"We may," said Lieutenant Gatewood.
They parted. Lieutenant Gatewood and his party returned to their camp
while the Apaches went to theirs. The Indians were sober and thoughtful.
"It is true," Geronimo said, "that few animals have been hunted harder
than we. We have fought and fought well, but we are very few, and our
enemies are very many. We cannot continue to fight them forever."
Said Naiche, "It is also true that we would like to see our friends and
families again. There is small chance of doing that as long we are in
Mexico and they are in Florida."
[Illustration]
Others of the band murmured agreement. All were desperately tired and
lonely. They had endured far more than flesh and blood should be
expected to bear. But they were willing to continue the fight if
Geronimo and Naiche decided that that was best.
"Yet," Naiche continued, "I fear to surrender even more than I fear to
continue the battle. Mexicans south of the border and Americans north of
it would kill us as readily as we would kill a pack of rabid wolves. If
we hand our arms over to Lieutenant Gatewood, who will protect us until
we are safe in Florida?"
Suddenly Geronimo, who had been silent, saw in full the vision he had
seen only in part as he sat beside Naiche. There was old Mangus
Coloradus advising his people to make peace with the white men, since
they could never hope to conquer them. There was Cochise, who had needed
ten years of bloody war to teach him what Mangus Coloradus had been
taught by his own wisdom. Now, almost twenty-five years after the death
of Mangus Coloradus, Geronimo finally understood what one of these
chiefs had known and the other had learned.
Apaches could not fight the white men. But neither could they surrender
to them unless it was possible to work out a plan guaranteeing their own
safety.
When they resumed their talks the next day, Geronimo said bluntly to
Lieutenant Gatewood, "Forget you are a white man and pretend you are one
of us. What would you do?"
"Trust General Miles and surrender to him," Lieutenant Gatewood said
promptly.
"So you have spoken and so shall we do," said Geronimo. "But it is a
long way to the border where General Miles awaits, and this is enemy
country. We will not surrender our arms until we are met by General
Miles."
"That is agreeable," said Lieutenant Gatewood. "In addition, Captain
Lawton and a company of soldiers are camped not far away. I will ask
them to march with you and help beat off any Mexicans who may attack."
[Illustration]
"You march with us," Geronimo said. "Captain Lawton and his soldiers
may come, but they are to stay ahead or behind. We do not care to mingle
with white soldiers."
"That, too, is agreeable," said Lieutenant Gatewood.
[Illustration]
It was thus that the Apaches marched to the border of Mexico. Lieutenant
Gatewood marched with them. Captain Lawton provided an escort of
American soldiers. And a mob of two hundred Mexicans, who finally saw
the hated Apaches in captivity, trailed them all the way. But the
Mexicans did not dare start a fight.
When they reached the camp where General Miles was waiting, Geronimo
stalked haughtily to the general, who stared coldly at the great Apache
leader. Geronimo and his warriors laid down the arms that they had
carried so many miles and into so many battles. The disarmed Apaches
were surrounded by soldiers who took them, first to prison cells at
Arizona's Fort Bowie, then to the train that carried them to exile in
Florida.
So ended the fighting days of Geronimo, the last and fiercest Apache war
chief. And so, also, ended the Indian Wars in the Southwest. Never again
would men and women on lonely ranches or in isolated villages awaken,
trembling, in the middle of the night to hear the pound of ponies' hoofs
and the wild Apache war cry. Never again would travelers in Arizona, New
Mexico, and northern Mexico find it necessary to travel in groups and
well-armed for fear of Apache attacks.
Geronimo and his followers, as well as many other Chiricahua and Warm
Springs Apaches, were imprisoned at old Fort Pickens, or at Fort Marion,
in Florida. Eventually they were moved to a reservation in what was
then Indian Territory and what is now the State of Oklahoma. There
Geronimo died at Fort Sill, on February 17, 1909.
Whether he was a great villain or a great patriot depends on whether one
looks at him with the eyes of the white men whom he plundered, or the
Apaches whom he championed. But nobody can deny that he fought for a
free life for himself and his people and that he was one of the greatest
warriors of all time.
_About the Author_
Jim Kjelgaard was born in New York City but spent his childhood and
youth in the Pennsylvania mountains. There he learned to hunt, fish, and
handle dogs. He still likes to hunt and has done so in most parts of the
United States and Canada, although he has exchanged his rifles and
shotguns for cameras. After graduating from high school, he spent two
years at Syracuse University Extension. Since then he has held a variety
of jobs ranging all the way from trapper to factory superintendent, and
has been writing professionally for over twenty years. Of some thirty
successful books, all but one are for young people.
_About the Artist_
Charles Banks Wilson, well known to young people for his illustrations
of many historical books about the West, has achieved equal success as a
painter. Over 150 exhibitions of his work have been held in museums
throughout America. In both book illustration and painting, Mr. Wilson
is associated with the contemporary life of the American Indian. Many
Indian ceremonials which have never been photographed are recorded in
his work, which has taken him throughout the Southwest as well as the
Far West. He lives in his native Oklahoma with his wife, a Quapaw Indian
princess, and their two children. Since 1947 he has been head of the Art
Department of the Northeastern Oklahoma A. & M. College.