Many of the Western Indian tribes who engaged in warfare with white civilians and soldiers were led by chiefs whose names remain familiar to most Americans.

Examples are Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull of the Lakota, Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé, the Apaches’ Cochise and Geronimo and the half-Comanche war leader Quanah Parker.

Strangely though, the Navajos, despite a long history of warring with their neighbors, never fielded a leader who captured the imagination of the public in the 20th century. Perhaps it was because no Individual Navajo ever attracted the attention of Hollywood filmmakers.

Among the numerous able headmen of the tribe in the 19th century, Manuelito stands out, at least in the eyes of Indians. He was born about 1819 in southeastern Utah, but his main theater of hostile activity was in Western New Mexico.

He first shows up on the radar screen of history in November 1846. Manuelito attended a council along with 15 other Navajo leaders who had been summoned to Bear Springs, west of the future town of Grants.

There they met Col. Alexander Doniphan, a member of the American army that had seized control of New Mexico less than three months earlier. Doniphan offered a fairly simple treaty establishing peace and friendly trade with the Navajos.

Zarcillos Largos spoke for all the Indian leaders, accepting the treaty. Then each one, including Manuelito, put his mark on the paper. That became the first of a series of similar agreements struck over the next 15 years, all of them failing to prevent conflict.

In 1853, David Meriwether won appointment as the new territorial governor at Santa Fe, and Henry Dodge was appointed Indian agent for the Navajos.

Dodge developed a strong liking for the tribe and even married a young woman who was related to the senior chief, Largos. That gave Dodge considerable influence over his charges and resulted in a lull in their raiding upon Rio Grande settlements.

Therefore, the agent convinced Meriwether to hold a new council with the Navajos and negotiate a peace treaty that might prove lasting.

The gathering was set for mid July 1855 at Laguna Negra, some two dozen miles north of Fort Defiance, then within New Mexico, but now inside Arizona. Two thousand Indians rode in for the powwow.

Meriwether, arriving with a small escort, was delighted with the turnout that included all but one of the tribe’s headmen.

Largos, however, threw him a curve when he informed the governor that owing to advanced age, he was resigning as leader of the Navajos.

Meriwether worried that Largos’ replacement might not be as amenable to a treaty. But that concern was unfounded.

Tribal elders hastily convened and selected 57-year-old Manuelito to head their nation. As the governor read his proposed treaty to the crowd, Manuelito argued over several points. His strongest objection was to the narrow boundaries of a reservation proposed by Meriwether that left out the Navajos’ sacred peak, Mount Taylor (near Grants).

Manuelito and the other leaders went ahead and approved the treaty. But to no avail since the U.S. Congress rejected it.

During the following years, Manuelito became increasingly belligerent and had numerous confrontations with troops at Fort Defiance.

On April 30, 1860, a force of 1,000 Navajos attacked the fort but was repulsed. Manuelito is said to have taken part in the assault, although his exact role remains unclear.

Hopes for peace had long since faded. Dodge’s calming influence was lost when he was slain by Apaches. Afterward, Largos, also a peace advocate, died in a Zuni ambush.

All-out war began in 1865, initiated by the U.S. government with the intention of removing the Navajos to a new reservation at Bosque Redondo on the Pecos River.

Manuelito led his own band in flight and managed to evade capture for three years. Then, with 50 starving followers, he surrendered in 1866 at Fort Wingate, east of Gallup.

They were taken to Bosque Redondo and held there for two years before being returned with the rest of the tribe to their old homeland.

By 1870, Manuelito had regained his position as head chief and then was given command of the Navajo police force. In America’s centennial year, 1876, he traveled to Washington with a delegation to meet President Grant.

Manuelito died in 1893. In his last years, he had fallen victim to todolhil, Navajo for the white man’s “whiskey disease.”

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.