Marc Simmons: Geronimo never got to see homeland after capture

Geronimo and his tiny band of die-hard warriors had been the scourge of the border country for years. Several times in the past, he had been obliged to settle on a reservation, but in each instance he had broken away with his followers and resumed raiding.

By the summer of 1886, with all hands turned against him on both sides of the border, he saw that the end was near. From his camp in northern Sonora, not far below present Douglas, Ariz., he waited for some opening that would allow him to return to the United States and make a final peace.

Meanwhile, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, commander of the troops hunting hostile Apaches, learned of Geronimo’s location. So, he sent a trusted officer, Lt. Charles B. Gatewood, to persuade him to give up.

Gatewood rode south with the famous scout Tom Horn and entered Geronimo’s camp carrying a white flour sack on a stick as a truce flag. As it turned out, the Indians had no idea what a white flag meant. But they allowed the Americans to pass.