Re: Apache Indians

pollarde@email.uah.edu
Fri, 31 Mar 1995 18:28:47 -0600

Where would anyone get the notion that Geronimo was a Plains Apache,
much less a Plains Indian? His original band was the Bedonkohe, who
were located north of the Gila River, west from the Mogollon Mountains
in southwestern New Mexico to apparently the Blue River in eastern
Arizona. This band dissolved after the death of Geronimo's paternal
grandfather, Makho, sometimes prior to 1850. He then joined the
Southern Chiricahua band in the northern Sierra Madre Occidental of
Mexico. I got this information from Chiricahua and Fort Sill Apache
informants, some of whom are related to Geronimo.

I know of no evidence that any Apache were deported as prisoners to
the Dry Tortugas, and suspect that any Native Americans who were, were
actually Caribs from Central America. However, Apache captives were
transported to Vera Cruz for shipment to Cuba, and slave labor on
Spanish fortifications in the port of Havana, by a royal decree of
April 11, 1799. A second decree of 1803 made this disposition mandatory.
Apache prisoners had been sent to the viceroy in Mexico City for final
disposition since the Reglamento of 1729, but too many managed to
escape to renew hostilities against the Spaniards. See Max L. Moorhead,
"Spanish Deportation of Hostile Apaches: The Policy and the Practice,"
_Arizona and the West_, vol. 17, 1975, pp. 205-220.

Grosvenor Pollard

via Elizabeth B. Pollard
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Elizabeth Pollard
Systems Librarian Internet: pollarde@email.uah.edu
University of Alabama in Huntsville Compuserve: 72457,1560
Huntsville, AL 35899 Phone: (205)895-6313
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