Geronimo (1829-1909)
Chief of the Chiricahua Apache tribe.

The great chief Geronimo was born in present-day Clifton, Arizona. After his wife, children, and mother were killed by Mexicans in 1858, he participated in a number of raids against Mexican and American settlers, but eventually settled on a reservation. In 1876 the U.S. government attempted to move the Chiricahua from their traditional home to San Carlos, New Mexico; Geronimo then began ten years of intermittent raids against white settlements, alternating with periods of peaceful farming on the San Carlos reservation. In March 1886, the American general George Crook captured Geronimo and forced a treaty under which the Chiricahua would be relocated in Florida; two days later Geronimo escaped and continued his raids. General Nelson Miles then took over the pursuit of Geronimo, who was chased into Mexico and captured the following September. The Native Americans were sent to Florida, Alabama, and finally to Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, where they settled as farmers. Geronimo eventually adopted Christianity. He took part in the inaugural procession of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. Geronimo dictated his memoirs, published in 1906 as Geronimo's Story of His Life. He died at Fort Sill on February 17, 1909.

Joseph (1840?-1904)
Chief of the Nez Perce.

"My people, some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children to see how many I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me my Chiefs, I am tired, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more, forever." --- Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph was one of the leaders of Native American resistance to white encroachment in the western United States. His Nez Perce name was In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat ("thunder coming up from the water over the land"). Succeeding his father as chief in 1873, Joseph continued a policy of non-compliance to an 1863 treaty that had allowed the government to confine the Nez Perce to a reservation. In 1877 hostilities broke out as a result of attempts by the United States government to enforce the treaty. The Nez Perce were ordered to leave the Wallowa Valley of the Oregon territory and relocate to a reservation in Idaho. Joseph reluctantly agreed to the demand, but when a few of his men killed a group of whites, he decided to lead several hundred people on a march to find refuge in Canada. He defeated United States Army units that tried to stop him on the Big Hole River in Montana, but was stopped about 48 km (30 mi.) from the border by a force under General Nelson Miles, who forced him to surrender after a five-day battle. Joseph and his people were sent to Oklahoma, where many became sick and died. In 1885 he and the survivors moved back to Washington and Idaho. Forbidden from returning to his homeland in the Wallowa Valley, Joseph died on the Colville Reservation in Washington. In 1903, one year before his death, Joseph visited Washington, D.C., where he received a welcome from President Theodore Roosevelt.

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