Meet the Geronimos: Descendants Talk About Living With the Legacy
Frances Madeson
Shaped by decades of war, Geronimo, Cochise, Victorio, Lozen and Mangas Coloradas (and those they ran with) cultivated a genius for survival so their descendants could live on.
But live on, how? By letting the ancestral legacy of greatness and distinction define them, or by wearing the identity lightly? For the living descendants of the Geronimo family of Mescalero, New Mexico, the answer is both.
The first time Robert Geronimo became aware of his famous ancestor was in kindergarten.
āA kid comes up to me and says āI want to beat up a Geronimo.ā I said āI havenāt done anything to you, you havenāt done anything to me.ā The kid threw a punch and I returned it,ā he explained, āand we both ended up in the principalās office.ā
From then on his grandparents taught him to read between the lines of accounts of his great-grandfather as a blood-thirsty killing machine, or even as a āchiefā leading his people.
āIt wasnāt a dictatorship, everyone there had a say in deciding what was going to happen,ā Robert explained, āincluding the women. Caught between the Caucasian and Mexican forces, they had no choice but to fight. There was nowhere else to go.ā
Robert holds a degree in math and computer science from Western New Mexico University in Silver City, and works in the Human Resources Department at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, the tribeās resort and casino in Mescalero, New Mexico. His specialty is statistics, and heās responsible for filing unemployment claims. There may be the occasional boring day, but heās grateful to have shepherded his offspring to maturity.
āGeronimo had six wives and many children, but our line was the only one not killed,ā Robert said.
His own son, Robert Samson, operates the mountain resortās zipline and is happy with his job, even when guests sometimes scream āGer-on-i-m-o!ā as theyāre flying through the air. āHe just laughs, heās cool with it,ā his father said. Daughter Kristalynn Rose is a senior at the Art Institute in Phoenix, majoring in game design. Eldest Lauren Marie is mother to his 3-year-old grandson Wyatt McKinzey, and works in the Innās housekeeping department. Her passion is beading, learned from her grandmother.
As his kids were growing up, during car trips around the Southwest or at the holiday dinner table, Robert conveyed the main point about his familyās legacy: āWe never wanted war, but we were exceptionally good at it.ā And he insists they never surrendered. āThe only reason they came in was because the cavalry threatened to kill everyone. And with good reason, they believed them.ā
In Robertās view Geronimo didnāt stop being a leader after imprisonment, quite the opposite.
āHe became the best leader of all when he was in prison, a peacekeeper. Apaches wanted to tear each other apart because some had been scouts for the cavalry,ā he explained. āGeronimo pacified them, told them āthe past is the past.āā
If Robert could speak with his famous ancestor, heād tell him: āBe proud, weāre still here, weāre not gone, weāre still alive and doing decently well.ā
At 21, Hope Geronimo (Robertās niece) is the youngest medicine woman among all the Mescalero Apache women, and she wonders if sheās received some of her ancestorās spiritual gifts.
āHe was somebody who had visions, I think I do sometimes,ā she said. āI call out something and next thing you know, it happens.ā
It feels to Hope as if her tribeās traditional practices āpicked herā and while she embraces that honor, the gift comes at a social cost.
āSomething Iāve noticed, people have gotten scared of me. Thereās times I can feel somethingās going to happen, and when it does people freak out on me. So Iām quiet, I wonāt say anything, keep it to myself. But I think that was something passed on from him.ā
Photo by Kerri Cottle
Hope Geronimo, a descendant of Geronimo and Robertās niece, is the youngest medicine woman among all the Mescalero Apache women.
Hope would not hesitate to seek him out as a teacher. āI have so many questions about everything, and he would explain it all to me.ā
Her grandparents always taught her that Geronimo wasnāt primarily a leaderāhe was a medicine man. They also instructed her to include him in her prayers.
āNow that heās a spirit, heās a really powerful medicine man. I ask him to help guide me.ā
Itās the tribeās tradition to name a boy child after his father, so her son will not carry the name forward. āBut he has Geronimoās blood in him, no matter what anyone has to say.ā
The dream Hope most dreams for her son is that he too will be involved in traditional practices. āOn his dadās side, the family owns a Crown Dancing troupe. I want him to be part of that. And with me doing this, and doing it more, heāll always be with me.ā
Hope doesnāt deny that she conducts both her parental and medicine woman duties with a grave sense of responsibility.
āI wouldnāt want to be a disappointment to my ancestors,ā she said.
Keep an eye on ICTMN.com for stories about descendants of Cochise, Victorio, Lozen and Mangas Coloradas.
