The Iliad of Geronimo
The story of the last ten years of Geronimo’s wars mirrors the rage, battles, and deception told in Homer’s Iliad, the story of the ten-year Greek and Trojan War.
The Iliad of Geronimo begins ten years before Geronimo's surrender to the Americans with Geronimo being hauled four hundred miles in chains to the San Carlos Reservation Guardhouse, there to await hanging in Tucson. Almost miraculously, Geronimo escaped hanging and lived peacefully for a time at San Carlos.
Geronimo and his followers escaped reservations three times during the nearly ten years of Geronimo’s Iliad. After leaving the reservations, the Apache raided and made war from their great Troy-like fortress, the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico. Chiricahua Apache heroes, like their Greek and Trojan counterparts, were great warriors, their names filling the Americans and Mexicans with terror—Naiche, Loco, Chihuahua, Nana, Jelikinne, Ulzana, Kaytennae, Chato—and the most feared—Geronimo.
The Iliad of Geronimo is an epic story told through Geronimo’s eyes of the ten years of blood and fire he wrought on his enemies when most of his people wanted peace with the Americans and the Mexicans. Only after General Miles offered terms that allowed Geronimo and his warriors to see their families was their war ended. The terms were like a Trojan horse filled with lies instead of warriors, that once accepted, allowed no escape for men who didn’t suffer fools gladly and couldn’t be broken as warriors.
W. Michael Farmer
