Gorgonia, Mescalero Medicine Man - This article is about the Native American tribe, for other uses of the word see Mescalero (disambiguation)
Mescalero (or Mescalero Apache) is a Native American tribe of Southern Athabaskan stock currently living on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico where they live with other Chiricahua and Lipan Apaches. The Reorganization Act of 1936 consolidated the tribes onto this reservation, which currently has an Apache population of 4000 [1]. The population is integrated with the rest of Lincoln county, which includes ranching and tourism as major sources of income.
US Highway 70 is the major highway through this reservation, which lies on the eastern flank of the Sacramento mountains (see photo below). The mountains and foothills are forested with pines, and commercial development is restricted. However, the reservation itself has invested, for example, in a ski resort,now called Ski Apache, on a 12,000 foot mountain, Sierra Blanca, and a hotel in its shadow, the Inn of the Mountain Gods. An artifical lake is on the grounds. Sierra Blanca itself is sacred ground for the Apache.
A cultural center near the tribal headquarters on US 70 contains some historical information. Another museum on the western flank of the Sacramento mountains, in Dog Canyon, south of Alamogordo, New Mexico also contains more information.
The Mescalero language is an Apachean or Southern Athabaskan language which is a subfamily of the Athabaskan and Na-Dené families. Mescalero lies on the southwestern branch of this subfamily and is very closely related to Chiricahua and more distantly related to Navajo and Western Apache.
Notes
[1] New York Times, Feb 6, 2005, section 5, pp7,14.
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