Geronimo: The Quintessential American Indian | Indian Removal Bonus

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Jiggy Geronimo, Cochise, Mangas Colorado, New Mexico
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Cochise, Jiggy Geronimo, Mangas Colorado, San Carlos
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Jiggy Geronimo, Victorio, San Carlos, Arizona
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Jiggy Geronimo, San Carlos, Arizona, Richard Pratt
5. 12:00 – 15:00: Jiggy Geronimo, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Operation Geronimo
6. 15:00 – 16:14: Fort Sill, Oklahoma

Notable quotes from "Geronimo: The Quintessential American Indian | Indian Removal Bonus"

• Geronimo was born on June 16, 1829 in the state of Sonora in Mexico.

  about Jiggy Geronimo · at 0:00

• [Intro music] Shortly after the massacre, Geronimo was sent by his chief, Mangas Colorado, to join the band of Chiricahua under Cochise, who was taking the fight to the Mexicans.

  about Cochise · at 0:49

• Because the Civil War hadn’t happened yet, so slavery was still legal in the South, which included the New Mexico Territory.

  about New Mexico · at 2:24

• Following Mangas’ death, Victorio became the leader of his band and continued the joint-guerilla campaign with Cochise.

  about Mangas Colorado · at 4:28

• Victorio’s War began in September 1879, the 200 Chiricahua under his command would ambush cavalry and kill settlers in Texas and New Mexico, then hide on the other side of the border.

  about Victorio · at 6:06

• It wasn’t until March of the next year that Geronimo attacked a mining camp near Tombstone, Arizona, giving Crook the legal justification to cross into Mexico. Two months…

  about Arizona · at 8:33

• The Apache weren’t accustomed to the tropical climate and hundreds of them died from mosquito-borne diseases. Prior to their arrival, Fort Marion was run by Richard Pratt, who…

  about Richard Pratt · at 11:12

• The Kiowa and Comanche eventually invited the Chiricahua to live with them on their reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma – which I’ve made a whole separate video about.

  about Fort Sill · at 12:03

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Jiggy Geronimo — Person · Primary historical subject · 24 mentions · first at 0:00
  Central figure of the episode; his life, raids, surrenders, imprisonment, and later celebrity status anchor the narrative of the Apache Wars and their aftermath.
• Cochise — Person · Referenced historical leader (key ally/commander) · 7 mentions · first at 1:10
  Introduced as the Chiricahua leader Geronimo joins; his conflict with the U.S. Army and subsequent treaty/reservation frame the escalation of the Apache Wars.
• Mangas Colorado — Person · Referenced historical leader (senior chief/mentor figure) · 3 mentions · first at 1:06
  Presented as Geronimo’s chief early on; his death after surrendering under a flag of truce is used to illustrate U.S. brutality and escalation.
• Victorio — Person · Referenced historical leader (later ally of Geronimo) · 4 mentions · first at 4:28
  His leadership and death in the Tres Castillos fight are described as pivotal, leaving Geronimo with fewer experienced leaders and shaping later events.
• Richard Pratt — Person · Referenced administrator/assimilation advocate · 1 mention · first at 11:20
  Cited as the Fort Marion figure who developed an assimilation-focused education program and later founded Carlisle, tying Geronimo’s imprisonment to boarding-school history.
• Sitting Bull — Person · Referenced comparative figure (timeline/contrast) · 2 mentions · first at 7:33
  Used as a benchmark to show how late Geronimo’s resistance continued; also referenced in the context of Wild West shows and public spectacle.
  Sitting Bull surrendered two months earlier. During the next spring, Geronimo and his band sneaked back onto the reservation to abduct 400 Apache to force them to join the resistance.
• Wyatt Earp — Person · Referenced lawman (pursuer) · 1 mention · first at 7:24
  Mentioned briefly as being sent to capture Geronimo, illustrating the level of attention and manpower directed at stopping him.
  Sheriff Wyatt Earp was sent to catch him and was unsuccessful. At this point in history, the Chiricahua were the only American Indians still fighting anywhere in the country.
• Teddy Roosevelt — Person · Referenced U.S. political figure (symbolic reconciliation moment) · 1 mention · first at 13:08
  Appears in the episode as part of Geronimo’s later celebrity/public-image arc, leading Roosevelt’s inaugural procession as a symbolic gesture.
  In 1905, he participated in a much more dignified performance when he led Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural procession down Pennsylvania Avenue in full war regalia.

Places & events

• San Carlos — Place · 4 mentions · first at 5:04
  Cochise died of an unknown illness in 1874, and two years later, the Bureau of Indian Affairs closed the reservation promised to the Chiricahua and moved them to the agency at San Carlos.
• Fort Sill — Place · 3 mentions · first at 12:06
• Oklahoma — Place · 3 mentions · first at 12:06
  The Kiowa and Comanche eventually invited the Chiricahua to live with them on their reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma – which I’ve made a whole separate video about.
• New Mexico — Place · 2 mentions · first at 2:29
• Arizona — Place · 2 mentions · first at 8:35
• Tres Castillo Hills — Place · 1 mention · first at 6:33
  They pinned down the Chiricahua in the Tres Castillo Hills, killed 78, including Victorio, and took 68 women and children captive.
• Carlisle Industrial School — Place · 1 mention · first at 11:30
  It was so successful that he then opened up the Carlisle Industrial School in Pennsylvania, the first Indian boarding school.
• Operation Geronimo — Event · 1 mention · first at 14:39
  The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011 was called Operation Geronimo, which brought the debate over the use of his name back to the surface.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Geronimo was born on June 16, 1829 in the state of Sonora in Mexico. He was a member of a band of Chiricahua Apache, a nation whose way of life revolved around raiding – kind of like the Greyjoys from Game of Thrones. They didn’t raise horses, they stole them. Needless to say, the Mexicans were not happy with this situation and frequently sent out troops to hunt them down. When Geronimo was twenty-one years old, the band of Chiricahua he belonged to traveled to the city of Janos to do some trading. While Geronimo was in town, the Mexican army attacked their camp, killing his mother, his wife, and his three children.

0:39 He cut his hair as a sign of mourning and became a changed man, bent on revenge. Geronimo would hate Mexicans for the rest of his life. [Intro music] Shortly after the massacre, Geronimo was sent by his chief, Mangas Colorado, to join the band of Chiricahua under Cochise, who was taking the fight to the Mexicans. The Mexican American War had already happened, so the US now controlled most of the Apache country in the southwest. But Cochise’s band didn’t meet any Americans until 1856, a few years after the Gadsden Purchase, when the United States bought this strip of land to construct a southern transcontinental railroad.

1:33 By all accounts, that first contact was positive. Cochise agreed to allow travelers and goods to pass through his territory and for a stage station to be built. However, once Americans were roaming the mountains, they discovered a few gold mines abandoned by the Spanish, set up shop, and became a general nuisance to the Apache. You’ll recall that this was a recurring theme during my larger video on Indian Removal. Geronimo is the quintessential American Indian. You’re going to find that a lot of what happens to him mirrors what happened to completely different Native nations throughout American history.

2:08 Though, unlike those stories, he brings a lot of it onto himself. I realize that’s a spicy take, but, stick with me. In December 1860, a group of those miners attacked the Chiricahua, killing four men and capturing a dozen women and children, which they then sold into slavery. Because the Civil War hadn’t happened yet, so slavery was still legal in the South, which included the New Mexico Territory. Cochise ordered Geronimo to take revenge on the Americans, and he proceeded to ambush stagecoaches and wagon trains… Which you’ll notice aren’t the miners, but okay.

2:41 A few months later, Cochise was accused of stealing some cattle and kidnapping a boy and was called into the agency for questioning. The kidnapping did actually happen, but it was carried out by a completely different group of Apache, so Cochise had little knowledge of the event. But he and his family were arrested by the Army anyway. Cochise cut a hole in the tent and managed to escape, leaving his brother, nephews, wife, and children behind. The Chiricahua then attacked a wagon train, killing most, but taking a few prisoners so Cochise could negotiate for the return of his family.

3:14 When that didn’t work, he attacked the Army camp. While he was fleeing to Mexico, he executed the hostages he had taken. So the Army executed his brother and nephews. This is the moment that the Chiricahua Apache shifted their anger away from the Spanish and Mexicans and towards the Americans. Combined with a few other skirmishes, this marked the beginning of the Apache Wars, which became the backdrop for just about western movie ever made. In July 1862, Mangas Colorado’s band joined up with Cochise’s band to drive the Americans out of their territory.

3:48 The Dakota War would start in the north just a month later for the same reason. As a result, General Carleton declared open season on any Indian that was not on the Bosque Redondo reservation. While most of the Apache eventually surrendered, Mangas Colorado’s band continued to fight until he was injured in battle and attempted to surrender in January 1863. He rode in under a flag of truce, was arrested, and was brutally executed before he could even attempt to escape. General Carleton would then go on to oversee the Long Walk of the Navajo, forcing them onto a reservation.

4:24 A lot of these stories are interconnected and a lot of these same people pop up elsewhere. Following Mangas’ death, Victorio became the leader of his band and continued the joint-guerilla campaign with Cochise. By 1870, Cochise was the most well-known Indian war chief to most Americans, he was blamed for any raid that took place anywhere – even if he was hundreds of miles away at the time. Together, they kept the attacks coming until signing a peace treaty which included a reservation on their ancestral lands. Cochise died of an unknown illness in 1874, and two years later, the Bureau of Indian Affairs closed the reservation promised to the Chiricahua and moved them to the agency at San Carlos.

5:06 Geronimo initially agreed to move, but slipped away in the night with 700 Apache and resumed raiding in Mexico. They would rustle entire herds of cattle or horses and then sell them to another rancher, so they could use the cash to buy more guns and ammunition. Rinse and repeat. Geronimo was eventually captured by the Indian Agent and his Apache Police in 1877 and taken to San Carlos. Victorio’s band surrendered shortly afterwards. When a new agent arrived at the San Carlos reservation in July, he freed Geronimo and his men, apparently not realizing who this guy would become.

5:43 Victorio’s band would leave and return to the reservation several times over the next two years. At one point, Victorio was falsely accused of stealing a horse and was arrested. He escaped, vowed that he would never again put himself at the mercy of white men, and joined up with Geronimo. He became convinced that he was marked for death and that the only way for the Apache to survive was to fight. Victorio’s War began in September 1879, the 200 Chiricahua under his command would ambush cavalry and kill settlers in Texas and New Mexico, then hide on the other side of the border.

6:18 Then they would raid Mexican ranches, steal their horses, and hide on the American side of the border. You can only pull that trick so many times before the two countries realize that they just need to work together, so on October 14, 1880, that’s exactly what the Mexicans and Americans did. They pinned down the Chiricahua in the Tres Castillo Hills, killed 78, including Victorio, and took 68 women and children captive. Having lost every experienced leader and most of his warriors, Geronimo turned himself into the San Carlos Reservation a few months later in January 1881.

6:51 He was treated just like every other Apache and was expected to work and farm… which he absolutely hated. During that summer, a medicine man named The Dreamer began preaching a rejection of white influence and a return to the Apache way of life… We’ve also seen this before and it rarely works out for the prophet. The government attempted to arrest him, a few Apache tried to intervene, and a shootout began. The Dreamer and 17 Chiricahua were killed. This inspired Geronimo and 72 of his fellow Chiricahua to escape the reservation and continue the fight.

7:24 Sheriff Wyatt Earp was sent to catch him and was unsuccessful. At this point in history, the Chiricahua were the only American Indians still fighting anywhere in the country. Sitting Bull surrendered two months earlier. During the next spring, Geronimo and his band sneaked back onto the reservation to abduct 400 Apache to force them to join the resistance. Some were even taken at gunpoint. They were pursued by members of the 10th Cavalry, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The Apache called them that because of their hair.

7:54 Geronimo’s abducted conscripts were met by Mexican soldiers on the other side of the border. Of the 400 Chiricahua in the group, 78 were killed, mostly women and children. Wanting to end the Indian Wars once and for all, the Army brought in General Crook, who had just defeated the Lakota during Red Cloud’s War. He took a much more sympathetic approach to the Apache. He allowed them to live anywhere on the reservation they pleased, not just at the agency, he kicked out all of the white miners, and gave most of the work contracts to Chiricahua.

8:26 But he also made an agreement with Mexico that either country could cross the border in pursuit of hostile Apache. And then, he waited… It wasn’t until March of the next year that Geronimo attacked a mining camp near Tombstone, Arizona, giving Crook the legal justification to cross into Mexico. Two months later, Geronimo was raiding some Mexican ranches, and while he was away, Crook’s forces surrounded and captured his stronghold. Geronimo surrendered and his band was taken back to the reservation in waves of a few hundred each, with the final group arriving in February 1884. With the Indian Wars over, the newspapers had a field day, blaming Geronimo for any raid or atrocity that was as yet unsolved.

9:07 Just over a year later, discontented with nothing to do but drink and gamble on the reservation, Geronimo escaped and fled to Mexico, along with 34 men and a hundred women and children. As with every previous escape attempt, they were again pursued by the cavalry. Geronimo’s band ran eighty to ninety miles a day on foot, slaughtering anyone they encountered so that nobody could report their location, including friendly ranching families who hosted them and their children. This is another one of those moments where, like… bruh… they’re super going to come after you now! You think they’re just going to let you go?

9:43 And you’ve left a convenient trail of dead bodies to follow. The newspapers went nuts, the last Indian war chief has escaped and nobody is safe. So the Army ordered General Crook to kill the fugitives or accept nothing less than unconditional surrender. And this time he would have the help of several hundred Apache who volunteered as scouts. Crook’s forces caught up to Geronimo in March 1886, when he surrendered again and was informed that he and his band would be taken to prison in Florida for two years before they could return to the San Carlos Reservation.

10:17 Geronimo accepted those terms… but then slipped away in the night with forty of his warriors. Bruh… you can’t keep surrendering and escaping like that! You’re making things so much worse for yourself! Crook was immediately relieved of duty and replaced by General Nelson A. Miles, who had 5000 troops under his command, which was a quarter of the US Army at the time. Together with detachments from the Mexican army, over 10,000 soldiers were now hunting three dozen Chiricahua Apache. Even with those odds, it took months to track him down and he surrendered – for the last time – on September 4, 1886, finally marking the end of the Indian Wars.

10:55 The only battle to take place after this was Wounded Knee, which was much more of a massacre than it was a battle. Geronimo and his band, together with all of the Chiricahua Apache, even the scouts that helped track him down, were loaded onto a train and taken to prison in Fort Marion, Florida. The Apache weren’t accustomed to the tropical climate and hundreds of them died from mosquito-borne diseases. Prior to their arrival, Fort Marion was run by Richard Pratt, who developed an education program to rehabilitate – or in this case, culturally assimilate – the Indian prisoners of war.

11:30 It was so successful that he then opened up the Carlisle Industrial School in Pennsylvania, the first Indian boarding school. So when Geronimo’s band of Chiricahua arrived in Florida and were put to work, hundreds of their children were immediately taken from them and sent to Carlisle as some of its first pupils. Dozens of those children would eventually die from tuberculosis and other diseases. When the Chiricahuas’ two year prison sentence was over, Arizona refused to allow them to return, so they were shipped to a fort in Arkansas, where another quarter of them died from disease.

12:03 The Kiowa and Comanche eventually invited the Chiricahua to live with them on their reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma – which I’ve made a whole separate video about. His band of Chiricahua Apache lived as prisoners of war while Geronimo became a celebrity, attending expositions all over the country where people could pay for a tintype selfie with the “Worst Indian Who Ever Lived.” Since he was still technically a prisoner, he was escorted by soldiers everywhere he went. While Sitting Bull was recruited by the famous Buffalo Bill Cody to perform in his Wild West Show, Geronimo was also hired as a “Show Indian” but… not for Buffalo Bill.

12:42 Instead he was hired by Pawnee Bill, which was more like the RC Cola of Wild West Shows. It’s during this time that Geronimo was transformed from a villain into an American hero. He kept fighting against impossible odds until the bitter end, a true underdog story. Legends about him were spread through western novels and eventually film, arguably making Geronimo the most famous American Indian in history. In 1905, he participated in a much more dignified performance when he led Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural procession down Pennsylvania Avenue in full war regalia.

13:19 This was supposed to show that the Americans and Indians had buried the hatchet forever, which I’m sure was a nice fantasy at the time. Back in Oklahoma a few years later, Geronimo was thrown from his horse and was exposed to freezing temperatures all night before he was found. He died six days later, still technically a prisoner of war, and was buried at Fort Sill, where he remains to this day. In 1939, a bunch of paratroopers from the 1/509th Parachute Infantry Regiment saw the movie Geronimo and decided to start yelling his name as they jumped out of the plane.

13:53 Beginning a long American military tradition of appropriating Native culture and language – they started giving themselves Mohawk haircuts a few years later. I realize that sounds like a really lame origin story, but that’s usually how it works. Hollywood inspires the military much more often than the other way around. My platoon in Iraq was named the Jokers because the Dark Knight just came out. Yelling Geronimo’s name as an exclamation was spread to the civilian population when movies about World War 2 started coming out.

14:30 Geronimo! Geronimo! Me! Speaking of which, do any of you play StarCraft? Geronimo! The raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011 was called Operation Geronimo, which brought the debate over the use of his name back to the surface. But among those who defend his name and legacy, you won’t find very many Chiricahua Apache. Because of his repeated raids and escapes, his entire band was collectively punished and never allowed to return home. They blame him for their troubles and do not see him as a hero. They were held as prisoners of war until 1913, when the 261 remaining Chiricahua Apache were finally set free.

15:13 They were the last American Indians to be relocated to Oklahoma and were eventually recognized as the Fort Sill Apache Tribe; they currently have 650 enrolled members. This video is a special, Nebula-exclusive followup to my larger video on Indian Removal, make sure to check it out if you haven’t already. If you’d like to become an enrolled member of the Knowing Better band, head on over to patreon.com/knowingbetter, or, for a one-time donation, paypal.me/knowingbetter. Don’t forget to colonize that subscribe button, or the join button if you want to fully assimilate.

15:48 Check out the merch at knowingbetter.tv, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and join us on the subreddit! [Outro music]

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Geronimo: The Quintessential American Indian | Indian Removal Bonus"?

In order: 0:00 Jiggy Geronimo, Cochise, Mangas Colorado, New Mexico; 3:00 Cochise, Jiggy Geronimo, Mangas Colorado, San Carlos; 6:00 Jiggy Geronimo, Victorio, San Carlos, Arizona; 9:00 Jiggy Geronimo, San Carlos, Arizona, Richard Pratt; 12:00 Jiggy Geronimo, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Operation Geronimo; 15:00 Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

What is mentioned in this Knowing Better episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Jiggy Geronimo, Cochise, Mangas Colorado, Victorio, San Carlos, Fort Sill. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Geronimo: The Quintessential American Indian | Indian Removal Bonus"?

The episode runs 16 min; the transcript is about 2,673 words in 27 timestamped sections.

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