Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches (Volume 231) (The Civilization of the American Indian Series)

Mangas Coloradas led his Chiricahua Apache people for almost forty years. During the last years of Mangass life he and his son-in-law Cochise led an assault against white settlement in Apachera that made the two of them the most feared warriors in the Southwest. In this first full-length biography of the legendary chief Edwin R. Sweeney vividly portrays the Apache culture in which Mangas rose to power and the conflict with Americans that led to his brutal death. A giant of a man Mangas combined strength with wisdom and became leader of the Chiricahuas by 1842. Leading war parties against the Mexicans of Sonora Mangas returned to his homelands in southwestern New Mexico with livestock booty and captives. In 1846 he welcomed Americans who joined in his fight against the Mexicans. But as more white miners ranchers and farmers encroached on the Apaches territory tragic incidents caused retaliations that pressured Mangas along with Cochise to fight back in desperation. When Mangas finally tried to make peace in 1863 he was captured and killed by American soldiers. Ironically the death of Mangas Coloradas who had wished only to live in peace in his land inflamed American-Apache relations and led to another twenty-three years of war.