As a Chiricahua Apache, Geronimo believed that he should stand up for the rights of his people by showing that in anyway and every way he possibly could. Hooray for Geronimo, the American people cheered for the most famous Indian warrior to have ever lived, as he passed by on horseback in the inaugural parade of President Roosevelt. The Americans hold Geronimo's name on a pedestal; however, the Chiricahua Apache Indians do not consider him a hero rather hold him obliged for the suffering and discomfort of their people. Geronimo was born into the Bedonkohe tribe of the Apache Indians in 1829. The Bedonkohe children are taught to hunt with bows and arrows and to run at a very early age, which Geronimo achieved at the age of six. He also helped in the fields with planting and cultivating, as he got older. His mother taught him how to pray and his father told him of the adventures and excitement of the warpath of their people. He was taught that when you have a disagreement with someone, you resolve the situation yourself.
Raiding Mexican villages was the normal way of life for the Bedonkohe tribe as a means of providing for their families and by the age of 17 Geronimo had participated in four successful raids. He was now accepted as a warrior and could serve his people on the warpath. Upon becoming a part of the warriors Geronimo was given permission to choose his wife and excitedly did so by choosing Alope. He gave her father a herd of horses for her hand in marriage. Alope would bear three children by Geronimo and they taught them the traditions of their fathers before them. In 1858, the Bedonkohe tribe and Mexico were at peace and the tribe and had gone into the old city to barter. The women and children were left behind at the camp to guard their belongings. On the return to camp, Geronimo found his mother; wife and children had all been killed by the Mexican troops, along with many others.
His serious reading began at twelve with a collection of biographies titled The Genius of Solitude. ... The young man's boss was a seventy-nine-year-old wrangler raised by Apaches, who had ridden on war parties with Nana and Geronimo. ...
