In the seventies the United States troops sent for Victorio and Geronimo. As soon as they entered the camp they were taken to headquarters and tried by court-martial. Victorio was released and Geronimo was put in chains, remaining in shackles four months.
For the next ensuing years there was considerable fighting, the Apaches being afraid to trust the United States authorities and the frontier element anxious that the Apaches be exterminated. Our troops occasionally defeated the Indians but were more often repulsed. General Crook took away the Apaches’ cattle and horses, and as few of the Apaches were horse Indians, preferring to fight or hunt on foot, and as the cattle were an incentive to thrift and industry, this action of General Crook’s was not a severe blow to the Indians.
The General followed the Apaches into Mexico and held an interview. I quote Geronimo’s description of what occurred.[[46]]
“Said the General: ‘Why did you leave the reservation?’
“I said: ‘You told me that I might live in the reservation the same as white people lived. One year I raised a crop of corn, and gathered and stored it, and the next year I put in a crop of oats, and when the crop was almost ready to harvest, you told your soldiers to put me in prison, and if I resisted to kill me. If I had been let alone I would now have been in good circumstances, but instead of that you and the Mexicans were hunting me with soldiers.’
“He said: ‘I never gave any such orders; the troops at Fort Apache, who spread this report, knew that it was untrue.’
“Then I agreed to go back with him to San Carlos.
“It was hard for me to believe him at that time. Now I know that what he said was untrue, and I firmly believe that he did issue the orders for me to be put in prison, or to be killed in case I offered resistance.”
POMO WOMAN WEAVING A TWINED BASKET, CALIFORNIA