Geronimo

On the eve of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 paratroopers prepared by applying war paint and wearing Mohawk haircuts. As they came down from the heavens they shouted 'Geronimo' and thus began another of the legends about this Apache warrior. Geronimo has been pictured as both a vicious murderer who should have been executed and also as a victim of the prejudice against Native Americans. Geronimo is also known to have been baptized into the Reformed Church in America, but few know the story of how he came to accept Christ. In 1900 and 1901, the Reformed Church sent Howard Furbeck, as part of a missionary quartette, to 'sing the Gospel' to settlers in the new towns forming along rail lines in the Territory of Oklahoma. The quartette was also popular at camp meetings with members of the Apache, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne tribes. Furbeck's never before seen letters and photographs of a prairie baptism fill in pieces of Geronimo's story that have yet to be heard.