Geronimo
Geronimo was born about 1823 in southern Arizona. His real name was Goyahkla, which means "He Who Yawns." As a boy he learned the typical skills: running long distances on foot, staying awake and alert for long periods, getting by on little food and water, hunting, riding, and using a bow and arrow, skinning knife, lance, and club.
The summer of 1851 was the first time he saw a white men. It was when he and Mangas and some other Apaches met a company of Mexican and American officials near the copper mining village of Santa Rita, New Mexico territory. They were surveying the U.S.-Mexico border. The party explained to Mangas what they were doing. They explained that the Apaches were living in the U.S. territory now. A year later Mangas and others signed a treaty in Santa Fe agreeing to give unmolested passage to Americans through their territory.
In 1851, Geronimo was leading a party from the Mogollon mountains of New Mexico into Mexico to trade at Casas Grandes in Chihuahua. His mother, wife, and three children were with him. His band set up a village with other members of his band on the outskirts of Casas Grandes.
One day he and some others were returning from town and found that their village had been attacked by Mexican troops. The sentinels had been killed, the ponies stolen, weapons taken, supplies destroyed, and many women and children had been killed. Among them were his mother, wife, and children. He burned his wife's possessions according to custom. It is said that this is when his personality changed. He became bitter and quarrelsome and was feared even by his own people.
Over the next few months he met with Mangas Coloradas, Cochise the chief of the Chiricahuas, and Juh of the Nednais. Within four months of the massacre, these four men prepared for revenge. In January 1852, near Arizpe, Sonora, Mexico, Geronimo battled about a hundred Mexican irregular soldiers. This is about the time he started being known as Geronimo. The name is said to come from Mexican soldiers shouting the name of St. Jerome, Geronimo in Spanish.
In 1861, the soldiers left the area to fight in the Civil War. But in 1862, Union Colonel James Carleton bought 1,800 men to Tucson. The Chiricahuas, Mimbrenos, and others gathered, about 500, to fight for Apache Pass. Geronimo was there, when Apaches and 126 Union soldiers fought. The battle ended when the Americans fired their howitzers and loosened rock that fell
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