Recalls Career of Apache Raider

Geronimo Was "Public Enemy No. 1 of the Eighties in the Southwest
E.W. Galbraith

The career of one of America's earliest "Public enemies No. 1," Geronimo, notorious Apache raider, is recalled by the death recently of Brig. R.A. Brown, who assisted in the pursuit and eventual capture of the Indian outlaw of the '80's in the Southwest.

'Various Indian leaders had caused trouble for Americans on the frontiers for nearly half a century,' says a bulletin from the National Geographic Society, 'but the long series of skirmishes and campaigns against these troublemakers was climaxed between 1883 and 1886 by what is known as the Geronimo War.'

The Hatred of Geronimo for the whites dated from the raid on the Apache camp by a military Governor of the Mexican State of Sonora, in which Geronimo's young wife and their three children were massacred.

Geronimo had been on a trading expedition with other Apache braves when upon his return to his camp in the wilds of Chihuaua, Mexico, he discovered the depredations which was to set him on his career of vengence.

From 1858 until 1873 he led repeated war parties into Mexico from his headquarters in New Mexico.  In 1876 he was arrested by Indian Agent John Clum and taken to Ft. Apache in Arizona for imprisonment.  However, on the arrival of a new agent, the warrior obtained his freedom.  He fled to Mexico, slaying Albert Sterling, Chief of the Agency police.

This brought out the hide-and-seek game played by the fierce Apaches and the United States Army between the years 1883-1886, a long series of raids, massacres, escapes, capture and surrender for the outlaw.

Finally, under General Nelson A. Miles, a veritable army of 5,000 soldiers and 500 Indian Scouts, undertook the task of capturing Geronimo.  The campaign was precipitated by Geronimo himself with a terrible raid which left a trail of blood all the way back to Mexico, whence the Apache outlaw always fled when it was necessary for him to hide.

Captain H.W. Lawton pursued Geronimo into Mexico with a group made up of 1,000 American soldiers, 100 Mexican irregulars, 500 Indian Scouts and 1,000 ranchers.  Geronimo at this time had only eighteen warriors.

Lawton's scouts, by means of heliographs, kept him continually informed of the Apaches' whereabouts, so that the fugitives were forced to keep constantly on the move.  Geronimo's hatred, embittered by the relentless pursuit, drove him to slaughter all whites who crossed his path.  Seven hundred white men were killed during the period in which Geronimo was at
large.

Lawton finally captured the Apache camp, appropriating food supplies, ammunitions and ponies, but Geronimo was not yet through and he led Lawton's men a harrowing chase, forcing them to endure terrible hardships.

After three discouraging months, word came unexpectedly that the Apaches were willing to give themselves up.

Lieutenant Charles B. Gateswood set out to contact Geronimo, taking with him two loyal Indian scouts who found the Apache camp by following the trail of the two Squaws who had delivered the Apache message. Next day, Brown, then a Lieutenant, arranged Geronimo's surrender.

The Indians were taken back to the United States and sent to Florida where they were kept at hard labor for three years.  The Government promised that they would be united with their families.  This was finally brought bout through the efforts of the Indian Rights Association.  They were moved to Alabama then to a reservation in New Mexico."