60-year-old Mangas Colaradas, born and raised in Swansea, Wales, has lived as a Native American Indian for the last two decades, after divorcing his wife. He wears traditional Apache clothing and respects their beliefs, but lives in a three-bed suburban house.
Mangas, who was apparently once known as “Mr. Davies”, refuses to disclose his former name and only answers to his Indian one, adopted in honor of a great Apache tribe leader. Regardless of what others may think of him, the British Apache says he’s the real deal, and that he dresses and lives like an Indian all the time. “I dress like this all the time, I’m not just some weekend Indian. I don’t put it on to show off, I put it on because I want to wear it”, Mangas was quoted by This Is South Wales. The father of six divorced his wife during the 1990s and embraced the Apache Indian lifestyle. In 1997, he even traveled to the US and tried to live on a Red Indian reservation, but wasn’t allowed to by the American Government. He then moved to Spain where he live in a tepee, in the mountains and forests around Torremolinos. “I prefer being out in the wild, watching the wolves or bats or spiders going by”, Mangas says.
Photo: Wales News Service
Although he moved back to his home town and lives in a three-room house, Mangas Colaradas says this doesn’t affect his Indian lifestyle. He wears traditional Apache clothes and headgear and often paints his face, makes his own tomahawks, bows and arrows and runs snake shows in Swansea, not for money, but to educate people about animals. “I’ve cured thousands of people of their fear of snakes, I don’t believe in money, I just do it to educate people,” he says. The old Apache added that he has owned hundreds of snakes and that he gets on with animals better than most people, because he takes such good care of them. Once his cold-blooded pets die, he eats them, because “we Natives don’t believe in letting anything go to waste,” Mangas said.
Photo: Athena
It was his Apache way of life that got Mangas Colaradas in trouble with the law in the last two years. Last August he was charged under the Protection of Badgers Act and the Wildlife and Countryside Act, for keeping badger paws and eagle wings in his home, but he denied the accusations saying that animals come first to him, and that he would never hurt of kill them. But as an Indian, when he finds dead animals, he will eat it or use its body parts. After a year-long legal battle, the charges against Mangas have been dropped and all the confiscated animal relics will be returned to him. “Common sense should have come into it far sooner, but they just don’t understand my native way of life. It’s been a big waste of money and a dreadful thing to have hanging over me. But I was always confident I would clear my name,” the Swansea-based Apache said after hearing the verdict.
Photo: Orange News
“I’m against modern life, nobody cares about anybody else, nobody cares about mother earth. The whole point of the Native American lifestyle is that everyone believes in mother earth and treats others who you want to be treated,” Mangas tried to explain the reasons why he turned to the Native American beliefs and lifestyle. So the next time you’re in Swansea and see a face-covered, feather headdress-wearing Indian coming your way, don’t worry, it’s just a friendly local.
