Apache Prisoners

In 1886 the U.S. Army exiled 400 Apaches from the Southwest to Florida and sent most of them to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, but several Pensacola citizens petitioned the government to imprison Geronimo, a medicine man and warrior, and 15 other Apache men at Fort Pickens instead, separating them from their families. The prisoners worked seven-hour days clearing overgrown weeds, planting grass, and stacking cannonballs. The families were reunited at Fort Pickens in 1887. One year later all of the imprisoned Apaches were moved to Mobile because of a yellow fever scare and later to Fort Sill in Oklahoma Territory. Geronimo, captured and transported by train to Florida from what is now New Mexico and Arizona, never saw his homeland again. He died and was buried in 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and remains a fascinating and controversial figure in American history.

Warrington, Florida · United States