhouse tha reserva-
tion Fort Sill. where I talking to group
of Apache and Comanche school children. On his
head his bonnet His watstcoat was
decorated with beads and elks' teeth He wore
buckskin trousers and leggings made from IN
tanned caIfskin. His feet incased p leather
moccasins decorated with beads Around his waist
was a leathern grdle. at which hung a bowie knife
case. an old pistol and culver. The last was
empty and the pistol hammerless- No blade
was hidden within the knife These were a.
lowed him by the military commander to crafty
his warlike spirit. They certainly added to the
appearance of the aged chief
The weather that day bitter cold and over
his savage garb the old hero wore huge bathrobe
of Turkish toweIlng, gorgeous purple In color.
which had gratifed his artistic we'll as his
practical needs when he purchased an overcoat
for winter wear. To say that he was strikingly
attractive figure is to put It mildly He Was large
and erect of stature. He must have weighed more
than two hundred pounds and was more than six
feet in height His keen eye sparkled with inten-
gence Energy, determination. shrewdness and the
spirit OF master stuck out ali over him Yet lie
was usually calm and dignihed. At times the
memory Of his past experiences seemed 20 over
NvhaIu him and he would lean suenly against a
tree or sulk dejectedly in nayon or clun1p CT
brush. While always under surveillance of soldiers
ne was permitted great freedom on the reservation
He had little garden. which he cultivated him
self and possess his picture. taken as he walked
from his watermelon patch. followed by several
children each, like himself, bearing fine specimen
Of the luscious fruit.
With Geronimo doubtless passes the last OF his
kind He was the most famous and notorious
warrior Indian Of the last two decades lie lived
to sec (as his fellow chiefs told me in leoD
the white man as thick in Oklahoma as the grass
in Kansas" He realized I'm a vague way that
the Indian Of the Southwest must be reckoned
with. though perhaps he did not see that II must
he not as savage warrior but as citizen.
farmer or a business man. He little realized how
far other Indians had outdone him. men like
United States Senator Gore, or men like those of
the delegation which stood before the authorities
at washington few days ago and urged that
iustice be done the Indian in the adjustment OF
Indian Territory land difficulties under con-
sideration.
I do not gree that the only good Indian Is
dead Indian see the coyote the prairie dog and
the rattIesnake going the way of the buffalo The
cowboy is disappearing as also the pioneer settler
of the early type. They. az well the picturesque
d interesting American Indian, must be sup
planted by other types OF Americanism. Better
So But the changes do not take place without q
heart pang Of regret within my breast and tear
of sympathy dmming my
ELIAS w. THOMPSON.
Hastings-on- Hudson, y. Y, FeD. IS. 1909.