Mills 1 Evanna Mills Professor Kieffner History of New Mexico

Mangas Coloradas Mangas Coloradas is cited as the most significant Apache war chief of the nineteenth century, although there is some dispute as to whether he was formally recognized as their chief. Many Americans and Hispanics of that time described Mangas as an influential statesman, diplomat, and sage. Along with those character traits, he was perceived as ferocious, uncompromising, and a brutal butcher who laid waste to huge tracts of northern Mexico, all of Arizona, and much of New Mexico (Etulain). His name was synonymous with terror. Despite the violence that he had been known to evoke, Mangas Coloradas was said to be a peace-loving man whose only interest was in preventing the Hispanics and Americans from overrunning his people's lands. Mangas Coloradas, a member of the Mimbreno band of the eastern Chihenne Apache, was born between 1790 and 1795, probably somewhere in what is now southern New Mexico (Etulain). His nomadic band inhabited the area of the Mimbres Mountains and along the Mimbres River. During that time period, the territory was part of the Janos district of New Spain. A low level of hostility between the Spanish and Apache characterized the early nineteenth century. Around 1831, however, this changed, and Mangas played a prominent role in the Apaches' attempts to drive the Spanish, and later, the Mexicans and Americans, from ancestral Apache lands.

Mills 2 In appearance, Mangas was very muscular and unusually tall for an Apache, over six feet. His most prominent feature was his large head with features that are described as having "a broad, bold forehead, a large aquiline nose, a most capacious mouth, and broad, heavy chin. His eyes were rather small, but exceedingly brilliant and flashing when under any excitement - although his outside demeanor was as imperturbable as brass (Cremony 21)." One legend has suggested that he was half-white, his father being an Apache warrior and his mother Mexican. The initial appearance of his name in historical documents occurred in 1842. In these parchments, it was documented that he was a Mogollon leader. It has been also been hypothesized that prior to 1842, he was addressed by another name. Numerous stories recant different origins of his name. Some believe may have received his Spanish name meaning "red sleeves" or "roan shirt" either because his shirt had sleeves of red fabric while others believe that his sleeves were covered in his victims' blood. The latter is greatly supported given Mangas' revenge for the murder of his predecessor, Juan Jose Compa, his 1837 (Etulain). Prior to this event, he may have been known as Fuerte, the dominant Chihenne leader from 1815 through the 1830s. Mangas and Fuerte seemed to be about the same age, and both were called by the title "general." However, it is recorded that Fuerte officially received his title, whereas Mangas formal title was still in question. In addition to sharing similar physical attributes, they seemed to share the practice of distancing themselves from Mexicans, taking what the administrators give to them, but keeping actual personal contact to a minimum (Etulain). Fuerte lived near the Mimbres River and

Mills 3 Santa Rita del Cobre where Mangas had his stronghold. Fuerte disappeared around 1840. Even so, many think that it is possible that up until 1840, Mangas was simply overshadowed by Fuerte and assumed power as his position weakened. Mangas reportedly became chief of the Mimbrenos about 1837. The Apache language was a difficult language to learn and speak. This was possibly one reason why Spanish names were often assigned to people and places, virtually none of the original Apache names are known (Worcester). The Spaniards intention was to convert the Apache into self-sufficient farmers. In order to ensure their success, they imposed regulations on the Apache that required passports for those who wished to travel in the territory and forbid traditional hunting and gathering without a permit. They rewarded loyal Apache allies with gifts of horses, or, in some cases, the return of incarcerated relatives (Worcester). Following the Mexicans independence from Spain in 1821, commerce was opened to the region from the outside; raiding became more profitable than farming. Many Apache left their farms and assumed very successful and lucrative roles of middlemen. They raided and traded, especially in horses, mules, and captives. One of those captives became Mangas Colorado's principal wife. While on a raid in Sonora, Mangas abducted a Mexican girl who he named Tuesseh; they had three daughters. When Dos-teh-seh, the eldest, came of age, Mangas presented her to Cochise, leader of the Chiricahua Apache, to wed. He gave his second daughter to Katuhala, leader of the White Mountain Apache, and the third to Cosito, chief of the Coyotero Apache. Mangas' intent with the marital arrangements was to forge

Mills 4 alliances and create stronger relationships within the tribes, including the Navajo, who were enemies of the Mexicans and the Spanish before them (Sweeney). Mangas was called a statesman because he actively shaped and conducted Apache policy with respect to the whites. These marriages show that he knew that the threat from the Mexicans and Americans was greater than any inter-tribal or inter-band dispute and that the only hope of overcoming that threat was to unify the bands and tribes. He was, for all practical purposes, the only Indian since Tecumseh to realize the value of unification (Sweeney). Despite this, however, his alliance with Cochise was the only one that was completely successful. The Spanish government and the Mexican government that succeeded it had customarily provided rations to the Apache. When the Mexican government discontinued this practice in 1831, strained relations between the Mexicans and Apaches caused the Indians to intensify their raids on towns and ranches (Worcester). The state of Chihuahua declared war on Apaches on October 16, 1831. Mangas' theater of operations in the early 1840s encompassed Chihuahua State and the Mogollon Mountains. By the 1850s, he expanded this to include Sonora State. Mexican officials put a bounty on his head in 1856. Raiding allowed the Apache people to maintain some semblance of their traditional livelihood that corresponded well with their nomadic nature. Atrocities against their victims were generally not part of their raids. In the case of Mangas, however, this changed radically as a result of two notable incidents that precipitated his hatred of all whites (Griffen). The first of these concerned John Johnson, an American who made his

Mills 5 living hunting Apaches. He traded the scalps of his victims to the Mexican government in exchange for a bounty. In April of 1837, Johnson, after befriending the Mimbreno head chief Juan Jose Compa, ambushed and massacred Juan Jose and about twenty members of his band near Santa Rita in the Sierra de las Animas which is now known as Hidalgo County, New Mexico (Griffen). Mangas retaliated by killing a group of twenty-two American miners as well as any other Americans he could find in the area. Interesting enough, when he met General Stephen Kearney in 1846, he pledged his friendship to the Americans and alliance if Kearney invaded Mexico. Kearney refused. The second incident, in April 1851, also occurred near Santa Rita. The influx of gold miners drove off game and mocked their spiritual traditions and that, in turn, angered the Apaches. Mangas offered to lead the miners to an area richer in gold than the mines at Santa Rita. Supposedly, it was so rich in gold that one could just pick large nuggets off the ground. Suspicious of him and wary of possible attempts at murder, the miners bound him to a tree and whipped him to near unconsciousness (Griffen). The beating was so humiliating that Mangas hid in the mountains for two weeks until he recovered. As a result of these experiences, Mangas' assaults against the whites became increasingly brutal and murderous. His infamous trademark was leaving the hats on the scalped heads of his victims (Griffen). Since whites wore hats and Apaches did not, Mangas ordered his men to shoot anyone wearing a hat. The hat would remain even when only bones were left, testifying to Mangas' killing of another enemy. In yet another surprising turn of events, Mangas and a group of chiefs signed a treaty with the U.S.

Mills 6 government in 1852 at Acoma Pueblo, but Congress refused to ratify it. Thus, the atrocities continued, and Colonel E. V. Sumner's official report for 1852 strongly recommended giving New Mexico back to the Indians and Mexicans. Mangas and Cochise joined forces in 1861 when several of Cochise's relatives were executed by Lieutenant George M. Bascom's Seventh Infantry. Mangas and Cochise intended to drive all Americans from their lands, but John Teal wounded Mangas in 1862 in the battle of Apache Pass in Arizona. He was taken to Janos, Chihuahua where his band coerced a doctor into treating him (Griffen). He made a full recovery. In January 1863, he was captured by Captain Edmond Shirland's First California Volunteer Cavalry. Lured into Shirland's camp by a flag of truce, Mangas trusted Shirland and rode in alone. He was taken to Fort McLean in Arizona where the guards killed him when he protested against the torture they inflicted on him with hot bayonets (Sharp). An inaccurate report of his capture and death stated he was killed while attempting escape. Now thoroughly convinced that the Americans could not be trusted, the Apaches began another campaign to eliminate the whites. Mangas' murder, in itself, had a profound effect on the Apache, but the mutilation of his body by the soldiershe was scalped and buried in a ditchfurther excited their rage (Sharp). Capt D. B. Sturgeon, fort surgeon, exhumed the body, had the head cut off, the meat boiled from the bones, and the skull sent to a phrenologist, Professor O. S. Fowler. Fowler pronounced it of greater capacity than Daniel Webster's. Despite his years of savage tactics, Mangas' principal aim was to obtain a lasting peace for his people, a goal for which he continually placed himself in harm's way. A

Mills 7 1970s survey of Chiricahua Apaches living in New Mexico and Oklahoma revealed that while many remembered the murder of Mangas Coloradas, comparatively few recalled Pearl Harbordespite the fact that radical changes had taken place in Chiricahua culture in the century since Mangas' death occurred. This statement alone can attest to Mangas Colorada influence. While there are people who see him as a killerwhich he washe is a hero to many others. To this day, his place as a hero in New Mexican history still remains controversial.

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Works Cited Cremony, John C. Life Among the Apaches. New Mexico: Rio Grande Press, 1970. Print. Etulain, Richard W. New Mexican Lives: A Biographical History. University of New Mexico Center: University of New Mexico Press, 2002. Print. Griffen, William B. Apaches at War and Peace: The Janos Presidio 1750-1858. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1988. Print. Sharp, Jay W. The Night They Shot Mangas Coloradas. Desert USA. Web. 4 Sep. 2011. http://www.desertusa.com/ind1/Colradas.html. Sweeney, Edwin R. Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches. University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. Print. Worcester, Donald E. The Apaches. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. Print.