After Miles’s arrival he reports as follows:
Geronimo came from his mountain camp amid the rocks and said he was willing to surrender. He was told that they could surrender as prisoners of war; that it was not the way of officers of the Army to kill their enemies who laid down their arms.
… Naiche was wild and suspicious and evidently feared treachery. He knew that the once noted leader, Mangus-Colorado, had, years ago, been foully murdered after he had surrendered, and the last hereditary chief of the hostile Apaches hesitated to place himself in the hands of the palefaces. …
Continuing his report, General Howard says:
… I believed at first from official reports that the surrender was unconditional, except that the troops themselves would not kill the hostiles. Now, from General Miles’s dispatches and from his annual report, forwarded on the 21st instant by mail, the conditions are plain: First, that the lives of all the Indians should be spared. Second, that they should be sent to Fort Marion, Florida, where their tribe, including their families, had already been ordered. …
D. S. Stanley, Brigadier General, telegraphs from San Antonio, Texas, October 22, 1886, as follows:
… Geronimo and Naiche requested an interview with me when they first ascertained that they were to leave here, and in talking to them, I told them the exact disposition that was to be made of them. They regarded the separation of themselves from their families as a violation of the terms of their treaty of surrender, by which they had been guaranteed, in the most positive manner conceivable to their minds, that they should be united with their families at Fort Marion.
There were present at the talk they had with me Major J. P. Wright, surgeon, United States Army; Captain J. G. Ballance, acting Judge-advocate, United States Army; George Wratton,42 the interpreter; Naiche, and Geronimo.
The Indians were separated from their families at this place; the women, children, and the two scouts were placed in a separate car before they left.
In an interview with me they stated the following incident, which they regard as an essential part of their treaty of surrender, and which took place at Skeleton Canyon before they had, as a band, made up their minds to surrender, and before any of them, except perhaps Geronimo, had given up their arms, and when they were still fully able to escape and defend themselves.
General Miles said to them: “You go with me to Fort Bowie and at a certain time you will go to see your relatives in Florida.” After they went to Fort Bowie he reassured them that they would see their relatives in Florida in four and a half or five days.
While at Skeleton Canyon General Miles said to them: “I have come to have a talk with you.” The conversation was interpreted from English into Spanish and from Spanish into Apache and vice versa. The interpreting from English into Spanish was done by a man by the name of Nelson. The interpreting from Spanish into Apache was done by José Maria Yaskes. José Maria Montoya was also present, but he did not do any of the interpreting.
Dr. Wood, United States Army, and Lieutenant Clay, Tenth Infantry, were present.
General Miles drew a line on the ground and said, “This represents the ocean,” and, putting a small rock beside the line, he said, “This represents the place where Chihuahua is with his band.” He then picked up another stone and placed it a short distance from the first, and said, “This represents you, Geronimo.” He then picked up a third stone and placed it a little distance from the others, and said, “This represents the Indians at Camp Apache. The President wants to take you and put you with Chihuahua.” He then picked up the stone which represented Geronimo and his band and put it beside the one which represented Chihuahua at Fort Marion. After doing this he picked up the stone which represented the Indians at Camp Apache and placed it beside the other two stones which represented Geronimo and Chihuahua at Fort Marion, and said, “That is what the President wants to do, get all of you together.”
After their arrival at Fort Bowie General Miles said to them, “From now on we want to begin a new life,” and holding up one of his hands with the palm open and horizontal he marked lines across it with the finger of the other hand and said, pointing to his open palm, “This represents the past; it is all covered with hollows and ridges,” then, rubbing his other palm over it, he said, “That represents the wiping out of the past, which will be considered smooth and forgotten.”
The interpreter, Wratton, says that he was present and heard this conversation. The Indians say that Captain Thompson, Fourth Cavalry, was also present.
Naiche said that Captain Thompson, who was the acting assistant adjutant general, Department of Arizona, told him at his house in Fort Bowie, “Don’t be afraid; no harm shall come to you. You will go to your friends all right.” He also told them “that Fort Marion is not a very large place, and is not probably large enough for all, and that probably in six months or so you will be put in a larger place, where you can do better.” He told them the same thing when they took their departure in the cars from Fort Bowie.
The idea that they had of the treaty of surrender given in this letter is
