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Pack vs. herd, 1886

An account of Germonimo's surrender, in 1886, by two men who were there:

"With the Army were Indian scouts under command of Lieut. Charles B. Gatewood. One of these old scouts, known as Sgt. Smiley, who later lived on the Yavapai-Apache Indian Reservation in the Verde Valley, told this story to William Loy (now deceased), a white man whose ranch adjoined the reservation.

Fred Coxen: "William Loy, very reliable man, told me this story as the old Indian scout had given it to him:

William Loy: "The Indian scouts were near Geronimo's band, in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico. Lieut. Gatewood gave permission to Sgt. Smiley and another Indian scout, both of whom knew Geronimo personally, to make contact with the renegades, which they did. They went into Geronimo's camp and talked all night with him and his band.

"Sgt. Smiley said that they advised the band to surrender to General Miles or they would all be killed by the American civilians, and those would include rancheros, miners, freighters, mail contractors, along with others.

"Sgt. Smiley stated he had advised Geronimo that while he and his band might out-travel or elude the Army, whose slow travel and loud bugle calls handicapped them, it would be different with the civilians who were determined to get him and his band, and would surely do it because their methods were very different.

"Geronimo and his band talked it over, and because of the all-night meeting with the two courageous scouts and a long powwow with Lieutenant Gatewood, decided to surrender at a place designated as Skeleton Canyon in the Peloncilla [sic] Mountains..."