Tonight's edition of ''The American Experience'' is devoted to a chapter of the unhappy history of the American Indian. ''Geronimo and the Apache Resistance'' tells of a half-century of war, displacement and confinement that ended with the decimation of the Chiricahua Apaches and the loss of their traditional homeland in the Southwest.
The troubles of the Chiricahua (pronounced cheer-ah-KOW-ah) began with the arrival of the Spanish in the New World in the 17th century. The story is quietly and affectingly told by the children and grandchildren of the Indians who came under ever-increasing pressures after the United States won possession of the Southwest in the Mexican War.
Their recollections may not be wholly reliable; in particular, their accounts of Geronimo smack of legend, evidence of the glory that the tribe's famous war shaman gained among his people for his repeated if hopeless efforts to break free of the white man's domination.
The hourlong documentary, on at 9 on Channels 21 and 49 and at 10 on Channel 13, is visually compelling, with its photographs of the Old West and its views of the rugged beauty of the land to which the nomadic Chiricahua were so deeply attached. It is easy to believe, as the narration says, that for the Apaches, ''The land was beauty, harmony and power.''
The land was also important to the white hunters, miners and settlers who began moving into the area in the mid-1800's. It was convenient for them to see the natives as savages, hence expendable; and there was never any question of who would win out. As a Chiricahua descendant says of his people, the newcomers were ''pushing them and pushing them.''
''Geronimo,'' produced and directed by Neil Goodwin, does not get very close to the Apache leader, despite the fact that late in life he produced an autobiography. Geronimo seems to have been a shrewd bargainer (though Washington did not always keep its agreements) as well as a formidable fighter. Toward the end of his repeated escapes from reservation existence, 5,000 soldiers were assigned to pursue him and a couple of dozen followers through the mountains.
Although he had cause enough for vengeance after the slaughter of his family by Mexican soldiers and on occasion he responded in kind, Geronimo's reputation for bloodthirstiness seems to have been considerably overstated. And he had a touch of the poet. ''Once I moved about as the wind,'' he told his captors. ''Now I surrender to you.''
The final years of this courageous and complex figure make a sad epilogue to a sad story. He survived to become a drawing card at Wild West shows. By then, there were only 380 Chiricahua left of the thousands who had once dominated a vast region.
photo of Geronimo