Mangas Coloradas

‹ The template below (Infobox American Indian chief) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus.›

Mangas Coloradas
Tribe	Chiricahua Apache
Born	1793 circa
Died	January 18, 1863
Successor	Geronimo [1]

Mangas Coloradas, or Dasoda-hae (c.1793 – January 18, 1863), was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Eastern Chiricahua nation, whose homeland stretched west from the Rio Grande to include most of what is present-day southwestern New Mexico. He was the father-in-law of Chief Cochise and is regarded by many historians to be one of the most important native American leaders of the 19th century due to his fighting achievements against Mexicans and Americans. The name Mangas Coloradas was given to him by Mexicans and is Spanish for Coloured Sleeves. There are no known photographs of Mangas Coloradas, though one of his sons, Mangus, was photographed and is from time to time mistakingly identified as Mangas Coloradas.

Apache war leader

During the decades of the 1820s and 1830s, the Apaches' main enemy were the Mexicans, who had won their independence from Spain in 1821. By 1835 Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps. After Juan José Compas, the leader of the Mimbreno Apaches, was killed for bounty money in 1837, Mangas became a war leader and began a series of retaliatory raids against the Mexicans.

In 1846, when the United States went to war with Mexico, the Apache Nation promised U.S. soldiers safe passage through Apache lands. Once the U.S. occupied New Mexico in 1846, Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty, respecting them as conquerors of the hated Mexican enemy. An uneasy peace between the Apache and the United States lasted until an influx of gold miners into New Mexico's Pinos Altos Mountains led to open conflict. In 1851, near Pinos Altos mining camp, Mangas was personally attacked by a group of White miners who tied him to a tree and severely flogged him. Similar incidents continued in violation of the treaty, leading to Apache reprisals. In December, 1860, thirty miners launched a surprise attack on an encampment of Bedonkohes on the west bank of the Mimbres River. According to historian Edwin R. Sweeney, the miners "...killed four Indians, wounded others, and captured thirteen women and children." Shortly after that, Mangas began raids against U.S. citizens and their property.

Mangas Coloradas' daughter Dos-Teh-Seh married Cochise, principal chief of the Chokonen Apache. In early February 1861, US Army Lieutenant George N. Bascom investigating the "Indian" kidnapping of a ranchers son, apparently without orders, lured an innocent Cochise, his family and several warriors into a trap at Apache Pass, southeastern Arizona. Cochise managed to escape, but his family and warriors remained in custody. Negotiations were unsuccessful and fighting erupted. This incident, known as the "Bascom Affair," ended with Cochise’s brother and five other warriors being hanged by Bascom. Later that year, Mangas and Cochise struck an alliance, agreeing to drive all Americans out of Apache territory. They were joined in their effort by Juh and Geronimo. Although the goal was never achieved, the White population in Apache territory was greatly reduced for a few years during the Civil War, after federal troops had been withdrawn to the east.

Death

In the summer of 1862, after recovering from a bullet wound in the chest, Mangas Coloradas met with an intermediary to call for peace. In January 1863, he decided to meet with U.S. military leaders at Fort McLane, in southwestern New Mexico. Mangas arrived under a flag of truce to meet with Brigadier General Joseph Rodman West, an officer of the California militia and a future Reconstruction senator from Louisiana. Armed soldiers took Mangas into custody. West allegedly gave an execution order to the sentries.

“

Men, that old murderer has got away from every soldier command and has left a trail of blood for 500 miles on the old stage line. I want him dead or alive tomorrow morning, do you understand? I want him dead.

”

That night Mangas was tortured, shot and killed "trying to escape."

The following day, U.S. soldiers cut off his head, boiled it and sent the skull to Orson Squire Fowler, a phrenologist in New York City. Phrenological analysis of the skull and a sketch of it appear in Fowler's book.^[2] Daklugie, one of informants in Eve Ball's book,^[3] said the skull went to the Smithsonian Institution. However, the Smithsonian has done a thorough search for the skull, and reports that it never received it. Mangas' descendants and sources based on their testimony may have confused the Smithsonian with Fowler's Phrenological Cabinet in New York, where the skull was on display, leading to the misattribution. Another possible fate of Mangas' skull was that the skull was returned to the Apaches by the Smithsonian in a 1990 transfer but was not individually labeled.^[4]

The murder and mutilation of Mangas' body only increased the hostility between Apaches and the United States, with more or less constant war continuing for nearly another 25 years.

Appearances in literature

• Life Among the Apaches (1868) by John C. Cremony.
• The Bandits from Rio Frio (1889) by Manuel Payno.
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970) by Dee Brown.
• Flashman and the Redskins (1982) by George MacDonald Fraser.
• Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy.

References

1. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo
2. ^ Fowler, O.S. 1873. Human Science or Phrenology. p. 1193. (Available digitally via Google Books[1])
3. ^ Ball, Eve; Henn, Nora; Sanchez, Lynda A. (1988). Indeh: An Apache Odyssey (reprint). University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2165-3. 
4. ^ NativeRadio.com: The Apaches: Destined for Change

"the Apache and the Sioux" by Leroy Yarbrough, from the June 1968 edition of REAL WEST magazine.

Further reading

• Etulain, Richard W. New Mexican Lives: A Biographical History. University of New Mexico Center for the American West, University of New Mexico Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8263-2433-9
• Haley, James L. Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait. University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8061-2978-6.
• Sweeney, Edwin R. Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches. University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8061-3063-6

External links

• Bedford W. Sipes (Jun 18, 2004). "Mangas-Coloradas". Native American Tribal Chief. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8952352. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 
• Jay W. Sharp. The Night They Shot Mangas Colradas. Desert USA.

Persondata
Name	Coloradas, Mangas
Alternative names
Short description	Native American Tribal Chief
Date of birth	1793
Place of birth
Date of death	1863
Place of death	Hurley, New Mexico