Sitting Bull Cochise example essay topic

Cochise, Geronimo, Sitting Bull Cochise, Geronimo, and Sitting Bull are all Native Americans of great achievement. They fought for their lives and the lives of others who were all fighting for their freedom from oppression. Cochise and Geronimo were both members of the Apache Indian tribe and fought together against the Mexicans and white settlers invading Indian territory. Sitting Bull was a chief of the Sioux people.

All three were alive during the Civil War and were forced to move to reservations by the white people, and all three resisted. Cochise, whose name means "strength in wood", was born in 1805 in southern Arizona. He was chief of the Chiricahua, one of the several Apache tribes of the mountains in the territory of Arizona and New Mexico. When Cochise was born the Apache were a strong community that had kept armies of Spanish colonizers from invading their land from the south. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1812, the invasions did not end. The Mexicans began a long, bloody war of suppression against the Apache.

Cochise fought the Mexicans often and became a respected warrior when he was still young. After the U.S. Mexican War of 1846-1848, the United States obtained the territories of the Apache. When U.S. troops were went to the Southwest to end Apache forays into Mexico, Cochise, now chief of the Chiricahua, led his people into the mountains of northern Mexico. In 1858, the Mexicans of Front eras massacred a group of Apache that they had invited to town for a feast. Because of this incident, the Chiricahua returned to Arizona and Cochise made peace with the Americans. He agreed to tolerate white settlers in the region and allowed American mail companies to travel through the Apache land.

Though he worked hard to keep peace, violence between whites and Indians continued to occur. In 1861, a band of White Mountain Apache kidnapped a white settler's son. The army officer in charge, George Bascomb, was convinced that the Chiricahua were responsible. Bascomb called Cochise to his camp, and when he arrived with his family, Bascomb accused Cochise of kidnapping the boy and threatened to keep him hostage until the white boy was returned. Cochise was being kept prisoner in a tent and he cut through the side of the tent and escaped. The incident became known as the "Cut the Tent Affair", and enraged the Apache people, beginning a decade of hostilities known as the Cochise War.

Cochise organized Chiricahua raiding parties and terrorized the white settlers of the Arizona territory. Ranches, mines, and farms were deserted as whites migrated to larger towns for safety. American armies were withdrawn from the Indian territories to fight in the intensifying Civil War. For a short time it appeared that Cochise had finally succeeded in driving the white people out of his lands.

But in 1862 a Confederate army and later a Union army occupied Arizona, both with orders to kill any Apache they came across. At the Battle of Apache Pass on July 14, 1862, Union soldiers defeated Cochise's warriors using artillery, then continued to Fort Bowie in the middle of Chiricahua territory. Cochise continued to fight to get the invaders out of his people's homeland, and in 1868 he was labeled "public enemy number one" by local white military commanders. In 1872 Cochise and Brigade General Oliver Otis Howard discussed a peace treaty between the Apache and the white settlers. Cochise was able to negotiate the establishment of a reservation on Apache ancestral lands in, and the Chiricahua become one of the few Indian tribes not to be relocated. The treaty between the two men was a significant improvement for both individuals and their people.

Cochise died on June 8, 1874 on the Chiricahua reservation. Cochise accomplished a great deal in his lifetime and drastically improved the life of his people, never giving up in the struggle for their peace and freedom. However, four years after he died the United States broke its agreement with the Chiricahua people and tried to move them to the San Carlos Reservation in central Arizona. Some moved, but some went on fighting in Cochise's name. Cochise had been more successful than any other Indian leader in protecting his people's land, but in the end westward expansion of the United States overwhelmed the Apache. Geronimo, an Apache war chief, was born with the name Goyahkla, meaning "one who yawns", in 1823 near the Gila River in southeastern Arizona.

At the time the territory was controlled by Mexico, and the Apache and Mexicans constantly ambushed one another. In 1841, Geronimo married A lope, but in 1850, she and the rest of his family were killed when Mexican troops massacred an entire Indian encampment. Because of this Geronimo developed an undying hatred for all Mexicans. He called together other chiefs, including Cochise of the Chiricahua and Red Sleeves of the Ned nai, and in 1851, attacked the Mexicans at Arize.

The young warrior fought with fury and seemed fearless to the Mexicans. Whenever he would appear the Mexicans would yell, "Watch out, Geronimo". It is still unclear why they yelled this, but from then on the name belonged to him. In the aftermath of the U.S. Mexican War, when Apache land came under the authority of the U.S., the Apache were urged to settle down, but Geronimo continued his raids into Mexico with more and more warriors. He fought against the Americans with Cochise at the Battle of Apache Pass in 1862.

With the Civil War progressing, the United States did not want to fight a long term war with the Indians, and oppressively began to gather the southwestern tribes and move them onto reservations. Geronimo and Cochise continued to fight back. After the death of Cochise in 1874, the United States again tried to move the Apache onto impotent land, Geronimo and several hundred followers fled the reservation. They then ambushed the surrounding white settlements in retaliation. In 1877, Indian agent John P. Club, using Indian police, captured Geronimo, but he escaped. In 1881, Geronimo avoided being caught by an increasing number of American soldiers by crossing into Mexico and taking refuge in the mountains of the Sierra Madre.

Yet he continued his strikes on American territory, even Indians on the reservations began to fear him, because his attacks brought white retaliation upon all Apache. In 1884, Geronimo surrendered to General George Crook, who had led troops into the mountains of Mexico with the sole purpose to track him down. Geronimo was forced to settle on reservation land, and though he tried settling down, he could not tolerate the life he was being forced into. He fled once again to Mexico, but in 1886 surrendered to General Nelson Miles. Geronimo and his followers were held in custody for several years at Fort Pickens in Florida, as a prisoner of war, and then transferred to Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama. In 1893, they were relocated to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma to live with the Comanche and Kiowa tribes.

As he grew older, many people took sincere interest in Geronimo and the events of his life. He dictated his memoirs to S.M. Barrett, who wrote a book about Geronimo called Geronimo's Story of His Life. In 1905 he rode in Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade. Geronimo outlived most of his friends and family. In his last year, he became increasingly weak and absentminded, he died on February 17, 1909.

"Geronimo's skill and determination in resisting the white settler's invasion of his homeland made him a hero. He was a symbol of the Indians' relentless efforts to save their land and way of life, even a symbol of the universal fight for freedom and justice". (Schwarz, 121) Sitting Bull was born in March of 1831 near what is now Bullhead, South Dakota. He was a member of the Hunkpapa Sioux, one of seven Sioux tribes who all together were known as the Teton Sioux, who made their living hunting buffalo on the plains of the Dakotas. While his father was a great warrior, as a child Sitting Bull was unhurried and awkward, he became known as Slow. Warfare was a way of life for the Plains Indians who constantly had to compete for food supply and were always on the move.

When Sitting Bull was fourteen he gained respect and honor after defeating an enemy with bravery expected of a grown man. He was then inducted into the Strong Hearts, the Hunkpapa warrior society that guarded the tribe's camp and organized the hunting parties. In 1856, on a pillage to steal horses, Sitting Bull killed a Crow chief, and at the age of twenty five was elected leader of the Strong Hearts. Sitting Bull pursued war against the other tribes and extended the hunting grounds of the Sioux tribe. During the early years of the Civil War, Sitting Bull tried to shelter his people from the conflict, ignoring the U.S. forts being built along the Missouri River and the white settlers flooding into the Dakota. But in 1864 while in the Killdeer Mountains, he was attacked by soldiers under General Alfred Sully.

Sitting Bull began to realize that the Sioux's biggest threat was no longer the other tribes but the white soldiers. The territorial governor of the Dakotas announced a plan to move all of the Sioux to reservations where they would be "civilized". Sitting Bull led the resistance against the plan, and in 1865 he and his warriors defeated United States troops at the Battle of Powder River. And in 1867, at the age of thirty six, he was elected head war chief of all the Teton Sioux. In July of 1868 Sitting Bull negotiated the Treaty of Laramie with the United States, which created the Great Sioux Reservation in western South Dakota and forbid white settlers from entering the region. Sitting Bull took the treaty very seriously and so did his people, but in 1875, the reservation was invaded by troops under the command of Civil War hero General George Armstrong Custer.

Custer announced that he had found gold in the Black Hills and more than a thousand prospectors moved into sacred Indian burial territory. The United States demanded that the Sioux confine themselves to a smaller area of land, Sitting Bull refused and the War Department authorized military action against the Sioux. In 1876 U.S. troops under General George Cook entered Indian territory and destroyed a village of the Cheyenne people. Sitting Bull heard of the attack and immediately called for all the tribes to come together and fight.

Thousands of Indians of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other tribes, congregated at Sitting Bull's camp in southern Montana. The United States army marched towards the camp from three different directions, lead by General Cook, General Alfred Terry, and General Custer. Custer pushed his troops to arrive before the others and claim the victory over the Indians. He sent half of his men to attack from the northern end and the others from the southern.

Custer and his entire command were killed. Custer's death infuriated politicians in Washington and they put all Indian reservations under the military authority of General William Tecumseh Sherman. Some Indian chiefs were forced to sign a treaty giving away the Black Hills in western South Dakota. Nearly half of all the available troops of the United States Army were sent west. Many Indians surrendered, but Sitting Bull and a thousand warriors retreated north, followed by troops under Nelson A. Miles. In 1877 Sitting Bull went to Canada, he stayed there for four years, but there were little resources for his people to live off of, and his numbers decreased.

In July 1881, Sitting Bull and 180 starving warriors crossed back into the United States and surrendered to the U.S. Army at Fort Buford. Sitting Bull was held as a prisoner of war for two years at Fort Randall and released in May of 1883. He retired to the Standing Rock Reservation where the quality of life for the Sioux was deteriorating. Indians were living in poverty, dependent on the welfare of reservation agents, Indian children were being "Americanized", in missionary schools.

Sitting Bull continued to speak out against the destruction of his people, but no white men, the ones in power would listen to him, they only viewed him as a disturbance who needed to be kept under control. He realized that no white politicians could keep promises, and began to lose hope. In 1890, the Ghost Dance religion swept through the desperate Indian communities, claiming that Jesus Christ would return to earth as an Indian and give back all that the Indians had lost. The commotion it was causing was blamed on Sitting Bull and gave the white people even more reason to get rid of him. On December 15, 1890 a police force of 39 arrived at Sitting Bull's cabin before dawn to arrest him. While the police were trying to take him away, Sitting Bull yelled to the mob forming around him, "Come on!

Come on! Take action! Let's go!" One of Sitting Bull's body guards shot the police commander in the leg, and as he went down shot Sitting Bull in the side, at the same time a sergeant shot him in the head. Sitting Bull fell, killed instantly. Two weeks later, 350 Sioux refugees were massacred at Wounded Knee Creek by their army guards who were escorting them to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Sitting Bull lived a tradition of self determination and independence, in order to defend an ancient and cherished heritage of his people.

His death was like the fate suffered by many other proud Indians, who also refused to abandon their principals and accept a foreign way of life. Cochise, Geronimo, and Sitting Bull all suffered for their freedom, which was stolen from them by white men. They all had incredible courage, and struggled as long as they could to save the lives and liberty of their people. They have all come to symbolize the struggle for freedom and defense of one's nation.