Geronimo was one of the best Native American military commanders in the long history of the conflicts grouped together as "Indian Wars." Geronimo was a leader of the Chiricahua Apache, but he was never actually a chief. Instead, his raids against Mexican and American villages across the deserts of Sonora, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Arizona were so successful, he gathered followers through his own military capabilities. After a massacre by the Mexican Army in 1851, in which his mother, wife, and children were killed, Geronimo began attacking Mexican villages relentlessly. By the 1870s, Geronimo began operating across the Mexican-American border. The US Army started following his band as well. Three times, Geronimo agreed to go on a reservation, and three times Geronimo led a "breakout" from the reservation. In 1886, it appeared Geronimo would surrender in Mexico to US Army General Charles Crook. Instead, he was told he'd be slaughtered by one soldier, and he broke out one more time. But he was leading a weakened band, and he couldn't keep going. Eventually, Geronimo would be forced to surrender to General Nelson Miles.