Honoring an Apache Warrior
Memorial Project for Geronimo Helps Mark Public Lands Day
By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 20, 2004; Page A19
GILA WILDERNESS, N.M., Sept. 19 -- Almost 7,000 feet high in the middle
of the country's first preserved wilderness, before the cement was
mixed and the rocks and mortar were laid, this volunteer project
started with an it'edjidile, a blessing, in the language of the Apache.
Harlyn Geronimo, a medicine man and the great-grandson of the
Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo, prayed, raising fingertips smeared
with the yellow pollen of the river cattail to a gray, overcast sky. He
prayed, he translated afterward, for the security of the United States
and for American troops in Iraq. He prayed for the administration of
President Bush and that "the creator bless this place and the people of
this community." He prayed for the elderly and for the youth whose
future lies ahead. He prayed that in this area, where his
great-grandfather was born and roamed for part of his life, the
"tri-culture" -- the white, Native American and Hispanic communities --
rid itself of "conflict, racism and prejudice and that we all get along
in a brotherhood." And he prayed for the success of this project.
This is the place where Geronimo's birth in 1829 will be commemorated
with a plaque and statue, Harlyn Geronimo's wife, Karen, a medicine
woman, said in her Apache prayer. "It will be here to kind of bring
back his memory. We pray that in the spirit world, he will sense this
and appreciate it."
With that, the building of the memorial cairn began, one of 600
projects executed Saturday as part of National Public Lands Day in the
United States. More than 90,000 volunteers nationwide worked on
federal, state and local projects, from building the memorial to
Geronimo to refurbishing a gold miner's cabin near Ridgecrest, Calif.,
and rehabilitating three 18th-century buildings at the Valley Forge
National Historical Park in Pennsylvania.
Most of the projects were conducted on federal or state land, but a few
were local, including the cleanup of a city park in Huntsville, Ala.,
after Hurricane Ivan, said Patti Pride, a spokesman for National Public
Lands Day. The project is administered by the National Environmental
Education and Training Foundation in Washington.
National Public Lands Day began in 1994 at sites in Nevada, California
and Kentucky under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.
"The point is to get volunteers out to spend a day doing some work on a
place where they go for recreation, to share in caring for public
lands," Pride said.
Today, nine federal agencies and several states are involved. In the
Washington area, volunteers cleaned trails in Prince William Forest
Park in Northern Virginia and cleaned and planted in Greenbelt Park in
Maryland and along the C&O Canal, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and
Anacostia Park in the District.
The memorial to Geronimo was proposed in May by Harlyn Geronimo, 56, at
a talk he gave at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, after
the screening of a movie on the female Apache warrior Lozen, in which
he starred. Geronimo is a sculptor and said he wanted to create a
12-foot bronze of his great-grandfather to be placed at the warrior's
birthplace, near the headwaters of the Gila River. Geronimo, who fought
U.S. settlements in the West until 1886, was held in captivity with
hundreds of tribesmen in Florida until 1894. He died in Fort Sill,
Okla., in 1909, having never returned to his homeland in what now is
New Mexico.
Three women, including Frances Land, the chairman of the Trail of the
Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway Committee, spoke to the sculptor about
his proposal. The sinuous road travels north through the Gila National
Forest and ends at the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument visitor
center.
Geronimo and his wife went into the wilderness above the visitor center
with Land in June to walk the area near the headwaters of the Gila
River and to pray. "We talked to the creator that this would take off,"
said Geronimo, who lives with his family on the Apache reservation in
Mescalero, N.M. "This was my great-grandfather's homeland, and we were
glad to be back."
The project was spearheaded by the byway committee but drew volunteers
who designed a landscaped memorial, a cairn and a plaque at the Gila
Cliff Dwellings National Monument visitor center. The memorial will be
dedicated Oct. 9 as part of Native American Month. The sculpture is
scheduled to be completed by October 2005.
Marcia Andre, the Forest Service supervisor for the Gila National
Forest, said she agreed to the memorial to promote understanding of the
area's cultural history. "We have beautiful vistas . . . but the
cultural significance of these lands is just as important as the plants
and the animals," she said. "It's equally important we honor Geronimo
and his peoples on this land."
