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Geronimo One day, Chevato met an army officer who told him that the army was looking for Apache scouts. So Chevato rode to Ft. Stanton, New Mexico, to enlist. Once he enlisted, he was assigned as a scout for a group of army surveyors who were surveying the territories of Arizona and New Mexico. They were somewhere in Arizona when they saw a rider coming up real hard. The rider talked with the officer in charge of the survey group, and the officer sent for Chevato. He asked him, “Do you know an Apache named Geronimo?” The officer explained, “Well, they [the U.S. Army] are having a parley with Geronimo. They want to talk to him, but they don’t have an interpreter to speak his language or Spanish. Could you ride back with this man to interpret at the parley?” Chevato agreed, so they got fresh mounts and set off for the parley. It was about a day’s ride away; you don’t want to tax a horse or run him to death. Chevato had been told that they needed him to interpret the next day. They rode into the army camp late in the day, since they had gotten a late start. Chevato reported to the commanding officer, the man in charge of the parley with Geronimo. The officer told him,“Well, we’ve already got an interpreter, but if you want to stay and meet this man, you’re welcome to stay.” Chevato said, “I would like to stay, after riding this time.” So he was allowed to hear the parley. The other interpreter took over, but after the parley was over, Chevato was introduced to Geronimo. Chevato finished scouting for the surveyors. Geronimo agreed to surrender and was sent by train to Florida with his tribe. On the way to Florida, they stopped at San Antonio, Texas, and rested in the army quadrangle that still stands at Ft. Sam Houston. They spent two weeks there, Geronimo and his band. After their rest, they boarded the train and were taken to Ft. Marion , Florida. They stayed there for a while, and then they were transferred to Alabama. And there they stayed for a number of years. Finally, they were allowed to come to Oklahoma Territory near Ft. Sill, but they could never again go back to Arizona. That was part of their treaty. I have heard stories from descendants of these Apaches. On their first day in Oklahoma, when they were starting to get settled in, they could hear the coyotes howling. And the women started to cry. They asked them, “Why are you crying?” And the women said,“It seems like it has been a long time since we’ve been away from home, but now we hear the sounds of home,” meaning the cries of the coyotes . And it was like music to them because it was a part of home, and they had missed their home so very much. Geronimo’s band stayed at Ft. Sill, and then later on, they were moved about twenty miles north of Ft. Sill. They had their little establishment there; a park was given to them so that it was like a small reservation. In this area, they had a market so that they could buy supplies. They sent traders up there from Ft. Sill to sell them the necessities of life. This little market turned into a town, which still stands today. It is called Apache, Oklahoma, and that is how the town got its name. Many years after Chevato had been introduced to Geronimo at the parley, he met him again at Ft. Sill. He asked Geronimo, “Do you remember me? I met you at the parley.” And Geronimo replied,“Yes, I do remember you.” After all, they were kin; they were Apaches.§ When the Mescaleros were coaxed onto a reservation near Ft.Stanton,New Mexico, in 1872, their movement was in fulfillment of a new“peace policy” instituted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington dc. As the policy was interpreted in New Mexico and Arizona, the Indians of those territories were to be protected against the“thrashing”desired by such military officers as Lt. Thomas C. Davis of Army Headquarters, Santa Fe, and protected against thefts and attacks by settlers (such as had occurred after the Dowlin’s Mill incident in 1874).“The Indians would be settled on their own lands,given protection...

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