Volume 231 in the Civilization of the American Indian Series

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 Apacheria that made the two of them the most feared warriors in the Southwest. In this first full-length biography of the legendary chief, Ed 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 great physical strength with a sagacity and wisdom that had made him the acknowledged leader of the Chiricahuas by 1842.

Retired as a professional accountant, Edwin R. Sweeney is an independent scholar and one of the preeminent historians of the Apaches. He is the author of FROM COCHISE TO GERONIMO: THE CHIRICAHUA APACHES, 1874-1886, and COCHISE: CHIRICAHUA APACHE CHIEF both published by the University of Oklahoma Press.