Geronimo

I was praying to the light and to the darkness, to God and to the sun, to let me live quietly with my family. I don't know what the reason was that people should speak badly of me. I don't want to be blamed. The fault was not mine. Blame those three men.

There are very few of my men left now. They have done some bad things but I want them all rubbed out now and let us never speak of them again.

I am a complete man. Nothing has gone from my body. From here on I want to live at peace. Don't believe any bad talk you hear about me.

Much that was done by mean white men was reported at Washington as the deeds of my people.

If I had been let alone I would now have been in good circumstances, but instead of that you and the Mexicans are hunting me with soldiers.

The Indians always tried to live peaceably with the white soldiers and settlers.

I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good feeling.

Who is the White Nantan to think he can pit his power against that of Usen?

So many of our people died that I consented to let one of my wives go to the Mescalero Agency in New Mexico to live. This separation is according to our custom equivalent to what the white people call divorce, and so she married again soon after she got to Mescalero.

The white men have taken our land, our homes, and our women. They have destroyed our way of life.

I was living quietly with my family, having plenty to eat, when the soldiers came and murdered my wife and children.

The white men are liars. They promised us peace, but they brought war.

The soldiers told us to plant corn and wheat, but before it was ripe, they took it all away.

I have killed many Mexicans; I do not know how many, for frequently I did not count them. Some of them were not worth counting. It has been a long time since then, but still I have no love for the Mexicans. With me they were always treacherous and malicious.

Late one afternoon when returning from town we were met by a few women and children who told us that Mexican troops from some other town had attacked our camp, killed all the warriors of the guard, captured all our ponies, secured our arms, destroyed our supplies, and killed many of our women and children… when all were counted, I found that my aged mother, my young wife, and my three small children were among the slain.

I will protect my people if I live. For myself I do not fear for I have the word of Usen. Who is the White Nantan to think he can pit his power against that of Usen?

In all the battle I thought of my murdered mother, wife, and babies—of my father's grave and my vow of vengeance, and I fought with fury. Many fell by my hand, and constantly I led the advance. Many braves were killed.

I gave orders for scalping the slain.

General Crook said to me, 'Why did you leave the reservation?' I said: 'You told me that I might live in the reservation the same as white people lived. One year I raised a crop of corn, and gathered and stored it, and the next year I put in a crop of oats, and when the crop was almost ready to harvest, you told your soldiers to put me in prison, and if I resisted, to kill me. If I had been let alone I would now have been in good circumstances, but instead of that you and the Mexicans are hunting me with soldiers.'

No guns, no bullets could ever kill me. That was my power... Now my time is over.