Tworivers
Copyright© 2025 by Harry Carton
Chapter 16: Geronimo
Over the next few days, wagon-load after wagon-load left Santa Fe for the Apache village. It was a four-day trip by horseback, but it took six days for the heavily loaded wagons to travel across the parched desert. It was fall, now, and the drivers weathered the winter cold of the Santa Fe area and the drier and warmer weather of the former Apache lands. Accompanying each wagon was a party of the fierce Comanche warriors. They were so numerous that the dust of any wagon could easily see the dust of a wagon in front and a wagon behind, trickling down the winding paths that led from the Santa Fe highlands.
The lead wagon was swarmed by those in the Apache village and swiftly unloaded. Goods were placed in storage areas by content: Toledo steel near the forges, silver near the leaders’ lodging, the powder in grenades guarded by warriors with no flames nearby.
When Helmut arrived, he immediately went to work pounding steel ingots into more useful shapes: plowshares for the farmers, digging tools for the coal and lead miners, hardened arrowheads for the hunters and warriors, and protective gear of all types for the warriors and their horses. He showed some of the apprentice smiths — for there were plenty of women and men who gravitated to the forges — how to make firebricks for new forges, and how to craft molds of the clay that was abundant. But the rifle barrels and gun parts he reserved for himself — until Winona made such a pest of herself that Helmut finally showed her the skill of gunsmithing.
The empty wagons were sent back to Santa Fe. Day after day, wagons arrived. Wind Rider finally pulled Helmut aside and asked him how many wagon-loads were coming. Yellow Hair and Wolf Tooth — the Comanche leader — were intent on leaving nothing in the former Spanish outpost but dust, and then they were going to burn the dust. There would be nothing left of Santa Fe but a wide spot in the road.
Thomas Wind Rider went to a meeting with Tall Pine and Nantan, the two Apache leaders. “We are moving EVERYTHING out of Santa Fe. That means we are expanding our village. And the Comanche are making common cause with us against the Spanish and Crow. That will mean some of their people will be coming here.”
“In a little more than one winter,” said Nantan, “you have greatly changed our way of life, Wind Rider. We were once a tribe of nomads that followed the elk and bison over the plains. Now we have a home, a place where we can rest.”
Thomas was more than a little upset at first, but when Nantan went on, “But these are good changes, Wind Rider. It was me that said ‘Teach Apache’ to you at each change. ‘Teach Apache’ how to make better bows. ‘Teach Apache’ how to make the medicines that defeat the swamp fever and Spanish pox. ‘Teach Apache’ how to dig pits with spikes to destroy the Crow and the Spanish. ‘Teach Apache how to use the burning rock to make better steel. ‘Teach Apache’ how to prevent Apache warriors to avoid the pox ... We welcome the new goddess of science. I know you well, Wind Rider. You never come to this tipi with a problem, unless you have a solution. Tall Pine and I are ready for your new solution.”
Wind Rider exhaled, not even knowing that he’d held his breath. “I think we need to make a permanent place, here. We have good water, good soil for growing crops, nearby canyons to keep our horses. I would call it Goyaałé — meaning ‘a place to breath deeply, to relax.’ And in English, in two hundred years, it would mean GERONIMO. The man would be proud to have his name given to the headquarters of the Apache Nation, Thomas Two Rivers, now the Wind Rider thought.
Wind Rider expanded on his plan for Geronimo: “We will build trenches and cover them with dirt and plants. Above them we will build walls of tall spikes with places for our warriors to stand and hurl arrows and gunfire at our enemies. There will be secret ways for our horsemen to exit and scout.” And eventually cannons hiding behind adobe walls – but that’s for another conversation. “For there will be attacks on our city. The Chiricahua will join with us, for we are the Apache Nation. We will have other cities in our mighty nation.”
Nantan was immediately on board with the idea of a town called Geronimo. He was getting on in years, and liked the idea of leaving something behind when he passed on. Tall Pine, a younger leader, wanted to think about it.
When he told Winona about making a town called Geronimo, she said “Okay, if that’s what you think is best.” But her mind was elsewhere: on making their own guns.
Winona had already learned the basics of gunsmithing from Helmut, and she was eager to apply her knowledge. She had been working on a new design for a rifle, one that would be lighter and more accurate than the Spanish muskets. She had been experimenting with different metals and powders, and she was confident that she could create a weapon that would give the Apache an edge in battle.
Thomas Two Rivers, now known as Wind Rider, was impressed by Winona’s progress. He had seen firsthand the devastation that firearms could cause, and he knew that the Apache needed better weapons if they were to survive the coming conflict with the Crow and the Spanish. He had been teaching the warriors how to use the rifles they had captured, but he knew that they needed something more. Would he even be alive when the Yanquis came west of the Mississippi? That would be more than 150 years in the future. Was this world so different from the one he came from? There were French and Germans here in the West? Where did they come from?{br}