The Ely miner., 1930-10-24

was one of the Indian captains who
was with Cochise when he decided
that the Great Spirit wanted the
Indians to make peace with the white
men and eat bread with them," writes
Howard in his Famous Indian Chiefs
l Have Known" "At that time most
of the Indians were very happy to
have peace, and Geronimo seemed
quite as pleased as the others, though
l believe he was not yet quite sure
that 1t was time for peace to come.
At any rate the great Cochise said Ii
was, so Geronimo was ready to ride
with US to meet the soldiers, and as
| was willing, he sprang up over my
horses tail and by a second spring
came forward, threw his arms around
me and so rode many miles on my
horse. During that ride we became
friends and l think Geronimo trusted
me. although he trembled very much
when we came in sight of the soldiers
near Camp Bowie.
"In 1899 l went to Mount Verion
barracks, Alabama (where Geronimo
and his warriors were held as prison
ers Of war), and the first man 1 saw
there as l got out of the train was
Geronimo. He had bundle of canes
of different sorts of wood, which he
had peeled and painted and was SELL
ing them one by one. When he caught
sight of me he passed his canes to
another Indian and ran to meet me.
could not understand his Apache but
he embraced me twice and called his
Mexican name Geronimo Geronimo,
many times so that l should be sure
to know who he was. Then he got
an interpreter and came to talk with
me. I am school superintendent
now,' he said. We have fine lady
teachers. All the children go to
school. make them. l want them
to be white children
From among the Indians at Mount
Vernon barracks there were formed
two companies of soldiers, each of
fifty Indians. Geronimo was very
proud of them and kept saying, Heap
big! Tatah; heap good! and he told
them to do their best to keep their
uniforms bright and clean, to make
their gun barrels shine and never
have dust on their shoes. But though
Geronimo tried his best to be happy
and contented, he was homesick for
Arizona and begged me to speak to
the President for him. Indians sick
here he said, air bad and water bad
| told him that there would be no
peace in Arizona if the Indians went
back to the Chiricahua mountains, for
the Great Father at Washington could
not control the Mexicans and white
people there and make them do what
was right; and Geronimo tried to un-
derstand He still helped the teach
ers and stayed himself, much of the
time with the children to help keep
order, but though he was doing his
best to make his own people better.
still he did not love his white
brothers.
Geronimo was taken to the Omaha
and Buffalo eXpositiOns but he was
sullen and quiet and took no interest
in anything. Then at last all the
Apache Indians were sent West again
to the Indian territory near Fort Sill,
Oklahoma territory. and here Geronimo
began to go TO church and became a
Christian Indian. The last time saw
him he was at the st. Louis exposi-
ton with the Wild West show. He
stayed in st. Louis for several months,
for people wanted to see him as much
as they did the Filipinos from Manila,
the Beers from South Africa or the
Eskimos from Alaska, and hardly any,
one went away without asking to see
Geronimo, the great Apache war
chief"