About Famous Apache Indians
The enduring fame of the Apache people is primarily due to their resistance to the Spanish, Mexicans and Americans over several centuries. Their reputation for guerrilla raids on villages stretches at least as far back as 1656, when Spanish settlers and Pueblo Indians of New Mexico suffered heavily from almost continual Apache attacks. The individual Apaches most remembered today, however, were active from roughly 1861 to 1886 against U.S. forces seeking to remove them from their native lands.
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History of
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Archeological evidence suggests ancestors of the Apache migrated to the American southwest around 1000 AD. By the time the Spanish arrived, tribes of nomadic Apache hunters engaged in well established trade with the more agriculturally-oriented Pueblo peoples. The Spanish disrupted this trade, however, by forcing the Pueblos to labor on Spanish mission lands. From the Spanish, the Apaches acquired horses, which were used in daring raids against Pueblo villages to obtain important foodstuffs. A period of intermittent hostility between the Spanish and later the Mexicans continued throughout the period of Mexican independence and the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s.
The Facts
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Cochise, for whom the Arizona county is named, was leader of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe during the mid-19th century. In 1861, Coyotero Apaches raided a local cattle rancher and kidnapped his 12-year-old son. Cochise and five others of his tribe were falsely accused, arrested and imprisoned. Shot three times in his escape, Cochise took hostages to help negotiate the release of his five companions. When Cochise murdered his hostages, the U.S. responded by hanging the remaining Apaches in custody, including Cochise's brother and two of his nephews. Cochise then teamed with other Apache leaders and exacted horrible revenge against white settlers for the next 10 years. In 1871, saying "I have killed 10 white men for every Indian slain, but I know that the whites are many, and the Indians are few," Cochise negotiated a peaceful settlement that included the creation of a reservation on his native lands where he eventually died of natural causes.
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Misconceptions
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Most assume every Native American leader was a chief, but in fact many were simply influential and charismatic religious figures with no particular political authority. This is true of the most famous of all Apaches, Geronimo, considered a very powerful medicine man by his people. From Goyathla, meaning "one who yawns," his name was changed to Geronimo in recognition of the fear he instilled in Mexican soldiers, whose battle cry was the name of their patron saint, Jerome.
Evolution
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After Cochise's death in 1784, the U.S. sought to remove the Apaches from the reservation to the Arizona desert. For more than 10 years, Geronimo inspired hundreds of Apaches, including Cochise's son, to conduct courageous guerrilla attacks against overwhelming odds, and he became known for his cunning strategy and daring escapes. Geronimo's surrender in 1886 marked the last significant Native American guerrilla attack in the U.S.
Significance
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Once subdued, the Apache prisoners were a source of intense curiosity to the American public. Though still enduring much hardship, Geronimo benefited from and encouraged commercial exploitation of his name. He appeared at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, in Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration parade in 1905 and other public events where he would sell his autograph, photographs and bows and arrows. After his death in military custody in 1909, Geronimo's legendary fearlessness grew to such proportions that his name was shouted by U.S. paratroopers leaping from planes. His name or image have appeared in books, film, toys, comics and T-shirts as an enduring part of popular culture. Geronimo's remains, including his skull, were stolen in 1918 and are reputed to be in the possession of Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University
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