6/5/2017 Antique&CollectorsFirearmsAuctionSellYourGuns::ThePrizeforCapturingGeronimo,PartI

01-21-16
By Joel Kolander

Lieutenant Colonel George Crook was not having a good time. Everything should have been falling in to place. He was a nationally recognized military man whose
career included decades of service. He was a renowned Indian fighter, having moved many Native American groups off their lands when such activities were
considered desirable. Though, even among the Native Americans he was revered among them as a white man they could trust. Crook respected Native Americans,
viewed them as honorable warriors, and after removing a tribe treated them humanely, helped them grow crops, and even found some employment. This was in line
with the view of those who saw reservations as essential to the long-term survival of the Native Americans. Red Cloud, Chief of the Lakota, is noted as saying, Crook
never lied to us. His words gave the people hope. He was even honorably nicknamed Nantan Lupanby the Apache, which translates as gray wolf. Besides his
superior reputation on both sides of the Indian Wars, Crook also enjoyed professional success. He was promoted numerous times throughout his career, peaking as
the head of the Department of Arizona.
Despite all that, he couldnt seem to nail down one final loose end: Geronimo.

This incredible rifle will be available in our 2016 April Premiere Auction.

Geronimo
The wily leader of the Apache lost his entire family, mother, wife, and three children after they were slain by Mexicans months shy of his 22nd birthday, thus kindling
a lifelong hatred for the country and its people. After grieving his family, he was a changed man. Once an amicable husband and doting father, he became
understandably bitter and unpredictably violent. Many former friends avoided him completely, and his need to spill Mexican blood grew to an obsession. It resulted
in numerous revenge raids and perpetuated the constant violence that already existed between the Apaches and Mexicans dating back to the late 17th century. In the
years between 1820 1835 Apaches killed more than 5,000 Mexicans and demolished roughly 100 villages, causing several Mexican states to place a bounty on Apache
scalps in 1835, offering 100 pesos (the equivalent of one silver dollar) for the scalp of a brave. Later, Chihuahua offered even greater rewards: $100 for braves, with
lesser amounts for (presumably alive) women and children. Prices would increase and decrease as conflicts heated and cooled, though $100 was already more than
some men could earn in a year. Not to mention that one could often keep the goods and livestock of the Native Americans one killed. All this further fueled the
conflict, bloodshed, and distrust between Mexicans, Americans, and the Apache.

While Geronimos feud initially existed largely with the Mexicans, its not difficult to see how that violence spilled over to those early settlers and travelers in the
Southwestern United States. Mexicans werent the only ones collecting scalp bounties, plus the whites were also busy settling on Apache lands. Regardless of who
was killing who, or who was turning in human scalps as casually as trapped pelts, the violence against American citizens was something the Federal Government
could not abide. While the market for Native American scalps (or those claimed to be) had largely dried up by the 1880s, the memories and hatred were still fresh as
ever. This was the setting that Crook inherited in 1882 (some say the spring of 1883) as head of the Department of Arizona.

Crook
Crook had ascended the ranks in his time of military service. He had performed nobly in dozens of engagements in the Civil War, and already had a fine reputation
against Indians after his performance in the Snake War, the Tonto Basin Campaign, and the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. Prior to his posting of supervising an entire
state, he served as the head of the Department of the Platte from 1875 1882. In that role he oversaw Nebraska, the Dakota Territory, the Utah Territory, Iowa, and
part of Idaho. He also helped conquered tribes on numerous occasions by speaking on their behalf in Washington, setting up irrigation projects, finding jobs, ensuring
equal pay for Native American workers, and seeking markets for their newly grown crops. All this in spite of a large segment of the population that wanted all Native
Americans dead, and a military supply industry that profited the most when Native Americans were hostile.

However, Crook also had his failures, though arguably of lesser consequence. After being nominated to the United States Military Academy by his congressman, he
graduated near the bottom of his class. At the Battle of Cloyds Mountain in the Civil War, while attempting to cross a creek, his high topped riding boots filled with
water, and he became swamped, requiring his men to pull him by his arms to the opposite shore. Later that battle, some sources say he became so fatigued with
excitement and exertion that he grew faint and was unable to mount a successful pursuit of Confederate sources, that duty then fell to future President Rutherford
B. Hayes. He would be captured by Confederate forces in 1865. Even in his finest hour, the Snake War, after ordering a charge on an Indian village from his safe
vantage point, his horse spooked and ran ahead of his own troops, placing him squarely in the cross fire of both forces. Thankfully his horse continued through the
village and both horse and rider emerged unscathed. Perhaps most damning, is that some historians still debate whether Crooks failure to pursue the Sioux and
Cheyenne forces at the Battle of the Rosebud, contributed to the massacre of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn a far greater consequence than some
waterlogged boots.

Which Crook would show up to drive the Apache from the Southwest United States: the successful rising star or the embarrassed soldier with the devils own luck?

The Game is Afoot

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A cavalry patrol leaving Ft. Bowie.

Crook did plenty to help the Native Americans when he wasnt kicking them off their land and working to place them in reservations. He developed several tactics
that were successful for decades. The first was his use of Native American scouts of the tribe he was pursuing. Utilizing the knowledge of native peoples to navigate
was nothing new, but using Native Americans knowledge against their own people was. Those scouts not only had the potential to serve as translators, but also
knew of their peoples routes, clandestine camps, and how the tribe was trained to avoid detection. They proved themselves to be an invaluable asset time and time
again. Crook also was known for his heavy use of pack animals, especially mules. By keeping the majority of supplies on the pack animals, his cavalry could travel
lighter, faster, and farther. He hoped to use these same tactics to capture Geronimo when charged with the task in 1883.

Geronimo had been placed on a reservation before. When the Chiricahua Apache were under command of Cochise, they had made peace and agreed to relocate to a
reservation. Not long after that arrangement, Cochise died in 1874. Without the cooperation of Cochise things began to spiral out of control. After the sale of whiskey
to some Apaches resulted in the death of two white men in 1876, the U.S. decided to dissolve the reservation in the Chiricahua Mountains and move its inhabitants to
the San Carlos reservation in southeast Arizona, also known as Hells Forty Acres. A great number made the move, almost 4,000, but many escaped with Geronimo to
Mexico. Those that stayed were subject to the treachery of those in charge of their welfare. Rations were shorted, but charged the same to the government, scales
were tampered with during the sale of goods, and the reservation, originally totaling some 5,000 square miles, was gradually made smaller and smaller by whites who
kept finding things they wanted along its border, such as silver, copper, and coal. The very next year, 1877, Geronimo surrendered at the Ojo Caliente Reservation in
the New Mexico Territory, but a change in management of the reservation, brought about by ego-driven politics in the U.S. Army, resulted in his release. He returned
once, in 1880, out of necessity after a long, hungry winter in the Sierra Madres, but his stay would be a short one. After a spiritual leader was arrested and the resulting
riot was initially quelled, Geronimo heard rumors that he would also be arrested or worse, and so stole away again into Mexico with 74 others. In the following two
years, he and his band took part in increasingly bold and violent raids, stealing property, and killing residents including women and children. It was these atrocities
that lead the U.S. and Mexico to a compromise that allowed each nations lawmen/troops to cross one anothers borders when in hot pursuit of the outlaw Apaches.

Once placed in charge and the recent accord with Mexico in place, it didnt take Crook long to locate Geronimo. He took 193 Native American scouts with him, and
first hand accounts mention Tom Horn serving as an interpreter on the trek though the boulder and crevasse strewn desert landscape of the Sierra Madre. Many
Apache were convinced to return to the San Carlos reservation, but Geronimo and others did not return until the next year, 1884. Once on the reservation Crook
began treating the Apache civilly and implementing programs to benefit their stay, but the surrounding communities saw the treatment and felt it was too kind for a
group that had raided their cattle, plundered their lands, and killed their friends and neighbors.

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Printed on Back of Photo: Scene in Geronimos camp, the Apache outlaw and murderer. Taken before the surrender to Gen. Crook, March 27, 1886, in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, escaped
March 30, 1886.
This photo of Geronimo and his men was taken by C.S. Fly. His 15 images of the Apache are the only known photographs taken of an American Indian while they were still at war with the U.S.

This atmosphere was combined with whites trying to remove several brutal Apache practices from the reservation, such as cutting the nose tips off of unfaithful
women, what one source calls vicious wife-beating, but most importantly a prohibition on alcohol. Mixed together, all these things compelled Geronimo to act out
by brewing a small batch of corn-based beer to protest the conditions. Instead of a reaction, Geronimo received no response at all due a communication error in the
Army involving an extremely hungover officer. Geronimo and his band waited, waited, and waited some more before finally growing tired of their staged act and
leaving the reservation. All in all 42 men and 92 women and children escaped. As the escapees made their way south again toward the inhospitable lands that made
them nearly impossible to capture, they gathered supplies. One unfortunate family in their path was that of a man known only to history as Phillips.

Phillips owned a ranch outside Silver City and the Apache badly needed supplies for their journey. It is not specifically mentioned, but little doubt can exist that
Phillips would not have been too keen on giving up his food and stock. Unfortunately, it cost him and his family their lives. When a posse arrived, his wife and infant
child were found dead, but Phillips five-year old daughter was hanging by a meat hook that had been plunged into the base of her skull. She was still alive, a
condition that would last only hours.

Crook was furious at the renewed violence and the incompetence of the men responsible for not responding to Geronimos insubordination. It would be no small task
to capture an Apache that didnt want to be caught, especially an angered one. If Crook didnt already feel the urgency of the situation, the strong pressure of the U.S.
Government to again rein in the Apaches was nearly crushing. Perhaps it was Crooks anger and perhaps it was his knowledge of the arduous task that lay before
him, but he wasted no time assembling the largest force up to that time in the Apache Wars: some 20 cavalry companies, more than 200 Native American scouts,
dozens of pack animals, and extra surgeons; over 3,000 men in total.

The hunt for Geronimo was on.

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SOURCES:

Capps, Benjamin. The Old West: The Great Chiefs. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life, 1981. Print.

http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Capt_Maus.html

http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Crook_Miles.html (1st hand account of Crook)

http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Miles_Geronimo.html (Miles, Lawtons boss)

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/scalpin/oldfolks.html

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