The last major war between Americans and Native Americans ended with an operation on September 4, 1886, when the famous Apache leader Geronimo formally surrendered to American forces.
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On that fateful day, Geronimo, accompanied by Naichi, the leader of the Chiriquah tribe, surrendered to General Nelson Miles. A special meeting was held, and the terms of the agreement were signed in Skelton Valley, in southern Arizona, near the Arizona-New Mexico border. These events leading to the surrender marked the end of what became known as "Jeronimo's Campaign," the last large-scale American military operation in the long Apache Wars, which raged relentlessly from May 1885 to September 1886.
In the course of that campaign, the U.S. Army deployed more than 5,000 soldiers, a number that at the time represented a quarter of the entire regular U.S. Army, in addition to about 3,000 Mexican soldiers and 1,000 civilian volunteers, all of whom participated in a long and arduous pursuit through rugged terrain, with the aim of eliminating the remaining Geronimo fighters, whose numbers had been greatly reduced in the end to only 20 fighters and 18 civilians, reflecting the enormous difference in power between the two sides.
General Nelson Miles relied extensively on optical telegraphy along the border, which enabled the rapid transmission of information about Apache movements and facilitated the accurate and effective deployment of military units to strategic points. This modern means of communication deprived Geronimo's detachment of its main advantage, which it had long relied upon: the superior ability to evade attacks and launch surprise raids on convoys and settlements.
In addition, General Miles had ordered the deportation of almost all members of the Chiriquah tribe, including scouts who had cooperated with the U.S. Army, to the distant state of Florida. As a result, Chief Geronimo, whose birth name was "Guikla" meaning "the one who yawns," lost any possible support, shelter, or supply sources from his native tribe, further isolating his men and exposing them to danger.
Moreover, this tribe was moving through the rugged Sierra Madre mountains and sprawling border regions, where obtaining food and fresh water was extremely difficult, especially as the season progressed and the pursuit intensified. The prolonged guerrilla war had also depleted everything—ammunition, supplies, and morale—leaving the fighters in a state of extreme exhaustion.
Years earlier, specifically on August 6, 1880, the Battle of Rattlesnake Springs took place in the area now known as West Texas. On that occasion, U.S. Army forces defeated a group of Apaches led by Chief Victorio, increasing the despair of the Indians and reinforcing the certainty that their attempts to defend their native land and seek justice had failed, and that armed resistance was no longer useful in the face of the massive American military machine.
The American leadership had offered the Apaches surrender as the only way to avoid total annihilation; however, the conditions they set were very harsh, most notably forced relocation away from their ancestral lands and sacred territories, which was a severe blow to their tribal identity.
Contributing to the surrender of this group of "Red Indians" were a combination of factors, including physical exhaustion and a significant drop in morale. After more than a year of continuous raids and pursuits in the most difficult climatic and terrain conditions, the fighters were physically and psychologically exhausted to the extreme. Geronimo also realized that the overwhelming numerical and technological superiority of the enemy made any resistance futile, even with his exceptional tactical prowess and deep knowledge of the terrain. Cunning and maneuvering were no longer sufficient to confront a modern army equipped with the latest means of communication and transportation.
According to several historical accounts, the news of his tribe's expulsion from Arizona shattered his resolve and ultimately led him to despair of the futility of continuing to fight, thus losing hope of ever returning to a normal life among his people.
On the other hand, the policy of the US government at the time aimed to permanently "pacify" the Native Americans and eradicate the roots of resistance in the West. By the 1880s, Washington's policy was clearly aimed at the complete elimination of any armed resistance and the resettlement of Native American tribes on remote reservations under full military control, so that none of them would pose a threat to white settlers or westward expansion projects. For the US authorities, Geronimo's surrender held great symbolic significance, as it was intended to demonstrate the end of the era of independent Native American tribes in the West and to declare federal government control over every inch of the land.
After surrendering, Geronimo and his men were sent on a grueling march to Fort Poy. Due to discrepancies in official army records, the exact number of prisoners varies among different sources, but it is certain that they were only a token remnant of a great resistance.
Another important point is that General Miles, fearing that some members of the Chirikahoa tribe who were on the reservations might help the escapees, had already arrested many members of the tribe, their children, and their women, and imprisoned them as prisoners of war even though they had not participated in the fighting. Almost all members of the Chirikahoa tribe were eventually captured and taken first to Fort Pickens in Florida, then to Fort Sale in Oklahoma, and later to other forts in the eastern part of the country, where they suffered greatly from hunger and disease. This “captive people” did not gain their freedom until 1913, after nearly three decades of exile and captivity.
Ironically, two shepherds who worked for the San Simon Cattle Company, and who were with the American forces at the time, went to the abandoned Indian camp after the last of the Indians had left the Skelton Valley, and searched it very carefully, and later saw that they had found a hidden treasure of Mexican pesos, so they sold it for one hundred and fifty dollars and twenty-five cents.
As was customary, one of the key conditions General Miles promised Chief Geronimo was that the Chirikahoa Apache would be allowed to see their exiled families upon their arrival in Florida. However, this promise was never honored. President Grover Cleveland demanded unconditional surrender, and the U.S. government had no intention of reuniting the Apache families as it had publicly pledged. Instead, Geronimo and his men were treated as dangerous prisoners of war, first sent to Fort Marion in Florida and then to Fort Mount Vernon in Alabama. It took over two years of suffering and repeated deportations before they were finally permitted to see their families. Many Chirikahoa died from tropical diseases such as malaria and yellow fever during their harsh captivity in Florida.
Ultimately, Chief Geronimo and his tribe were taken to the Fort Sill Reservation in Oklahoma, where he spent the rest of his life as a captive and farmer, far from the Arizona mountains he loved. This historic event, Geronimo's surrender, is often considered the symbolic end of the so-called Indian Wars. Although minor and sporadic skirmishes continued after 1886, Geronimo's surrender marked the true end of the Apache's long and noble resistance to barbaric American expansion in the American West, and the Apache tribes entered the longest and harshest chapter of their suffering under the weight of marginalization and exile.
