Originally posted in slightly different form in 2007:
NewMexiKen has been reading Angie Debo’s excellent 1976 biography of Geronimo. I recommend it. Here’s a couple of trivial items I thought were interesting.
When Geronimo’s and Naiche’s (son of Cochise) bands were consolidated at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, in 1887 and 1888, the post doctor was Walter Reed. Yes, THE Walter Reed.
A school was eventually set up at the Alabama camp, where the Apaches were prisoners of war — men, women and children. Geronimo reportedly monitored the children’s attendance and deportment, walking up and down the aisles with a stick.
The [Chiricahua] Apaches were relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894. Photo from 1898, age 69 or so.
Finishing the biography, amused to learn that when Geronimo traveled he would sell photos and autographs and even the buttons off his coat. He’d sell the buttons to people gathered to see him come by at the train station, then before the next station he’d sew on a new set of buttons.
Geronimo also rode in Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in March 1905. The Chiricahua would have been about 75-76. It was said he could still vault onto his pony. That’s him, second from right.
He died in 1909, about age 80.