Apache Prisoners

First 16 Apache Prisoners

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

In 1886 the U.S. Army exiled over 400 Apaches from the Southwest to Florida and sent most of them to Fort Marion in St. Augustine. Several Pensacola citizens, however, 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. 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.

The US Army transported Geronimo and other Apaches by train to Florida from what is now New Mexico and Arizona.

"I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures."

After being captured, Geronimo never saw his homeland again. He died and was buried in 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He remains a fascinating-and controversial-figure in American history.