By 1789, when Juan Baptiste Munier acquired trading rights with the Ponca, they had villages along the Niobrara River near its mouth, and ranged as far east as present-day Ponca, Nebraska, at the mouth of Aowa Creek. A smallpox epidemic had reduced their numbers from approximately 800 to 100 at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1807.
Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta; 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western territories.
On May 17, 1885, a number of Apache including Nana, Mangus (son of Mangas Coloradas), Chihuahua, Naiche, Geronimo, and their followers fled the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona after a show of force against the reservation's commanding officer Britton Davis. Department of Arizona General George Crook dispatched two columns of troops into Mexico, the first commanded by Captain Emmet Crawford and the second by Captain Wirt Davis. Each was composed of a troop of cavalry (usually about forty men) and about 100 Apache Scouts recruited from among the Apache people.[39] These Apache units proved effective in finding the mountain strongholds of the Apache bands, and killing or capturing them.[40] It was highly unsettling for Geronimo's band to realize their own tribesmen had helped find their hiding places.;They pursued the Apache through the summer and autumn through Mexican Chihuahua and back across the border into the United States. The Apache continually raided settlements, murdering other innocent Native Americans and civilians and stealing horses.[42] Over time this persistent pursuit by both Mexican and American forces discouraged Geronimo and other similar Apache leaders, and caused a steady and irreplaceable attrition of the members of their bands, which taken all together eroded their will to resist and led to their ultimate capitulation.
The "breakouts" and the subsequent resumption of Apache raiding and warfare caused the Mexican Army and militia as well as United States forces to pursue and attempt to kill or apprehend off-reservation "renegade" Apache bands, including Geronimo's, wherever they could be found. Because the Mexican army and militia units of Sonora and Chihuahua were unable to suppress the several Chiricahua bands based in the Sierra Madre mountains, in 1883 Mexico allowed the United States to send troops into Mexico to continue their pursuit of Geronimo's band and the bands of other Apache leaders.[
From Mexico, Apache bands also staged surprise raids back into the United States, often seeking to replenish their supply of guns and ammunition. Utley refers to a specific raid in March 1883, in which Geronimo's people split up with Geronimo and Chihuahua raiding in the Sonora River valley to collect livestock and provisions, while Chatto and Bonito raided through southern Arizona to gather weapons and cartridges.[37] In these raids into the United States, the Apaches moved swiftly and attacked isolated ranches, wagon trains, prospectors and travelers. They often killed all the persons they encountered in order to avoid detection and pursuit as long as possible before they slipped back over the border into Mexico
Geronimo led his band of followers in "breakouts" from the reservation to return to their former nomadic life associated with raiding and warfare.[4] Following each breakout, Geronimo and his band would flee across Arizona and New Mexico to Mexico, killing and plundering as they went, and establish a new base in the rugged and remote Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains.[14] In Mexico, they were insulated from pursuit by U.S. armed forces. The Apache knew the rough terrain of the Sierras intimately,[36] which helped them elude pursuit and protected them from attack. The Sierra Madre mountains lie on the border between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, which allowed the Apache access to raid and plunder the small villages, haciendas, wagon trains, worker camps and travelers in both states.
Though outnumbered, Geronimo fought against both Mexican and United States troops and became famous for his daring exploits and numerous escapes from incarceration from 1858 to 1886.[28] One such escape, as legend has it, took place in the Robledo Mountains of southwest New Mexico. The legend states that Geronimo and his followers entered a cave, and the U.S. soldiers waited outside the entrance for him, but he never came out. Later, it was heard that Geronimo was spotted outside, nearby. The second entrance through which he escaped has yet to be found, and the cave is called Geronimo's Cave, even though no reference to this event or this cave has been found in the historic or oral record. Moreover, there are many stories of this type with other caves referenced that state that Geronimo or other Apaches entered to escape troops but were not seen exiting. These stories are in all likelihood apocryphal
The Mexicans once again attacked the Apache. After months of fighting in the mountains, the Apaches and Mexicans decided on a peace treaty at Casas Grandes. After terms were agreed, the Mexican troops gave Mezcal to the Apaches, and while they were intoxicated, they attacked and killed 20 Apaches and captured some. The Apache were forced to retreat into the mountains once again.
30 miners surprise attack an encampment of Bedonkohes Apaches on the west bank of the Mimbres River. The miners killed 4 Indians, wounded others, and captured thirteen women and children. Attacks by the Apache again followed, with raids against U.S. citizens and property.