SUMMARY: THIS OFFERING IS A FDC signed by Geronimo in his characteristic signature. PRICE: $7400.

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Geronimo. Geronimo (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Goyaalé [kòjà???´] "one who yawns"; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909)

Geronimo was a famous Apache cheif who fought against the Mexicans and Americans who invaded Apache lands. He was eventually captured and interned and in the last part of his life he was transfer to Fort Sill Oklahoma were he became a celebrity.

This offering is a 6 in x 4in card signed by Geronimo with his characteristic signature. The tranmittal envelope is postmarked Fort Sill, Nov 2, 1904. Geronimo died in Fort Sill 5 years after the card was signed.

The Geronimo is matted(overall dimensions-30 in x 24 in) with a photograph of Geronimo with Nelson A. Miles. Miles was called a "brave peacock" by President Theodore Roosevelt toward the end of his service. General Nelson A. Miles no doubt felt he had cause to be proud of his accomplishments in a career that had lifted a volunteer infantryman to the office of commander of the army.

After the Civil War, Miles played a leading role in nearly every phase of the army's campaign against the tribes of the Great Plains. In 1874-1875, he was a field commander in the force that defeated the Kiowa, Comanche and Southern Cheyenne along the Red River. In 1876-1877, he led the winter campaign that scoured the northern Plains after Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn, forcing the Lakota and their allies onto reservations. Then, in the winter of 1877, he drove his troops on a forced march across Montana to intercept the Nez Percé band led by Chief Joseph that had eluded or defeated every unit sent against it over the course of a 1,500 mile retreat from Oregon to the Canadian border. Throughout the rest of his career Miles would quarrel with General Oliver O. Howard, whose troops had doggedly pursued the Nez Percé over those 1,500 miles, as to who rightly deserved the credit for Joseph'scapture.(1)

(1) Ref:http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/miles.htm

Miles earned the scorn of another fellow officer in 1886, when he replaced General George Crook as commander of the campaign against Geronimo in Arizona. Crook had relied heavily on Apache scouts in his efforts to capture the Chiricahua leader, but Miles replaced them with white troops who eventually traveled over three thousand miles trailing Geronimo and his band through the torturous Sierra Madre Mountains. Finally, Miles sent Apache scouts to help negotiate a surrender, under the terms of which Geronimo and his followers were exiled to confinement on a Florida reservation. Miles exiled his Apache scouts to Florida as well, although they were officially enlisted members of the army, and it was for this betrayal of troops who had served them both loyally that Crook never forgave him. (2)

(2)Ref:http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/miles.htm

Authentic Geronimo signatures are scarce and seldom appear on the market these days.

Price:$7400.00

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