BIG NOSE I just learned recently that the career of the infamous Apache chief know to us as “Geronimo.” came to an end when he surrendered rather peacefully to a former Harrisonburg, Va, school teacher whom he knew only as “Big Nose.”
The Spanish dubbed the Indian chief with the Spanish translation of our name Jerome. His native name by which we was a called during the days of the Apache War, and as he was known at home in Chiricahua, was “Goyathlay” which means “none who yawns”. He seem anything but one who appeared to be sleepy to both Mexican and U.S. Troops tracking him for many months. The American army Lt. Charles Bear Gatewood was called “Big Nose” by Geronimo himself because of what he saw first when the young officer came into his camp to talk him into surrendering.
And, because he did just that, to Lt. Gatewood gets credit for bringing the expensive Apache War to an end. When Charles (the Bear) Gatewood went into the Sierra Madre Mountain range in Old Mexico in 1886 to ferret out the wily Geronimo and his warriors he had a force of five thousand soldiers and in that time
he had just about one quarter of our nation's entire armed forces. Mexico also sent groups of various military units into the fray against the Indian chief, and they never quite accepted the treaty Gatewood made with Geronimo. In fact, on the very day he physical surrender was being enacted several hundred Mexican watched transfer tensely and when one Mexican officer accidentally or unthinkingly shifted the position of his weapon in his belt, the Indians drew their weapons and were on the alert. American troops stepped between them, it was reported, and the surrender ceremonies continued.
Geronimo and his associates were sent to reservations in Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma. Atwood was cited for “meritorious acts while leading Indian scouts in 1886” according to West Point records. The citation accorded him was “for bravery and boldness and alone riding into Geronimo's war camp among hostile Indians and demanding their surrender.” He had previously been honored for another such act of bravery. In 1892 he was sent garrison duty at Fort McKinney, Wy. There, during a barracks fire, he was injured by a dynamite explosion and died at the age of forty-three at Fortress Monroe, Virginia while awaiting reassignment.
Lt. Gatewood was born in Woodstock, Va. which he called “home”. For
a brief time he lived in Harrisonburg awaiting news of his appointment to West Point and the start of his military career.
A.L.M. January 26, 2006 [c446wds]
