Today in Manhunting History: February 17, 1909 -- The Death of Geronimo

After Geronimo's surrender to U.S. forces in September 1886, he and his band of Chiricahua Apaches were exiled first to Florida -- where the violent change in climate from the American Southwest caused an alarming number of deaths -- and later to Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, and finally, to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

During his time in limbo, however, Geronimo began the transformation from monster to legend. During the relocation to Fort Sill crowds gathered at whistle-stops to cheer the celebrated warrior. Geronimo responded with savvy pragmatism, selling his block-lettered autograph for 25 cents a copy. With special permission from the War Department, Geronimo was allowed to travel as a side-show attraction. He attended the Omaha and Buffalo expositions (and was at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 when President McKinley was assassinated) and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. He spent a year with a “Wild West” show, and cashed in on his reputation by selling souvenir bows and arrows, autographed pictures of himself, even the buttons off his coat. At the request of Theodore Roosevelt, Geronimo was brought to Washington to ride in the President’s inaugural parade of March 1905 along with chieftains from other tribes. As Geronimo galloped down Pennsylvania Avenue, people in the dense crowd hollered “Hooray for Geronimo!” and tossed their hats in the air.

In February 1909, the octogenarian Geronimo got drunk and fell off his horse while riding home, spending the night injured and lying in a cold rain. Consequently, on February 17, the warrior who had survived innumerable battles with the U.S. cavalry died in his bed from pneumonia, eulogized by at least one contemporary writer as “the Napoleon of the Indian race.”

Geronimo's final resting place at Fort Sill, OK.