Portal:Indigenous peoples of North America/Selected Biography/July
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Mangas Coloradas or Dasoda-hae (Red Sleeves), 1793?-1863 was a famous Apache chief, a member of the Eastern Chiricahuas, whose homeland stretched west from the Rio Grande to include most of what is present-day southwestern New Mexico. Considered by many to be the most important Apache leader of the 19th century, he united the Apache nation against the United States.
In the 1820s and 1830s, the Apaches' chief enemy was the Mexicans, who had gained their independence from Spain in 1821. By 1835 Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps. When Juan Jose Compas, the leader of the Mimbreno Apaches, was killed for bounty money in 1837, Mangas became principal chief and war leader and began a series of retaliatory raids against the Mexicans.
