Today in History

February 17, 1909

Geronimo Dies

In 1829, a Native American boy named Goyathlay was born to the Apache tribe in what was then Mexican territory, but would later be Arizona. He married and had three children. In 1851, a group of Mexican soldiers attacked his village while most of the men of the tribe were away. Goyathlay's wife and three children were murdered.

The people of his village considered Goyathlay as man of supernatural powers - he soon turned his abilities to waging a relentless war against the Mexicans and, later, the Americans. The Mexicans began to call him Geronimo, either a corruption of his given name or a cry for mercy to St. Gerome. Either way, Geronimo and his small band of warriors soon became a fierce and feared war band, raiding outposts and defeating better-manned and better-equipped troops of soldiers.

In 1886, after years of battle, American forces appointed a group of soldiers to run Geronimo's band of warriors to the ground. Finally capturing Geronimo, he was imprisoned at various forts from Arizona to Florida, finally arriving at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In the later years of his life, he became a celebrity figure of the "Old West". He appeared at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905. He died of complications of pneumonia on February 17, 1909.

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