Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches

by Edwin R. Sweeney

Overview

Mangas Coloradas led his Chiricahua Apache people for almost forty years. During the last years of Mangas’s life, he and his son-in-law Cochise led an assault against white settlement in Apachería 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806142395
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	07/30/2011
Series:	The Civilization of the American Indian Series , #231
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	684,666
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Retired as a professional accountant, Edwin R. Sweeney is an independent scholar and the author of Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief; Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches; and From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apaches, 1874–1886.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xv

1 An Eighteenth-Century Chiricahua 3

2 Mangas Coloradas as Fuerte 27

3 The Conflict Begins 44

4 Fuerte Becomes Mangas Coloradas 68

5 A Treaty at Janos 88

6 Mangas Settles the Score 109

7 Eternal Friendship to Americans 137

8 Mangas Coloradas Must Be Killed 159

9 A Cruel War on Sonora 187

10 Americans Occupy Santa Rita del Cobre 220

11 A Treaty at Ácoma 254

12 Americans Break Their Promises 284

13 The Good Agent Steck 307

14 All Trails Lead to Janos 335

15 Calm Before the Storm 363

16 Mangas Coloradas Declares War on Americans 391

17 War! 412

18 The Greatest of Wrongs 441

Notes 467

Bibliography 537

Index 551

Editorial Reviews

“A solid contribution to the story of the Apaches and the history of the Southwest.”—Donald E. Worcester, author of The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest

From the Publisher