Geronimo

Description

“I am thankful that the President of the United States has given me permission to tell my story. I hope that he and those in authority under him will read my story and judge whether my people have been rightly treated.”—Geronimo
 
This book contains one of the most extraordinary and invaluable documents in the annals of Native American history—the authentic testament of a remarkable “war shaman” who for several years held off both Mexico and the United States in fierce defense of Apache lands.

During 1905 and 1906, Geronimo, the legendary Apache warrior and honorary war chief, dictated his story through a native interpreter to S.M. Barrett, then superintendent of schools in Lawton, Oklahoma. As Geronimo was by then a prisoner of war, Barrett had made appeals all the way up the chain of command to President Teddy Roosevelt for permission to record the words of the “Indian outlaw.” Geronimo came to each interview knowing exactly what he wanted to cover, beginning with his telling of the Apache creation story. When, at the end of the first session, Barrett posed a question, the only answer he received was a pronouncement—“Write what I have spoken.”

Now Geronimo’s narrative, with S.M. Barrett’s original commentary, has been set in historical perspective by Frederick Turner’s new introduction on the latest scholarship about the period. These elements combine in Geronimo: His Own Story to provide unique insights into the beliefs, customs, and way of life of a remarkable man and his people.Newly Revised and Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Frederick Turner

Illustrations
Preface
Introduction by Frederick Turner
A Note on the Text
Introductory
Part I: The Apaches
1. Origin of the Apache Indians
2. Subdivisions of the Apache Tribe
3. Early Life
4. Tribal Amusements, Manners, and Customs
5. The Family
Part II: The Mexicans
6. Kas-ki-yeh
7. Fighting Under Difficulties
8. Raids That Were Successful
9. Varying Fortunes
10. Heavy Fighting
11. Geronimo’s Mightiest Battle
Part III: The White Men
12. Coming of the White Men
13. Greatest of Wrongs
14. Removals
15. In Prison and on the Warpath
16. The Final Struggle
17. A Prisoner of War
Part IV. The Old and the New
18. Unwritten Laws of the Apaches
19. At the World’s Fair
20. Religion
21. Hopes for the Future
Appendix: The Surrender of Geronimo
A Selected Bibliography

Geronimo was a Bedonkohe Apache leader of the Chiricahua Apache, who led his people’s defense of their homeland against the United States. He dictated his autobiography through an interpreter to S.M. Barrett, then superintendent of schools in Lawton, Oklahoma. 

Frederick W. Turner is an American historian and writer. He annotated the revised edition of Geronimo’s 1906 autobiography.US

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