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11 - Story of Geronimo by Jim Kjelgaard · Story of Geronimo

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of the Story of Geronimo. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Reading done by Jules Harlock. The Story of Geronimo by
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  Speaker 1: Jim Cagilgard, Chapter eleven, Geronimo in chains in the Apache
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  Speaker 1: camp at Warm Springs, New Mexico. Victorio and Geronimo braced
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  Speaker 1: themselves against the side of a big wooden building which
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  Speaker 1: had once been the barracks for white soldiers. All about
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  Speaker 1: them wiki up sprouted like misshapen plants. A large herd
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  Speaker 1: of horses grazed nearby. Women and older children ground corn
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  Speaker 1: in the US their stone grinding bowls. Others prepared freshly
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  Speaker 1: killed meat, but they were not working over the carcasses
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  Speaker 1: of elk, deer and antelope. These were stolen range cattle
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  Speaker 1: that the women made ready for cooking pots. But they
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  Speaker 1: were as tasty as any wild game, and they also
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  Speaker 1: furnished a great deal more meat for every shot expended.
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  Speaker 1: The warm sun had made Geronimo and Victorio sleepy, so
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  Speaker 1: that neither warrior felt like moving unnecessarily, but their conversation
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  Speaker 1: was lively enough. The days of our father are truly gone,
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  Speaker 1: and I do not believe they will ever be again,
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  Speaker 1: said Geronimo. Even war as we once knew it is
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  Speaker 1: no more. There was a time when Apaches fought more
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  Speaker 1: for the adventure and plunder than anything else. But now,
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  Speaker 1: since the white men have become our enemies, both sides
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  Speaker 1: fight only to kill. That is how Cochies fought the
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  Speaker 1: white men for ten long years, Victorio remarked. Geronimo said bitterly.
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  Speaker 1: But finally even he made terms. He promised to fight
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  Speaker 1: no more if his Cherikauas were permitted to stay in
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  Speaker 1: their homeland. The Cherikaua Mountains. General Howard, with whom Cochies treated,
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  Speaker 1: pledged his word that they might. Yet, less than eighteen
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  Speaker 1: months after Cochise has gone to join his ancestors, all
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  Speaker 1: his people have been rounded up by troops and shipped
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  Speaker 1: to a new reservation. It is somewhere here in New Mexico,
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  Speaker 1: and the Cherichauas do not like it. Many have already
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  Speaker 1: deserted to go back on the war path. Many more
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  Speaker 1: will desert. There will be much trouble, Victorio said bitterly.
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  Speaker 1: The white soldiers are great fools. If they had left
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  Speaker 1: the Chitika, who is alone, there would have been no trouble.
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  Speaker 1: But has there ever been a time when white soldiers
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  Speaker 1: did not promise us one thing and give us another?
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  Speaker 1: Why do you think I follow you to this place
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  Speaker 1: where you and your people have fled? Geronimo queried, I
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  Speaker 1: will not live with the other Apaches in that stinking
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  Speaker 1: country called the San Carlos reservation, which the white men
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  Speaker 1: saw fit to give them. And there are too many
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  Speaker 1: soldiers being stationed in Arizona. I knew that I and
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  Speaker 1: those few who came with me could not hope to
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  Speaker 1: fight them. It is good here. It is good here,
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  Speaker 1: Victoria agreed, but only because the white soldiers are so stupid.
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  Speaker 1: In Arizona, every group of soldiers starting on an Apache
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  Speaker 1: trail had many mules to carry provisions. Thus they were
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  Speaker 1: able to stay on the trail for many days or
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  Speaker 1: even weeks. Here in New Mexico, each soldier has only
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  Speaker 1: his own horse. When they set out to pursue us.
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  Speaker 1: They may continue only until their horses are too weary
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  Speaker 1: to go on. Then the soldiers must turn back. There
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  Speaker 1: is small need to fret about them, Geronimo said confidently,
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  Speaker 1: for many years. We have run away from all the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers in Arizona and New Mexico too. They will not
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  Speaker 1: catch us now, Victorio said. It is not the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: who worry me, but a white man who is now
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  Speaker 1: in charge of the San Carlos reservation. His name is
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  Speaker 1: John Clum, and he is no more like an ordinary
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  Speaker 1: white man who comes to oversee Indians than a jack
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  Speaker 1: rabbit is like an elk. He has treated the Apaches fairly,
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  Speaker 1: and as a result they have grown to respect him.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the bravest and best Apache warriors have joined
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  Speaker 1: his Indian police force, and he has vowed to put
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  Speaker 1: you and me, whom he calls renegades, on the reservation too.
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  Speaker 1: Let him talk, muttered Geronimo. One cannot catch us with words.
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  Speaker 1: He did not know that even as he spoke, John
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  Speaker 1: Clumb and a number of his most fearless and sharpest
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  Speaker 1: shooting Indian police were on their way to the camp.
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  Speaker 1: They had left San Carlos a week earlier for the
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  Speaker 1: sole purpose of capturing these two men and their followers.
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  Speaker 1: For more than a year, the Apaches had remained unmolested
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  Speaker 1: in this isolated camp in New Mexico. When they went
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  Speaker 1: to bed that night. They scarcely bothered to post a sentry.
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  Speaker 1: In the first light of early morning, John Clumb and
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  Speaker 1: his Indian police closed in. Taken holy i surprise, the
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  Speaker 1: Apaches could do nothing but surrender. Geronimo felt the cold
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  Speaker 1: of iron manacles as they were clamped over his wrists.
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  Speaker 1: He and seven other trouble makers were chained together. John
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  Speaker 1: Clum directed a company of his police to take Victorio
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  Speaker 1: and his band to the Ojo Kelliente Reservation in Texas.
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  Speaker 1: All the rest were returned to San Carlos in Arizona.
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  Speaker 1: Geronimo knew perfectly well that this reservation along the banks
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  Speaker 1: of the Gilla River had been given to the Apaches
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  Speaker 1: only because no white man thought he would ever want
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  Speaker 1: the land. The reservation was blistering hot in summer, and
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  Speaker 1: when blasted in winter. There was so little year round
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  Speaker 1: rainfall that nothing would grow well except cactus, pola verdi trees, greasewood, mesquite,
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  Speaker 1: and other desert visions. Even as he arrived on the reservation,
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  Speaker 1: Geronimo knew that he would never stay. But all his
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  Speaker 1: ammunition and his rifles had been taken away. His knife
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  Speaker 1: was gone too, Since no warrior could travel far without weapons,
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  Speaker 1: Geronimo could do nothing for a while except bide his
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  Speaker 1: time and draw his rations of worm ridden flower and tough,
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  Speaker 1: stringy beef. But he was not idle, as he waited
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  Speaker 1: for a chance to escape. Searching daily, he found a
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  Speaker 1: bullet here, another there, and finally stole a rifle and
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  Speaker 1: hid it out on the desert. The agent who replaced
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  Speaker 1: John Clump was not interested in watching him closely, so
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  Speaker 1: Geronimo was able also to rebuild his horse herds through
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  Speaker 1: the night raids on the Papagoes. Other discontented Apaches were
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  Speaker 1: doing likewise. One dark night, little more more than a
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  Speaker 1: year after Geronimo had been brought to San Carlos in Chains,
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  Speaker 1: a visitor came to his wikiup. He was Carlos Anaea,
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  Speaker 1: who had been one of Victorio's warriors. I come from
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  Speaker 1: the war path, Carlos said softly to Geronimo. Victoria broke out.
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  Speaker 1: Geronimo asked I. Carlos said. He left Ojo Caliente and
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  Speaker 1: fled south to join Cabareo, chief of the Mescalero Apaches.
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  Speaker 1: Their combined forces made war throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
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  Speaker 1: and Old Mexico. They killed more than a thousand people.
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  Speaker 1: They forced many soldiers and many men called the Texas Rangers,
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  Speaker 1: and a vast number of the ruralies into the field
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  Speaker 1: against them, But finally most of them were killed. Only
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  Speaker 1: a few of us As escaped. Still, a warrior's death
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  Speaker 1: is better than a reservation life, far better, said Geronimo.
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  Speaker 1: I and those who follow me are almost ready to
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  Speaker 1: make a break for freedom too, end of Chapter eleven.