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.

Actual physical evidence left by the Mescalero Apaches in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is scant. Their most prominent calling card is found in a small cave in West Slaughter Canyon. About 4½ miles from the mouth of the canyon, some 65 feet above the dry stream bed, is the “Painted Grotto.” This little cave is approximately 57 feet across the front, 21 feet at the deepest point, and the ceiling slopes from 16 feet at the front to about 6 feet at the back. On the walls and ceiling are several hundred multicolored pictographs, all painted with earth ground ochers in red, yellow, white, golden yellow, and shades of pink. Caves of this type were used as shrines or media for ceremonies or religious dances, incantations, etc., and are considered very sacred. This bit of evidence definitely establishes the Mescalero on the Park proper, and a legend handed down to the Modern Apaches indicated that they knew of the main Caverns entrance as well. This legend tells of a medicine man who went into the cave to make “big medicine.” Supposedly, he was last seen wandering away from the entrance, beating his tom-tom; and yearly, on the anniversary of this exploit, the Apaches would come to the entrance to leave offerings of food for him.

The Mescaleros were attracted to the Guadalupe Mountains area due to the abundance of plant and animal life and the many springs found here. The cooking of their favorite food, the mescal, arouses some curiosity. Found throughout the region are remains of the Carlsbad Basketmakers’ midden circles previously mentioned. In remote instances perhaps the Apaches cooked in these so-called “mescal pits.” Quite likely though, they cooked on the surface without the aid of a pit. Today, in many places along the ridges, can be seen spaces of ground, devoid of vegetation, covered with rocks which have obviously been broken from fire. The Chiricahua Apaches to the west tell of a method of baking mescal without digging a pit. Rocks are heated and scattered on the level ground; the mescal crowns are put on them, and fresh grass and dirt are piled over all. This “oven” has the appearance of a mound when in use; but after the mescal is removed, and time has elapsed, it would appear to be simply a space of barren ground covered with burnt stones.

To the north of the Guadalupe Mountains is found evidence of true Apache mescal pits, and they are just that, a pit dug into the ground. The pit is dug round, about 7 feet across and from 3 to 4 feet deep. “The method of using these pits is as follows: great fires are first kindled in them, after which, heated stones are thrown in; on these stones are laid, agave leaves, sometimes to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. Fire is kindled over this accumulation and by action of the heat below and above, the leaves are roasted without being burnt.” (Fewkes) Other plants and meats were also cooked in this type oven, and many families could and did cook in one pit at the same time by marking their food in some manner. From 24 to 36 hours were required to cook the mescal heart. Mescal heads baked in this manner are somewhat like candied sweet potatoes.

Occasionally the Mescaleros farmed. Most farming was done to the north of the Park; but Rattlesnake Springs, (source of the Park’s water supply), about 7 miles south of the Caverns entrance, is said to have been an Apache campsite, and possibly some farming was done there.

The Mescalero Apaches show a curious mixture of culture traits, both plains and western Apache. Following is a brief summary of some of these that may be of interest.

They were great stalkers of game and frequently employed the use of animal mask decoys, driving, game calls, and the running down or wearing out of game. They smoked or flooded rodents from their dens, set snares of rope for game, and hunted from blinds or pits. Communal hunting was supervised by a hunt master; and game, such as rabbits, peccary, and buffalo were surrounded by people in a circle and clubbed, shot or driven to hidden hunters, lassoed or run over a cliff or bank. Dogs were used for hunting as well as for watch dogs and pets.

Religious ceremony was practiced before, during, and after the hunt. Prayers, songs, tobacco, pollen, and meat were offered to the hunt deity; and an amulet for good hunting was worn.

The Mescalero did not, as a rule, eat wildcat, wolf, coyote or turkey vultures. Dogs, hawks, turkeys and eagles were kept as pets. They were never eaten and were buried at death. Sometimes plucked eagles were released alive. Tortoise, turtles, and fish were eaten.

Hardwood digging sticks were used for gathering bulbs, roots, etc., and a special stone knife was used for cutting mescal. Seeds were collected on a blanket and carried in a skin bag. Acorns were boiled like beans, parched (never leached), shelled and ground on a metate or stone mortar and stored in a skin bag. The meal was eaten with meat stew. Mesquite and screwbean mesquite pods were pounded either in stone or hide mortars; and the seeds were thrown away, and the pod flour was soaked or boiled and the juice drunk, eaten as mush, or stored in cake form.

Mescal heads were pit-roasted as mentioned; a buffalo shoulder-blade was used as a shovel to scoop coals over the pit. The fire was usually lit by a lucky person. The cooked head and leaf bases were pounded and dried on frames and stored dry. Syrup was made from the flowers and the stalk above the head was eaten.

Yucca fruit was eaten either cooked on coals or dried, and the root stalk was used for soap. This pertained to practically all of the yucca family. Most cacti fruit and some of the pulp was eaten.

Pinon seeds were gathered and eaten raw, roasted or mashed into a butter. Pinon pitch was chewed as gum. Walnuts, wild plums, cherries, grass seeds, etc., tule and some greens (cooked) were used. Fruit juices, mescal, mesquite, and sotol juices were drunk either fresh, or boiled and fermented. In later years a maize wine was made. Salt and honey were gathered and used.

Meat was sliced, dried and made into pemmican; bone marrow extracted; blood boiled in paunch and sausages were made in gut. Meat food was stored either in skin bag, parfleche or pot.

Little agriculture was practiced. Irrigation with ditches from streams was known. Farming was confined to the sandy soil in the stream bottom land. All farming was a man’s job except the harvest when women helped. A two-handed planting stick was used. Corn was eaten green, roasted or dried and shelled by women. Two varieties of beans, pumpkins, squash and gourds were grown. Gourds were used as canteens, dishes and spoons.

Mescal harvest camps were sometimes set up in small caves, but tipis or thatched wickiups were the permanent houses. Tipis were three-pole foundation, buffalo hide with ventilator flaps, faced east or downwind, and had a fireplace and smoke-hole in the center. They were pegged to the ground, had a covered door, and a dew-cloth inner liner. When moved, they were carried on a travois or drag with horse.

Temporary lean-tos, shades, windbreaks, domed sweat houses, log rafts and log bridges were built and used. Swimming was done only when necessary, or when water was available.

Grass and agave hair brushes were made. Horn, wood and shell were used as containers. Knives, awls, and needles were made from stone and bone. Wood was worked with stone hammers, mauls, axes and fire. Stone was flaked, ground and polished. Fire was made by stone or a pump drill.

Bows were made of mulberry, oak, juniper, walnut and other woods. Bow strings were made of sinew and vegetable fiber. Arrows of willow and other woods—points were stone. Mescalero arrow points were supposedly stemmed base, or the base was side notched. These types of projectile points are common to the Carlsbad Basketmakers, too; so it is impossible to differentiate the two when found. Undoubtedly, those found on the Park fit into both cultures. Arrows were feathered with three feathers from the eagle, hawk, turkey and crow; and arrows were carried in an open-skinned, sewn quiver of deerskin, mountain lion or wildcat. They were carried on the back, under the arm, or on the belt.

Spears, shields, warbonnets (short, Plains type), armour of hide and clubs were used in battle. Rabbitsticks of wood and slingshots were also used.

Beads and ornaments were of shell, bone, wood, feathers, seeds, claws and hooves, bear ears, turquoise, red stone, cannel coal (jet), and porcupine quills. Paint from mineral and vegetable sources was used for decorating objects or the body, which was painted primarily to prevent sunburn.

The hair was worn full length by both men and women, but beard and eyebrows were plucked completely with fingers or tweezers of willowwood. During periods of mourning, hair was cropped with a stone knife, sometimes to about the level of the chin by women. Hair was worn loose, tied in a bunch or with headband, in braids and decorated with pendants, feathers, flowers, etc.

Ear lobes of children were pierced with a snakeweed stem, and nose straightening was practiced on babies if nose was too broad. There was no cradle deformation of the head known among the Mescaleros.

Tattooing of the face and arms by these people was quite an ancient practice, and was performed with cactus spines and black mineral pigment only, not charcoal as other tribes might use.

Clothing consisted of fur caps, robes, shawls, ponchos, and capes of animal skin with the hair either on or off the hide, and woven vegetable fibers. Highly painted and fringed buckskin-sleeved shirts were worn by the men. The women wore buckskin gowns or dresses, painted and fringed. Buckskin belts held up a skin wrapped around the waist to serve as a kilt for the men, or skirts of buckskin for the women. Hard-soled moccasins were worn by both sexes, while only the men wore a hip-length buckskin leggin. Hide overshoes were used in winter.

The winter bed was usually composed of a grass and hide mattress with hide coverings, whereas the summer bed was a willow rack or mat with a rawhide twining bedstead supported by four forked posts covered with skins (Plains type).

Burdens were transported with the aid of a tump line back pack or other slings, baskets, gourds, pottery, rawhide or leather bags or containers and horse travois. Baskets (water-proofed with pitch), mats, cradles, cordage of vegetable and animal materials, including hair and pottery, were manufactured by both men and women.

A variety of games were played by all, including foot racing, shinny, hoop and pole, etc. Gambling by adults was done with a hand game of guessing with bones, moccasin game, drawing straws, dice, and heads or tails with flat stones (wet or dry). The children played games of war, wrestled, and had toys of guns, dolls, stones, etc.

Tobacco was gathered and smoked in an elbow pipe. Both tobacco and pipe were kept in a buckskin bag which was usually highly decorated.

The people assembled at the Chief’s dwelling or in an open space. Unlike most Plains tribes, the Mescaleros did not carry a medicine bundle but carried “medicine” inside themselves.

For music and ceremony there were rattles of gourds or horn, drums of pottery and wood, a musical bow, whistles and flutes.