The terrain he knew — the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, the Apache homeland of Arizona and New Mexico — was vast, rugged, and difficult for armies carrying supply trains and artillery.

Geronimo and his followers moved differently than armies moved.

They could travel days without stopping, endure conditions that broke horses and men, and find water where soldiers died of thirst.

His resistance extended over three decades, through multiple agreements that he made and broke and multiple agreements that the U.S. government made and broke.

He surrendered to General George Crook in 1886 — and then escaped, leading Crook’s replacement, General Nelson Miles, on a final pursuit through the borderlands that captured the imagination of newspaper readers across the country.

His final surrender to Miles in September 1886 came with specific terms: he and his followers would be held in the east for two years and then returned to Arizona.