'the one who yawns', Athapascan pronunciation: [kòjàːɬɛ́]; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people.

To counter the early Apache raids on Spanish settlements, presidios were established at Janos (1685) in Chihuahua and at Fronteras (1690) in what is now northeastern Sonora, then Opata country.

[16] On March 5, 1851, a company of 400 Mexican soldiers from Sonora led by Colonel José María Carrasco attacked Geronimo's camp outside Janos (Kas-Ki-Yeh in Apache) while the men were in town trading.

[17][18] Carrasco claimed he had followed the Apaches to Janos, Chihuahua, after they had conducted a raid in Sonora, taken livestock and other plunder and badly defeated Mexican militia.

Recalling that at the time his band was at peace with the Mexicans, Geronimo remembered the incident as follows: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.

[citation needed] On three occasions – April or August 1878;[32][33] September 1881;[34] and May 1885[35][36] – Geronimo led his band of followers in breakouts from the reservation to return to their former nomadic life associated with raiding and warfare.

[37] From Mexico, Apache bands also staged surprise raids back into the United States, often seeking to replenish their supply of guns and ammunition.

[43] Over time this persistent pursuit by both Mexican and American forces discouraged Geronimo and other similar Apache leaders, and caused a steady and irreplaceable attrition of the members of their bands, which taken all together eroded their will to resist and led to their ultimate capitulation.

In 1886, Miles selected Captain Henry Lawton to command B Troop, 4th Cavalry, at Fort Huachuca, and First Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood, to lead the expedition that brought Geronimo and his followers back to the reservation system for a final time.

Completely worn out, the small band of Apaches returned to the U.S. with Lawton and officially surrendered to General Miles on September 4, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

Additionally, he had a Colt Single Action Army revolver with a nickel finish and ivory stocks bearing Serial Number 89524, and a Sheffield Bowie knife with a dagger type blade and a stag handle made by George Wostenholm in an elaborate silver-studded holster and cartridge belt.

General Oliver O. Howard, chief of US Army Division of the Pacific, said on his part that Geronimo's surrender was accepted as that of a dangerous outlaw without condition.

[citation needed] According to National Geographic, "the governor of Sonora claimed in 1886 that in the last five months of Geronimo's wild career, his band of 16 warriors slaughtered some 500 to 600 Mexicans.

[52] According to James L. Haley, "About two weeks after the escape there was a report of a family massacred near Silver City; one girl was taken alive and hanged from a meat hook jammed under the base of her skull.

[54] This prompt action prevented the Arizona civil authorities from intervening to arrest and try Geronimo for the death of the many Americans who had been killed during the previous decades of raiding.

Businessmen there soon had the idea to have Geronimo serve as a tourist attraction, and hundreds of visitors daily were let into the fort to lay eyes on the 'bloodthirsty' Indian in his cell.

"[57] While the prisoners of war were in Florida, the government relocated hundreds of their children from their Arizona reservation to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

After 1/4 of the population died of tuberculosis,[57] the Chiricahuas, including Geronimo, were relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894; they built villages scattered around the post based on kindred groups.

[60] On the train ride to Fort Sill, many tourists wanted a memento of Geronimo, so they paid 25 cents for a button that he cut off his shirt or a hat he took off his head.

The Indians in Pawnee Bill's shows were depicted as "lying, thieving, treacherous, murderous" monsters who had killed hundreds of men, women and children and would think nothing of taking a scalp from any member of the audience, given the chance.

[57] In President Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 Inaugural Parade, Geronimo rode horseback down Pennsylvania Avenue with five Indian chiefs who wore full headgear and painted faces.

[64] Later that same week Geronimo met with Roosevelt and made a request for the Chiricahuas at Fort Sill to be relieved of their status as prisoners of war and allowed to return to their homeland in Arizona.

President Roosevelt refused, referring to the continuing animosity in Arizona for the deaths of civilian men, women, and children associated with Geronimo's raids during the prolonged Apache Wars.

[68]Later that year, the Indian Office took him to Texas, where he shot a buffalo in a roundup staged by 101 Ranch Real Wild West for the National Editorial Association.

[77] Six members of the Yale secret society Skull and Bones, including Prescott Bush, served as Army volunteers at Fort Sill during World War I.

The revelation led Harlyn Geronimo to write to President George W. Bush (the grandson of Prescott Bush) requesting his help in returning the remains: According to our traditions the remains of this sort, especially in this state when the grave was desecrated ... need to be reburied with the proper rituals ... to return the dignity and let his spirits rest in peace.However, the implications of the letter are debatable.

Mead was not at Fort Sill, so he could not have personally witnessed the robbery, and Cameron University history professor David H. Miller notes that Geronimo's grave was unmarked at the time.

[83] In 2010, the court dismissed the case, deciding that Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) only applies to events that occurred after 1990.

[89] The United States military used the code name "Geronimo" for the raid that killed Al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden in 2011, but its use outraged some Native Americans.

[citation needed] In 2014, the indie pop band Sheppard released Geronimo, which reached number one on the Australian Singles Chart in April that year.