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He was also a prisoner of war at this time and was rented out by the office of Indian affairs for events, like parades and fairs.
was rented out by the office of Indian affairs
Didn't know this. Words escape me.
He participated in a parade in Washington in relation to Roosevelt's second inauguration. This landed him an audience with the President, in which he asked for the pardon of himself and his fellow prisoners of war. Roosevelt rejected him personally.
He was happy to parade him in front of the nation as a symbol of national unity though.
Was it supposed to be a symbol of national unity? It seems more like a humiliation, considering that at the time Geronimo was still quite infamous.
I have understood the parade to be supposed to symbolise that the hatchet was buried and that all peoples of the nation rallied behind the republican idea of America. But I'm by no means a historian - would love to hear a more enlightened take on it!
I'm not well-informed on the parade myself, just seems odd to include Geronimo as a uniting symbol at the time.
I guess it's also a period in which people were going crazy about Buffalo Bill's Wild West show - it's a strange period of history in which the glorification and mythification of the past started before the dust had even settled.
Google is being real dumb and not finding anything on this. You gotta source I could read? Would love to read it