THE MESCALERO APACHES
From the north they came, this much we know, and comparatively recently. About 600 years ago many tribes of Apaches slowly worked their way southward, following the game and gathering the wild plant food, eventually ranging over a great land area from the Pecos River on the east to the borders of the Papago country in southern Arizona on the west; from Colorado to northern Mexico, to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. The Apaches, members of the Athapascan linguistic family, were first recorded historically on the southern plains by the Spanish in 1540-41, who called them Querecho. However, it is entirely possible that Cabeza de Baca in 1534-35 encountered them. The Mescalero, Lipan, and Tuetenene (a hybrid of the former two) were living in this area at that time. They were first called Apaches in 1598 by Oñate.
The Mescalero Apaches ranged from the Rio Grande to the Staked Plains, and were closely allied with both the western Apache groups and tribes of the southern plains. The “Natohene” or “Natshene” (mescal people or water willow people), as they called themselves, were composed of three bands; the Kahoane, Ni’ahane, and Huskaane.
The Ni’ahane band lived in the Sacramento, Guadalupe, Sierra Blanca, and Capitan Mountains, an area that included what is now Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Their name means “people of the terraced mountains.” To the south of this band were the Tuetenene; and southeast of them, in the Big Bend country, lived the Lipan Apaches (a true Plains Indian group).
In order to avoid confusion between the various Apache tribes and bands to frequent the area of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the term Mescalero will be used. It should be pointed out that actually very little is known about this group, so the material presented is far from complete and is only general information.
Although of a war-like nature, the Mescaleros were never considered as dangerous as their brethren farther west. Yet, after acquiring horses from the Spanish, they raided and warred until about 1875, when subdued; and the Mescalero Reservation was established in the White Mountains northeast of the White Sands in New Mexico.
Culturally speaking, the Mescaleros, Lipans, and their hybrid, the Tuetenenes, were basically Plains with some western Apache traits common only to the Mescaleros.
The Painted Grotto, a highly painted Mescalero Apache ceremonial cave located in Slaughter Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico