Mescalero Apache

Mescalero Apache

Mescalero Apache Tribal Administrative Offices and Community Center in Mescalero, New Mexico
Total population
3,156
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Mescalero, English, Spanish
Religion
Indigenous Religion, mescalero
Related ethnic groups
Western Apache, San Carlos Apache, White Mountain Apache, Navajo

Mescalero or Mescalero Apache is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan 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 nineteenth century, the Mescalero opened their reservation to other Apache bands, such as the Mimbreno and the Chiricahua, many of whom had been imprisoned in Florida. The Lipan Apache also joined the reservation. Their descendants are enrolled in the Mescalero Apache Tribe.

Originally established on May 27, 1873, by Executive Order of President Ulysses S. Grant, the reservation was first located near Fort Stanton. 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 the city of Ruidoso. 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 is 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.