The Selling of Geronimo

Geronimo, the last of the great Apache warriors, took part in the World’s Fair in St. Louis of 1904. And it was at this Fair where he described his first ride on the Ferris wheel.

In his own words, written and dictated to Mr. Selles, Geronimo says,

"One time the guards took me into a little house that had four windows. When we were seated the little house started to move along the ground. Then the guards called my attention to some curious things they had in their pockets.

"Finally they told me to look out, and when I did so I was scared, for our little house had gone high up in the air, and the people down in the Fair Grounds looked no larger than ants. The men laughed at me for being scared, then they gave me a glass to look through. (I often had such glasses which I took from dead officers after battles in Mexico and elsewhere), and I could see rivers, lakes and mountains.

"But I had never been so high in the air….Then they said, "Get out!" and when I looked we were on the street again. After we were safe on the land, I watched many of these little houses going up and coming down, but I cannot understand how they travel."

The Ferris wheel on which Geronimo rode had been the highlight of the 1893 Fair. Dismantled in 1894, it was reused at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. Built by Pittsburgh’s bridge builder, George Washington Gale Ferris, it was supported by two 140 foot steel towers, its 45-foot axle was the largest single piece of forged material in the world. The circumference was 825 feet, diameter 250 feet, maximum height was 264 feet.

Geronimo biography, published in 1906, contains his words that "Every Sunday the President of the Fair sent for me to go to a wild west show. I took part in the roping contests before the audience". Perhaps that distinguished driver was the President of the fair.

He also wrote, "Many people in St. Louis invited me to come to their homes, but my keeper always refused." And … "the Government sent guards with me when I went (to sideshows) and I was not allowed to go anywhere without them." Who was his keeper?

Who were his Government guards? Some descriptive formal pictures and documentation may exist in St. Louis as part of that city’s historical World’s Fair files.

In 1894 the government moved the Apaches permanently to Fort Sill, Indian Territory, Oklahoma. But by then, disease had taken its toll. Less that 300 Apaches remained, most of them children born in captivity.

While the intense curiosity lessened, one thing remained constant. Geronimo was in demand, a salable commodity. He made many personal appearances, including the Omaha Exposition and the St. Louis World’s Fair.

He came close to stealing Teddy Roosevelt’s thunder when he appeared in the new president’s inaugural parade. Heading a delegation of Indian leaders, Geronimo rode in full face paint, head held high without a flicker of emotion showing on his creased face. He wore only a breechcloth, moccasins, and his medicine hat: a cap of eagle feathers with streaming eagle plumes which hung below his stirrups. The cheers for Roosevelt evaporated. Men threw their hats into the air and shouted, "Hooray for Geronimo!" Daklugie, acting as Geronimo’s Segundo, said, "We were told later that Roosevelt said he never wished to hear the name Geronimo again."

This fame, along with a proclivity for making a buck, ensured Geronimo’s pockets always jingled. He sold anything anyone wanted to buy. His photo and autograph were always for sale. He once sold a ragged hawk feather plucked from the ground for five dollars. On trips, he’d cut the buttons from his coat and sell them for 25 cents each; his hat went for five dollars. He’d then sew on new buttons and don a new hat (he’d had the foresight to bring along extras), and eagerly await the next stop.

Of his trip to the World’s Fair, he said, "I often made as much as two dollars a day, and when I returned I had plenty of money – more than I had ever owned before." When he died, he had more than $10,000 in his bank account.

Today interest in the Apaches remains high. There is understanding, compassion and respect for these people who fought so fiercely and valiantly to save their homeland and, because of this, were doomed to a sideshow existence.