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.