Geronimo

Geronimo has ascended into legend and is perhaps the most legendary figure to emerge from the final days of the Southwestern frontier. This legend has obscured and embellished many of the facts of Geronimo’s life. Cutting through the legend and rediscovering the man is what Robert Utley has attempted to do in his new biography of the warrior. In the process, Utley has also chronicled U.S. policy toward the Apaches, specifically the Chiricahua.

With the discovery of gold throughout the Southwest, the Apaches began to come in contact with more white settlers, and as more people came into the region, the two peoples came into conflict. This conflict drew the U.S. military into the Southwest and began a conflict that would span four decades. Even during the Civil War, the Apaches faced soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy. Following the Civil War, the federal government began to devote more attention to the Indian presence on the frontier with the goal of forcing the native tribes onto reservations as U.S. citizens expanded further into the West.

As part of the reservation policy, the federal government provided rations to the Apache, which was a continuation of the Spanish practice, established in the 18^th Century (at the latest). This policy was described by Jose Cortes – a lieutenant in the Royal Corps of Engineers – as a means adopted by the Spanish to prevent raids on the various settlements in the New World. However, these rations would often dwindle despite the requirements of the treaties agreed to, and the Apache would return to raiding for sustenance. All of this would be repeated under the U.S. reservation policy.

Geronimo and his band of Apaches first settled on the reservation at Apache Pass, which had been negotiated with General Howard as part of the peace terms with Cochise in 1872. This reservation was different than others due to the relaxed supervision of the agent Tom Jeffords, who was friendly with Cochise and some of the other chiefs and who allowed the Apache to continue raids into Mexico, but all this would come to an end as Washington pressed its policy of consolidation of the tribes onto a few reservations (a policy Gen George Crook would advise against).

After the death of Cochise, tensions grew on the Chiricahua Reservation, and in 1876 it boiled over with the death of Nicholas Rogers, who was shot by two Indians for refusing to sell them more whiskey. His death provided the pretext for the closure of the Chiricahua Reservation and the removal of its inhabitants to the White Mountain Reservation, where they were located on a desolate portion of the Gila River. This environment made farming impossible and malaria spread. Geronimo joined Juh and others in fleeing to Mexico, where they would continue raiding. Geronimo was arrested in 1877 and imprisoned at the San Carlos Reservation in about August of the same year.

Geronimo would remain on the reservation until 1878. As Utley relates, “The scarcity and uncertainty of ration issues caused anxiety and threatened hostilities.  Appropriations failed to provide the full amounts. Contractors proved consistently late in delivery. Graft continued to take its toll.” Due to these circumstances, as well as a malaria outbreak in early 1878, people began to flee into the mountains, and Geronimo, after his nephew committed suicide following a drunken berating from Geronimo, would flee to Mexico once again, from which he would raid both sides of the border. This pattern would continue until 1886, when Geronimo was finally captured and made a prisoner of war along with the rest of his tribe. 

As prisoners of War, Geronimo and others were transported by train from the Southwest to Florida, where they remained until 1888, attracting tourists and spending time repairing the fort that was their prison/home. In 1888, they were moved to the Mount Vernon barracks in Alabama, where the other Chiricahua had been moved a year earlier. Mount Vernon was a drastically different climate than the Southwest and many of the Apache began to succumb to tuberculosis, as well as malaria. Despite the rampant disease, they attempted to make the best of their situation. The health situation would lead to the Apache being moved once again – this time to Fort Sill in 1894. Here Geronimo would remain until his death in 1909.

By the time Geronimo died in 1909, he was no longer the warrior who had fascinated and terrorized the Southwestern United States. He grew watermelons, attended events such as the Pan American Exposition and local fairs, and even converted to Christianity (although how sincere this conversion was is debatable). After almost three decades of on and off warfare, the United States had finally succeeded in taming Geronimo.

While reading about Geronimo, who was far from the heroic figure he has been portrayed as by some, we should also bear in mind the policy of the U.S. at this time and what we can learn from it, particularly the lesson of attempting to understand a way of life that may be unfamiliar to us. We cannot always succeed in policy, and in this, I am thinking foreign policy, by attempting to impose our way of life on other people. Our goals may come to better fruition if we make an effort to understand them and bend our policy that understanding.

Bibliography

Cortes, Jose. Vews from the Apache Frontier: Report on the Northern Provinces of New Spain. Ed Elizabeth A. H. John. Trans by John Wheat. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.

Roberts, David. Once They Moved Like The Wind: Cochise, Geronimo and the Apache Wars. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

Utley, Robert. Geronimo. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.

Yenne, Bill. Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2006.

Will Rogers' Political Life

During his life, Will Rogers was one of the most popular entertainers in the United States. Rogers was also a widely read columnist for several newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Times and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as a political force whose influence was sought after by Congressmen and Presidents. However, his role as a popular entertainer has generally overshadowed his political life, which Richard D. White fleshes out in his biography of Rogers. 

Will Rogers was born in the Cherokee Nation tract of the Indian Nation (now Oklahoma) to Clem and Mary America Rogers in 1879. Rogers' father - a district judge & senator for the Cherokee Nation who supported William Jennings Bryan and some Progressive policies - was a wealthy rancher, selling cattle in Kansas City and St. Louis. The family's wealth allowed them to send Will Rogers to school in Chelsea, and later, in 1897, to the Kemper Military School in Missouri. Rogers would not adapt to the regimented environment and would abandon his studies, leaving  for the Texas panhandle in 1898 to work as a cowhand.

After briefly working in the TX panhandle, Rogers returned home to manage his father's ranch; however, Rogers had a desire to see the world, and in 1902, he left Oklahoma for Argentina, where he planned to start his own ranch. It was difficult for Rogers to find a job in Argentina, and once again, he boarded a ship - this time landing in South Africa. There he found a job with Texas Jack's Wild West Show. In 1903, Will Rogers left Texas Jack's show and South Africa, joining a traveling circus in Australia and New Zeland. Upon returning to the United States, Rogers was a committed entertainer who took his act to Broadway, where he joined Ziegfeld's Follies and later became the nation's most popular movie and radio entertainer.

It was on Broadway that Rogers began using humor to comment on the social and political issues of the day. His began by criticizing Henry Ford's efforts to negotiate an end to World War 1, and later, made fun of William Jennings Bryan, with whom Rogers was quite friendly and whom he admired. However, what made the break for Rogers was his act in which he criticized the policies of Woodrow Wilson while the President was in the audience. The performance went off without a hitch - the President enjoyed the show - and the door was open for Rogers to criticize every sitting President during his lifetime. Whether it was Prohibition, women's suffrage, foreign policy, etc., Rogers would criticize all policies which disagreed with his beliefs, which were generally of a progressive bent (although he did oppose women's suffrage) but not dogmatically so.

His political humor eventually lead to a weekly column in which he expressed his views as he did on stage. As a columnist, Rogers was able to use his status as a member of the press and a celebrity to travel the world, including visits to the Soviet Union, giving Americans a look at a nation we knew little about at the time. Roger also visited Manchuria on behalf of the U.S. government in order to learn about the Japanese invasion and report back his observations. Aside from covering foreign affairs, Rogers also covered domestic politics and attended several political conventions - both Republican and Democrat. Rogers was a Democrat, but was often disappointed in the party until the nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt, for whom he campaigned and later assisted in his efforts to promote New Deal policies.

Rogers died in plane crash in Alaska in 1935. That day a popular voice in American politics was lost, but it's lived on in his movies, columns, and books: a homespun philosophy that opposed corruption and longed for the peaceful state of primitive men, who "depended less on each other, and took less from each other" (p. 60). Speaking directly to the American people, Rogers influenced millions of Americans, and as Richard White writes, was a voice of stability in troubled times.

Lyndon Johnson's Path to Power

No one expected much of this boy from the Hill Country, because of his family's troubles and his personal foibles, but he rose high and fast. Always ambitious, Lyndon Johnson worked his way up the ladder of power by hook or by crook and devoted all of his energies to fulfill these ambitions.  In this first volume, Robert Caro tells us the story of how Lyndon Johnson came from the desolate hills of a poor farming community and gained both wealth and power.

The Hill Country played a significant role in Johnson's career. As the Texas frontier expanded, settlers happened across the inviting, grassy hills west of Austin TX. If you drive out west of Austin today, you'll see more cedar brakes than grassy hilltops, and as Caro explains, this is the result of the settlers farming and ranching practices, which ruined the soil, leading to erosion and drying up of springs (pp. 8-14). With the land playing out, poverty - back breaking poverty - became a way of life for most of the residents of the Hill country, who began to take to the populism of the People's Party. As the People's Party faded, their principles did not, and Lyndon's father - Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr. - was an adherent of these principles, and as the people's representative in Austin, he worked with other committed populists to help the poor people of the Hill Country.

Lyndon would occassionally travel to Austin with his father, where he saw his father's work on behalf of the poor, but also saw the success of the politicians, who benefited personally from their political alliance with business interests, which provided a stark contrast with the perceived failure (both financially and politically). As Lyndon matured, he became more and more involved in politics, including the campus Southwest Texas State Teachers College - currently Texas State University at San Marcos - where he excelled in dominating the campus political establishment with the help of some creative vote getting strategies. It was during his time in college that Johnson helped Welly Hopkins with his Texas Senate campaign, and Hopkins credited his victory to Johnson's help. It was also Hopkins who recommended Johnson to Rep. Dick Kleberg for the job of private secretary to the Congressman. Johnson took the job and was on his way to Washington, D.C.

Lyndon had great ambitions, and national political success was perhaps the overriding ambition, so the job with Dick Kleberg provided Johnson with the opportunity he so desired, i.e., to get to Washington and become a successful politician. Kleberg was not an attentive Congressman and left most of the work of his office to Johnson, who soon began to learn the ways of Washington, as well as the needs of Kleberg's district. His attentiveness to the district and knowledge of Washington eventually allowed him to be of great benefits to the constituents of the 14th district as Johnson took advantage of New Deal programs to benefit the people of South Texas. He was able to remove the red tape that might hinder other offices and get things done. He was also beginning to get noticed.

One way Lyndon got noticed was by turning the Little Congress, an organization for Congressional staffers, into a personal fiefdom, again with the help of some creative vote getting. The other way he got noticed was by helping powerful lobbyists and businessmen, especially friends of Dick Kleberg navigate the bureaucratic halls of Washington and help them get access to New Deal programs. He was also helping run another campaign; this time for Maury Maverick, a liberal representative from San Antonio, who was a good deal the opposite of Kleberg and his associates with whom Johnson was quite close. No one was quite sure of Lyndon's politics; he was liberal when he needed to be liberal and conservative when he needed to be conservative, as he cultivated relationships with powerful men who could help him advance. This paid off as he cultivated legendary Texas Congressman Sam Rayburn, who repaid Johnson's attentions early by securing Lyndon's appointment as Texas National Youth Administration director from which Johnson sought to create a statewide organization for himself, as well as getting in view of the most influential men in Texas from his office in Austin.

After about a year of directing the NYA and managing campaigns for various candidates, Lyndon Johnson was presented with this first opportunity to run for elected office with the death of James P Buchanan, Congressman from Texas' 10th District. It was during this campaign that Johnson's building of personal relationships and knowledge of Washington's bureaucratic maze paid off, because Herman and George Brown (founders of Brown & Root - now Kellogg Brown and Root) needed help in Congress to build a dam in Austin, and State Senator Alvin Wirtz put them in contact with Lyndon Johnson, and the Browns would help raise money for Johnson for many years, and Johnson would repay them. Johnson had the funding, but he also had the drive to win. As Caro relates in Chapter 21, Johnson out worked his opponents and talked with every voter in the vast Central Texas district. In the end, Johnson had defeated several veteran Texas politicians with a margin of 3,000 votes. He was now a Congressman, but he had no intention of stopping there.

Arriving in Washington as a newly elected Congressman, Johnson continued to make new relationships, as well as maintain existing one, such as his relationship with Sam Rayburn and the Browns. As he had as Rep. Kleberg's secretary, Lyndon Johnson helped his constituents receive as many of the benefits of the New Deal as they could get, but he remained a ideological cipher. Few people in the House knew where Lyndon Johnson actually stood, because he did not take many stands. However, during this same time, Johnson began to cultivate a new ally in President Roosevelt and his aides. These relationships paid off as Johnson sought to expand his influence and power by raising and distributing money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Johnson knew where he could raise the money (from oil men in Texas, among others), and he knew how to distribute it effectively. As the campaign season came to a close, Johnson had raised more money for the DCCC than ever before, and several Congressmen owed their elections to his help.

With these new sources of funds and new allies, Johnson was ready for the next opportunity when it came with the death of United States Senator Morris Sheppard. The Senate campaign would in many ways resemble to 10th District campaign. Johnson was not well known statewide, and many of his opponents were, such as Governor Pappy O'Daniel, General Gerald Mann and Rep. Martin Dies. And like his 10th District campaign, Johnson attached himself to President Franklin Roosevelt. There was also no shortage of funds for Johnson's Senate campaign, with the Browns giving large sums to Lyndon. However, this time Johnson was running against a popular Texas Governor - William Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel - and O'Daniel knew how to win just as much as Johnson did. Johnson had begun his campaign trying to appear very senatorial, but as Pappy and his merry band demonstrated they were beating Johnson, Lyndon's campaign began to copy the circus like elements of the O'Daniel's campaign. There was no shortage of cheating by both sides. Much of the money raised by Johnson was spent to buy votes in various precincts, particularly in the Valley and San Antonio, where the local bosses controlled entire boxes. By election day, Johnson had overcome his lack of name recognition, etc. and appeared headed for a victory, but he made a serious error. 

The error Johnson made was telling the South Texas counties to report their votes as soon as possible without waiting to find out how many he needed. On election night, Johnson was solidly in the lead. The next morning, Johnson was essentially declared the winner with a margin of 5152 votes, but not all the votes had been counted. Pappy O'Daniel was holding back his boxes in East Texas until he knew how many votes he needed to win. By the time all the counties had reported O'Daniel beat Johnson by 1,311 votes. Johnson would never forget the lesson learned in this defeat, and when he ran for Senate again in 1948, he made sure he didn't lose. By the time that election came around, much had changed for Johnson: he was no longer a Roosevelt man as he had been in his campaigns for House and Senate. Indeed, he was now an anti-New Dealer and avowed conservative.

The portrait Robert Caro paints is of Lyndon Johnson as a mercurial politician. He seemed to hold no particular ideology and take no strong stands on any issue. Johnson was guided by the north star that was his ambition, and that ambition carried him from the poor hills of Central Texas, to Congress, to the Senate and eventually to the Presidency (his ultimate ambition). Hopefully, this has been an adequate summary of Caro's first volume. If you would like to read further, related posts are linked below.

Related posts:

• Lyndon Baines Johnson
• LBJ and Modern America
• The American West, Agrarian Populism and Democracy