Geronimo Essay

Geronimo is know as one of the greatest American leaders. He is known very well because of his attempt to fight and save the Apache land in the west. Geronimo comes up a lot in our everyday life. He is in many movies that were made from middle 1900’s and on. There is also great controversy about him, even in very recent topics that have taken place. 

Geronimo was born in 1829. He was known as a medicine man for the Apache. He was known for being vicious, very brave, and for having a lot of determination for getting what he wanted. His determination was a main reason why he would not give up the land, and he continued fighting for it for so long. The whole time the US army, joined by the Mexicans, were trying to take the Apache land, Geronimo was fighting back. The US army finally got him to surrender on September 4, 1886 after a rough 30 years of him fighting. Geronimo was known as the last Indian warrior to formally give up to the US forces. The surrendering of Geronimo ended the Indian wars in the South West. While he was roaming the west, with any followers that would go with him, he led raids against the Mexican and American settlers. This was understood to be revenge because of the killing of his family that the Mexicans had done earlier in his lifetime. General George Crook was the one to finally get Geronimo to surrender. In the movie, Geronimo- An American Legend, it was understood that General George Crook promised a nice reservation that the Apache could live on and that is what led Geronimo to surrendering. After his official surrender, General Crook moved Geronimo and all of his Apache tribe to a reservation in Florida then Alabama, and they finally ended up in Oklahoma. In the movie, the land that was given was far from the land that was promised and this made Geronimo regret fully his decision to surrender.

Geronimo- An American Legend is a well known movie. Wes Studi was in charge of playing Geronimo.  It was made clear that this was some big shoes to fill, because the directors wanted to be as accurate as possible. There are many other movies made about Geronimo, such as Geronimo’s Last Raid, Geronimo (1939), and Geronimo (1962), but Geronimo- An American Legend is the most well known of the all. Critics said that this movie was very accurate and Geronimo’s character was portrayed very well. Critics also said that his character was very mean but that they could have made him even meaner. The way that Wes Studi showed how much Geronimo cared about the Apache land and just how much he wanted to fight for it was very accurate in the movie.  I have seen the movie and based off of what I have found about Geronimo, I found that the movie was very accurate to me as well.

Yes, Geronimo is in movies that have been made recently, but he is also a topic of a very recent situation which was the killing of Osama bin Laden. Geronimo is very popular when it comes to pop-culture. The definition of pop culture is cultural activities or commercial products, suited to, or aimed at the taste of the general masses of people.  Even Geronimo’s face has been found on t-shirts, stamps, jigsaw puzzles, and posters. It is so easy to find Geronimo in today’s pop culture because he was such a great warrior and he became a hero. There has been a lot of controversy over the topic of Geronimo’s name being used in the killing of Osama bin Laden. Geronimo’s name was sent to the president, by the US army, as a code word that confirmed bin Laden had been killed. Many Native Americans were not happy about this and viewed it as an insult because it compared a great American hero to a much hated terrorist. Many high ranked people have been putting their thoughts about this topic out for everyone to know. Chairman Jeff Houser, who is actually from and Apache tribe, actually asked Obama for a formal apology because of the way Geronimo had been used in the situation. The Onondaga Nation Counsel of Chiefs said that the US military forces make it a habit and continue to convey “original people” of North America as “enemies and savages”. Loretta Tuell, staff director and chief counsel of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said it to be inappropriate to link one of the greatest Native American heroes to one of the most hated enemies. Steven Newcomb continued with this idea and said it is disrespectful to use Geronimo’s name because it makes people think of the Indians as enemies of the United States. Many people did not agree with the use of Geronimo’s name in this way and many of them spoke out about it. I do not think it is right either because even though my family has been watching westerns ever since I was little about cowboys and Indians that are very superficial, it still made me very aware that they are part of the United States history and everyday life so the fact that the army used a great hero’s name like this just doesn't seem right.

Geronimo continues to be thought about in today’s world even if some of the things that are said are not true. Yes, he is sometimes pictured as a superficial Indian character but he is still a great part of the United States history and should not be forgotten.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=geronimo&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=4B5734806CADD5244D4C54CA3E6CAF34EC377866&selectedIndex=2

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/15/real-geronimo-avoided-war-claims-robert-utley

http://www.csulb.edu/~aisstudy/nae/1875-1890.html

sources: 

http://www.heard.org/currentexhibits/geronimo.html
This website was very useful because it gave accurate information about Geronimo and his life while growing up. 

http://unmpress.com/books.php?ID=20000000005364&Page=book
This website was useful because it gave specific examples of where Geronimo shows up in pop culture. 

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F0CE1DF103BF933A25751C1A965958260
This websitre was very good because it was an actual New York Times article that was written on how acurate the Geronimo: An American Legend the movie was. 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/geronimo-surrenders

This website talked all about the actual day of Geronimo's surrender and talked a lot about the actual surrender itself.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/05/use-of-geronimo-codename-in-bin-laden-operation-stirs-american-indian-backlash/1#.Ul1Mn4ZJ5vM
This website was very good because it talked about the controversy that is going on because of the use of Geronimo's name in the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was also useful because gave the actual names of people and their input about the situation.