Mescalero

Mescalero or Mescalero Apache (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Naa'dahéõdé ) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-central New Mexico.

In the 19th century, the Mescalero opened their reservation to other Apache bands, such as the Mimbreno (Chíhéõde, "Red Paint People," also known as Warm Springs Apaches) and the Chiricahua (Shá'i'á-õde or Chidikáágu), many of whom had been imprisoned in Florida. Some Lipan Apache (Tú 'édì-néõde and Tú ntsaa-õde) also joined the reservation. Their descendants are enrolled in the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

Originally established on May 27, 1873,[1] by executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant, the reservation was first located near Fort Stanton (Zhúuníidu). The present reservation was established in 1883. It has a land area of 1,862.463 km² (719.101 sq mi), almost entirely in Otero County. The 463,000-acre reservation lies on the eastern flank of the Sacramento Mountains and borders the Lincoln National Forest. A small, unpopulated section is in Lincoln County just southwest of Ruidoso (Tsé tághe' si'â-yá). U.S. Route 70 is the major highway through the reservation.

The tribe has an economy based largely on ranching and tourism. The mountains and foothills are forested with pines; resource and commercial development are managed carefully by the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council. The Mescalero Apache developed a cultural center near the tribal headquarters on U.S. Route 70 in the reservation's largest community of Mescalero. On display are tribal artifacts and important historical information. The tribe also operates another, larger museum on the western flank of the Sacramento Mountains in Dog Canyon, south of Alamogordo (T'iis ntsaadz-í 'úú'á).

The tribe developed and owns the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino (IMG) within Lincoln National Forest. As part of the IMG operation, the tribe also owns and manages Ski Apache under contract as a concession with the US Forest Service. It is the southernmost major ski area in North America. In January 2012, Ski Apache celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The ski area is situated adjacent to the massive peak of Sierra Blanca (Dziãgais'â-ní = "sacred mountain") a 12,003-foot (3,659 m) mountain.[2] It is the southernmost alpine peak in the continental United States, and is part of the Sacramento Mountains. Using the EPA's Level III Ecoregion System, derived from Omernik, this mountain is included in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains, which are south of the Southern Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico.[3] Sierra Blanca Peak, located on the reservation, is sacred ground for the Mescalero Apache Tribe. They do not allow access without a permit.

The Mescalero Apache Tribe holds elections for the office of president every two years. The eight tribal council members also are elected for two years. Election for the council is held every year, when one half of the members are up for re-election. The reservation had a population of 3,156 according to the 2000 census.

In 1959, the tribe elected Virginia Klinekole as its first woman president.[4] She later was elected to the tribal council, serving on it until 1986.[5] The tribe repeatedly re-elected Wendell Chino as president; he served a total of 43 years, until his death on November 4, 1998.

Soon after Chino's death, the late Sara Misquez was elected as president. Chino's son, Mark Chino, also has been elected and served as president.

New officers have served in the 21st century. On January 11, 2008, Carleton Naiche-Palmer was sworn in as the new president of the Mescalero Apache tribe.[6] From 2014 to 2018, Danny Breuninger was president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe. Arthur “Butch” Blazer resigned as president in late 2019, having served in the office of president from January 2018. Gabe Aguilar was sworn in as President to complete the Blazer tenure in October 2019. In November, Gabe Aguilar beat former President Mark Chino in election and now holds the Office of president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe (2020-2022 term) Mr. Aguilar previously served two terms as vice president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe since 2014.

The Mescalero language is a Southern Athabaskan language which is a subfamily of the Athabaskan and Dené–Yeniseian families. Mescalero is part of the southwestern branch of this subfamily; it is very closely related to Chiricahua, and more distantly related to Western Apache. These are considered the three dialects of Apachean. Although Navajo is a related Southern Athabaskan language, its language and culture are considered distinct from those of the Apache.

The Mescalero Apache were primarily a nomadic mountain people. They traveled east on the arid plains to hunt the buffalo and south into the desert for gathering Mescal Agave. Spanish colonists associated them with this plant and named them Mescalero Apache. The Mescalero Apache, along with the other Apache groups, lived by traditional hunting and gathering. If conditions were poor, they raided other tribes, and Spanish, Mexican and American settlers to survive.

The Mescalero Apache relied on hunting and gathering for subsistence. Men led the hunting parties for buffalo, antelope, and deer. Women accompanied men and dressed the meat and skins and would also participate in the hunting of small game such as rabbits.[7] Women would gather Mescal Agave in groups of 4-10 people, mainly consisting of female friends and family members and usually several men.[8] Men would also take an active role in the processing of mescal.[9]

Family descent was matrilineal, but men's heritage would be remembered especially if there was a famous warrior in his lineage.[10] Extended families consisted of grandparents, unmarried children, and their remarried daughters' nuclear families.[7] The Mescalero also practiced matrilocal residence patterns.[7] When a woman married, the couple would move into a new tipi or wickiup close to her parent's home.[7]

The Mescalero's autonym, or name for themselves, is Shis-Inday ("People of the Mountain Forests") or Mashgalénde / Mashgalé-neí / Mashgalé-õde ("People close to the mountains" or "Mescalero Apache People").[11] The Navajo (in Mescalero: 'Indaa bixú-õde, modern name: Chushta 'íízha-õde), another Athabascan-speaking tribe, call the Mescalero Naashgalí Dineʼé.[12] Like other Apache peoples they often identify simply as Inday / Indee / Ndé / Nndé-í / Nndé-ne / Nndé-õne ("The People", "Apaches"). Neighboring Apache bands called the Mescalero Nadahéndé ("People of the Mescal"), because the mescal agave (Agave parryi) was a staple food source for them. In times of need and hunger, they depended on stored mescal for survival. They adopted and call identify today also as Naa'dahéõdé ("The People of the Mescal"). Since 1550 Spanish colonists referred to them as the Mescalero.

Mescalero Apache bands were often referred to by European colonists and settlers by different names, some related to their geographic territory. They were recorded in documents by a wide number of names: Apaches de Cuartelejo, Apaches del Río Grande, Apachi, Faraones, Mezcaleros, Natage (more correctly, one of the Lipan Apache subdivisions, along with the Nahizan), Natahene, Querechos, Teyas, Tularosa Apaches, and Vaqueros. They were also distinguished as Sierra Blanca Apaches, Sacramento Mountains Apaches, Guadalupe Mountains Apaches, Limpia Mountains Apaches. according to their homelands in northern or southern Mescalero territory.

Originally the different Mescalero bands and local groups ranged in an area between the Rio Grande (Tú 'ichii-dí - "the water that is the color of red ocher") in the west and the eastern and southern edge of the Llano Estacado and the southern Texas Panhandle in Texas in the east; from present-day Santa Fe (Yuutu') in the northwest and the Texas Panhandle in the northeast, down to the Big Bend of Texas and what became the Mexican provinces of Chihuahua and Coahuila to the south. The diverse landscape of this area has high mountains up to 12,000 feet, as well as watered and sheltered valleys, surrounded by arid semi-deserts and deserts, deep canyons and open plains. The Mescalero Apache Reservation is located at geographical coordinates 33°10′42″N 105°36′44″W  /  33.17833°N 105.61222°W  / 33.17833; -105.61222 . Mescalero identity is filled with legends of the past. For instance, four mountains represent the direction of everyday life for the Mescalero Apache people: those being (1) Sierra Blanca Peak (White Peak), (2) El Capitan within the Guadalupe Mountains, (3) Three Sisters Mountain (Las Tres Hermanas) and (4) Oscura Mountain Peak (sometimes the Salinas Peak within the San Andres Mountains is listed as the fourth sacred mountain instead of the Oscuru Mountain Peak).[13] Moreover, their forefathers spoke of a creator giving them life on White Mountain. It was there that White Painted Woman gave birth to two sons, Child of Water and Killer of Enemies

Since each band of Mescalero had the right to use the resources of deer and plants of the neighboring groups, the different bands felt at home in any area of their wide tribal territory. The Mescalero or Mashgalé-õde bands often ranged widely for hunting, gathering, warring and raiding. They called their home Indeislun Nakah ("people, forming a group, when they are there," "place where people get together") or today Mashgalé-ne bikéyaa ("Mescalero Apache Country"; "Mescalero Apache Homelands").[14] When many Mescalero bands were displaced by the enemy Comanche ('Indaa tse'-éõde or Indassene; modern name: Gumáõchí-í)[15] from the Southern Plains in northern and central Texas between 1700–1750, they took refuge in the mountains of New Mexico, western Texas, and Coahuila and Chihuahua in Mexico. Some southern Mescalero bands, together with Lipan, lived in the Bolsón de Mapimí, moving between the Nazas River, the Conchos River and the Rio Grande to the north.

The Mescalero were divided into some regional bands, which were known to the Spanish/Mexican ('indantûhé-õde) and later Americans ('indaa ãiga-õne bindáa-í datã'ij-í - "white [enemy] people with blue eyes" or 'indáá-õne - "white people"; "[white] enemies"; modern name: nndé bindáa datã'ijé-õne - "white people"; lit. "blue-eyed people") by different names (most were transliterations or renderings of the bands Apache name).[16]

The Natahéndé had had a considerable influence on the decision-making of some bands of the Western Lipan in the 18th century, especially on the Tindi Ndé, Tcha shka-ózhäye, Tú é diné Ndé and Tú sis Ndé. To fight their common enemy, the Comanche, and to protect the northeastern and eastern border of the Apacheria against the Comancheria, the Mescalero (Natahéndé and Guhlkahéndé) on the Plains joined forces with their Lipan kin (Cuelcahen Ndé, Te'l kóndahä, Ndáwe qóhä and Shá i`a Nde) to the east and south of them.

In August 1912, by an act of the U.S. Congress, the surviving members of the Chiricahua tribe were released from their prisoner-of-war status. They were given the choice to remain at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where they had been imprisoned since 1894, or to relocate to the Mescalero Apache reservation. One hundred and eighty-three elected to go to New Mexico, while seventy-eight remained in Oklahoma.[18] Their descendants still reside in both places.

[citation needed ]

Northern Mescalero

Southern Mescalero

Eastern Mescalero / Plains Mescalero

Mescalero Apache Schools is the tribal school.