Document A: Geronimo’s Autobiography

SOURCE NOTE: Geronimo was an Apache warrior who battled with the United States for most of his life. In 1906, Geronimo life story was turned into a book. This is an excerpt from the book, Geronimo’s Life Story, by Stephen Melville Barrett.

The United States troops invited our leaders to hold a meeting at Apache Pass. Just before noon our group went into a tent because we were told that the USA Army would give us something to eat. When in the tent we were attacked by soldiers. Our chief and several other warriors escaped but most of the warriors were killed or captured.

A few days after the attack at Apache Pass, we organized in the mountains and returned to fight the soldiers. After a few days of small battles, we attacked a train that was coming in with supplies. We killed some of the men and captured the others. Our chief offered to trade our prisoners for the Indians that the soldiers captured at the massacre in the tent. The USA army refused, so we killed our prisoners, broke apart, and went into hiding in the mountains.