Mescalero (or Mescalero Apache) is a Native American tribe of Southern Athabaskan heritage currently living on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in southcentral New Mexico. The Mescaleros opened their doors to other Apache bands, the Chiricahua who were imprisoned at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and the Lipan Apaches . The Reorganization Act of 1936 consolidated the tribes onto the reservation.
The reservation
. The countryside of the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation is little changed from time of the photograph.]]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 is 1,862.463 km² (719.101 sq mi), almost entirely in Otero County, but there is a tiny unpopulated section which spills over into Lincoln County just southwest of the neighboring city of Ruidoso. It had a 2000 census population of 3,156.Ranching and tourism are major