Geronimo’s decades-long journey of revenge

Located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, about 115 miles from the U.S. border, there is a seemingly inconspicuous grassy mountain north of the town of Guairana. But look closely and you might see century-old shell casings rusting in the grass, with a slight dent in the top, a historic act of revenge etched into the ground.

In 1882, years after an Apache camp was massacred by Mexican troops, this is where the tribe's legendary leader Geronimo and his men came to avenge the killings, in a mountaintop The Mexican man Juan Mata Ortiz was burned alive in the pit. "They told Mexico's Juan Marta Ortiz, 'No barra, no cuchillo, no lance, pero lumre,'" said Nelda, a lifelong Chihuahua resident. Whitten said. "As in, you will not have a quick death without bullets, without arrows, without spears, but with fire."

Geronimo's journey of revenge began decades earlier, sometime in 1858 , an unprovoked attack launched the 29-year-old Apache (then known as Goyaa?é) into the war of a lifetime. As he and others were gathering supplies in Genos, a small town just across from the Mormon colony of Colonia Dubran, a company of 400 Mexican soldiers attacked their unguarded camp. Geronimo described the attack in his 1905 autobiography, writing: "When all had been accounted for, I found that my aged mother, young wife, and three young children were being attacked. "More than 100 Apache women and children were killed, but only Geronimo's family was completely destroyed.

Geronimo took a leadership role in seeking revenge for the raid. "We will attack them in their homes. I will fight on the front lines," he wrote. "If I were killed, no one would have to mourn me." Geronimo's quest for revenge would last longer than he or anyone else expected, as he and other Apaches spent decades on and off In order to retaliate against their enemies, we take a closer look at how the famous photographer altered his glass negatives to create popular images of Native Americans that still exist today

< p>, the ambush on the grassy hills of the Chocolate Pass north of Galana, was one of his most notorious acts of revenge. On November 13, 1882, a group of Apaches led by Chief Geronimo and Chief Chu ambushed the Mexican army. Their target: Juan Mata Ortiz, the commander of the Mexican garrison. He particularly disliked his role at the Battle of Tres Castillo two years earlier, in which more than half the Apaches were killed and most of the survivors captured.

"The Apaches entered the town of Galena because they knew Ortiz had about 20 soldiers stationed there, and they stole some horses, knowing he would chase them," John Ha Qi said he is a local resident and occasionally brings tour groups here. “They set up an ambush for him on the road between Guairana and Casas Grandes. ”

When Marta Ortiz and his troops realized they were trapped, they walked to the nearest high ground, hoping to dig in before reinforcements arrived. However, the Apaches surrounded the Mexican of the 23 Mexican soldiers who survived: one infantryman and Juan Mata Ortiz, Hatch said. : “The instruction to all Apaches was not to kill El Capitan. "So all the others were taken away one by one, but they threw him into a pit and burned him alive." More than a century later, the hill still bears his name, Cerrito Mata Ortiz.

Today, Hedge says, Geronimo is hooked on tour groups traveling from as far away as Germany to visit the site. "As you go up this mountain, you can find mountains of rocks that Mexicans have piled up in self-defense," he said. "Occasionally, people still pick up some old shell casings from the battlefield." If you look closely at the top of the mountain, you'll notice a subtle depression in the terrain where the Apaches attacked Wren nearly 130 years ago. An exhibit of artifacts including photos and metal spurs tells the story of the ambush in front of a local government building in Mata Ortiz. There is a stone monument commemorating Mander in the town's Juan Mata Ortiz Square. "After the ambush, when the Apaches came to Galena, all the people ran to the old church," Whitten said. “They said that from the bell tower they could see smoke coming from the fire on that hill.

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