CRAZY HORSE (1840 to 1877)
CRAZY HORSE was born around 1840. His Indian name was Tashunka Witko, which translates as both wild horse and ghost horse.
He was considered a visionary who trusted his dreams and a mystic. Less great speakers than z. B. SITTING BULL or TECUMSEH, CRAZY HORSE was a fearless fighter. This he proved u. a. In 1866 in the fight against CAPTAIN WJ FETTERMANN and his troops, which sat in Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming and which he defeated.
In addition to defeating GENERAL CROOK in the Rosebud Valley (1876), the greatest battle that CRAZY HORSE waged was on the Little Bighorn River .
Together with SITTING BULL, he brought down GENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER’s army on June 25, 1876. Since he was considered a level-headed and strategically superior warrior, he was able to defeat CUSTERS 7th Cavalry after a short time.
After that, however, a bitter chase for CRAZY HORSE began. He finally surrendered in May 1877 and was housed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. On September 5th of the same year he fell victim to a perfidious intrigue. It was said that he wanted to defend himself against imprisonment, justifying the fact that he was bayonet stabbed from behind by a white soldier.
COCHISE (1810/23 to 1874)
Nothing is known about COCHISE’s date of birth, but about the origin of his name. As a child he was initially only called Chise (wood). But since he was a particularly tough boy with a strong character, his name became COCHISE, which translates as hickory wood. Hickory wood is considered to be particularly hard and can be found in the southern states of America.
He had inherited the title of chief from his father. The Chiracahuas Apaches lived in the Chiraicaha Mountains in southeastern Arizona.
In 1862, members of the Apache tribe were killed by American soldiers and then COCHISE began a campaign of revenge,which lasted for several years. Again and again he attacked the whites, settlers, whom he killed just as innocently as the soldiers had done with his relatives. Stagecoaches were ambushed and the gold diggers met the same fate.
After COCHISE was invited to Washington in 1871 to serve as Commissioner for Indian Affairs, but he refused, GENERAL CROOK ordered that COCHISE be pursued.
The dispatched LIEUTENANT HOWARD CUSHING was lured into an ambush by COCHISE and killed several of his men and himself. The government decided to adopt a different policy.
US postal inspector THOMAS JEFFORDS played a special role. With a peaceful intention he came together for talks with COCHISE and these led to a friendship between the two men. COCHISE gave up the fight.
A contract was signed with GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD, which guaranteed the Apaches a reservation in southern Arizona.
The Americans failed to keep the treaty. COCHISE died on June 8, 1874, not knowing how and where his tribe would live on.
GERONIMO (1823 to 1909)
GERONIMO, actually GOKHLAYEH, got its name because as a little boy he always yawned extensively. Because of the difficult pronunciation for the Mexicans, he later became GERONIMO.
After his family, i.e. his mother, his wife and his three children, were killed by GENERAL JOSE MARIA CARRASCO in 1858, he went into battle. He joined the Apache chief COCHISE and attacked Sonora. From this time on, attacks were made on Mexican cities every year, from which the Indians mostly emerged successfully.
After COCHISE died, his son named NAICHE GERONIMO as war chief.
It was supposed to be in the San Carlos Reservation inwhich, however, he refused due to their nature. It was a barren desert and GERONIMO spent the next few years in Mexico.
But he was hunted by the Americans and a bounty of $ 2,000 was placed on him. His new family was brought to Fort Pickens, Florida, in an attempt to lure him back into the country. When he surrendered on September 4, 1886, he was jailed for three years and never saw his family again.
GERONIMO then spent almost 20 years in Fort Sill, Oklahomaand was abused there in an unworthy way as a “model Indian”; for example at the parade following FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT’s election as President of the United States or at the world exhibition in St. Louis.
On February 17, 1909, GERONIMO died of pneumonia.
