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Post by markland on Apr 5, 2008 1:11:07 GMT -6
All the Apaches of Geronimo's tribe were sent off to prison, even the ones who worked with the military or were not involved in any raiding. They were classified as POWs up until 1912 and finally were released to settle in Oklahoma rather than Arizona. (Imagine POWs right in the US as late as 1912!) I believe there may be at least one of those Indians still alive! All Chirachaua and perhaps other Apache scouts were arrested and sent to Florida with the hostile Apaches who surrendered with Geronimo. That is a black mark against Miles who had taken command in the Southwest with the conviction that regular army troops could trail and corner the hostiles. That conviction soon went out the window. Miles did a Reno or Benteen and betrayed United States Soldiers-at least using "Swiss-Cheese" logic. He somewhat redeemed himself by obfuscation and therefore prevented Geronimo from being turned over to the civilian authorities. I'm not a big Geronimo fan but he would have deserved better than to be lynched by the then-current Arizona authorities. Billy
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 5, 2008 21:33:16 GMT -6
Sorry to veer a bit off-course but, whenever I read something about Geronimo, I think of Poor Polly. "Polly, Wife of Interpreter" is buried at Fort Barrancas National Cemetery, next to Ga-ah, Geronimo's second wife who died of pneumonia during their incarceration at Fort Pickens. (Sorry for the poor photos, but I was last there at the wrong time of day.) Question: Since Polly's stone has no death date and the cemetery apparently has no further info about her, is it possible that Polly was the wife of Geronimo's interpreter? Would Geronimo have been provided an interpreter? Who is Poor Polly?
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Post by stevewilk on Apr 5, 2008 23:08:46 GMT -6
Diane, I cannot tell the date on Polly's headstone. Is it 1848 date of birth, or 1948 date of death? Either or, I don't know who she was. My guess is date of birth, for the Chiricahuas were out of Florida by 1948.
I can, though tell you who she wasn't. Not the wife of George Wratten. Wratten moved with his family to Arizona from California as a teen. They operated a trading post I think, where he routinely interacted with Apaches. He learned three different dialects; no small feat. He was a popular interpreter/"scout" and was able to secure employment in this capacity. Wratten accompanied the Chiricahuas to Florida and later Alabama and Oklahoma. During the 'Bama years he married a young Apache girl "Annie". They eventually divorced and Wratten later married a white woman.
Asa Daklugie was the son of Juh. As a teenager Daklugie raided with Geronimo; he ended up with Mangus' band and surrendered with him. Asa attended the Carlisle Indian School; he then became Geronimo's confidant while imprisoned. Asa was the translator for the 1904 Geronimo biography. His wife was named Ramona.
Unable to find any reference to a "Polly" in my Apache war collection.
But the interpreter situation was a rather complicated ordeal. Gatewood wrote that in the whole Arizona Territory there was not one man who could translate Apache directly into English. Therefore they need one interpreter to translate from English to Spanish and another from Spanish to Apache . Obviously much could be lost in the tri-lingual translations.
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Post by Diane Merkel on Apr 6, 2008 9:37:37 GMT -6
Steve,
Thanks very much for checking your Apache collection. It's all interesting stuff, especially the tri-lingual translation situation. It now seems less likely Polly had any relationship to Ga-ah, but it would be cool if she had.
The number at the top of the stone is 1548. Just a numbering system, I think.
Diane
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