BULL. 30] 



GERONIMO GHOST DANCE 



491 



alphal:)et, was a German of the Georgia 

 colony. (a. f. c. ) 



Geronimo (Spanish lor Jerome, aj^plied by 

 the Mexicans as a nickname; native name 

 Goyathlay, ' one who yawns' ). A medi- 

 cine-man and prophet of tlie Chiricahua 

 Apache who, in the latter part of the 19th 

 century, acquired notoriety through his 

 opposition to the authorities and by sys- 

 tematic and sensational advertising; born 

 about 1834 at the headwaters of Gila r. , N. 

 Mex., near old Ft Tulerosa. His father 

 was Taklishim, 'The Gray One,' who was 

 not a chief, although his father ( Geroni- 

 mo' s grandfather) assumed to be a chief 

 without heredity or election. Geroni- 

 mo' s mother was known as Juana. When 

 it was decided, in 1876, in consequence 

 of depredations committed in Sonora, of 



which the Mexican government com- 

 plained, to remove the Chiricahua from 

 their reservation on the s. frontier to 

 San Carlos, Ariz., Geronimo and others 

 of the younger chiefs fled into INIexico. 

 He was arrested later when he returned 

 with his band to Ojo Caliente, N. Mex., 

 and tilled the ground in peace on San 

 Carlos res. until the Chiricahua became 

 discontented because the (Government 

 would not help them irrigate their lands. 

 In 1882 Geronimo led one of the bands 

 that raided in Sonora and surrendered 

 when surrounded by Gen. George H. 

 Crook's force in the Sierra Madre. He 

 had one of the best farms at San Carlos, 

 when trouble arose in 1884 in consequence 

 of the attempt of the authorities to stop 

 the making of tiswin, the native intoxi- 



cant. During 1884-85 he gathered a band 

 of hostiles, who terrorized the inhabit- 

 ants of s. Arizona and New Mexico, as well 

 as of Sonora and Chihuahua, in Mexico. 

 Gen. Crook proceeded against them 

 with instructions to capture or destroy 

 the chief and his followers. In Mar., 

 1886, a truce was made, followed by a 

 conference, at which the terms of sur- 

 render were agreed on; but Geronimo 

 and his followers having again fled to the 

 Sierra IMadre across the Mexican frontier, 

 and Gen. Miles having been placed in 

 command, active operations were renewed 

 and their surrender was ultimately ef- 

 fected in the following August. The 

 entire band, numbering about 340, in- 

 cluding Geronimo and Nachi, the hered- 

 itary chief, were deported as prisoners of 

 war, first to Florida and later to Alalsama, 

 being finally settled, at Ft Sill, Okla., 

 where they now reside under military 

 supervision and in prosperous condition, 

 being industrious workers and careful 

 spenders. (j. m. c. t. ) 



Gesture language. See Sign language. 



Gewauga (OdjVwdge>'\ 'it is bitter, 

 salty.' — Hewitt). A Cayuga village on 

 the site of the present Union Springs, town 

 of Springport, on the e. side of Cayuga 

 lake, N.Y. Itwas destroyed by Sullivan's 

 troops, Sept. 22, 1779. ( J. n. b. h. ) 



Ge-wa'-ga. — Morgan, League Iroq., 470, 1851. Ge- 

 ■wau'-ga. — Ibid., 423. Ge-waw-ga. — Adams in Ca- 

 yuga Co. Hist. Soc. Coll., no. 7, 176, 1889. 



Ghost dance. A ceremonial religious 

 dance connected with the messiah doc- 

 trine, which originated among the Pavi- 

 i)tso in Nevada about 1888, and spread 

 rapidly among other tribes until it num- 

 bereil among its adherents nearly all 

 the Indians of the interior basin, from 

 ^lissouri r. to or beyond the Rockies. 

 The prophet of the religion was a young 

 l*aiute Indian, at that time not yet 35 

 j'ears of age, known among his own peo- 

 ple as Wovoka ('Cutter'), and com- 

 monly called by the whites Jack Wilson, 

 from having worked in the family of a 

 ranchman named Wilson. Wovoka seems 

 already to have established his reputa- 

 tion as a medicine-man when, about 

 the close of 1888, he was attacked by a 

 dangerous fever. While he was ill an 

 eclipse spread excitement among the In- 

 dians, with the result that Wovoka be- 

 came delirious and imagined that he had 

 been taken into the spirit world, and 

 there received a direct revelation from 

 the God of the Indians. Briefiy stated, 

 the revelation was to the effect that a 

 new dispensation was close at hand by 

 which the Indians would be restored to 

 their inheritance and reunited with their 

 departed friends, and that they must pre- 

 pare for the event by practising the songs 

 and dance ceremonies which the prophet 

 gave them. Within a very short time 



