Settlement Patterns on the Mescalero Apache Reservation since 1883

Abstract

After a century of federal efforts to alter Mescalero Apache culture, settlement patterns on the reservation continue to display the precontact heritage. Retention of traditional patterns resulted from selective adoption of federal policy, development of a vigorous tribal political structure, and assistance from sympathetic federal Indian agents. Five eras of federal policy since 1883 are the framework to identify and analyze the geographical elements in the settlement patterns. Cultural adaptation and persistence are evident in the contemporary landscape inhabited by the Mescalero Apache. THE cultural landscapes of American Indian groups have undergone diverse changes since European contact with North America. These landscapes, formerly created by direct interaction between native groups and the physical environment, have been greatly influenced by the filter of the dominant Euro-American culture. The United States government has been the primary agent in re-creating Indian-land relationships as a means of assimilating Indians into the dominant culture and of expanding the nonIndian land base. Some native groups, unable or unwilling to respond to federal pressure, suffered total disruption of their indigenous land relationships. Other groups successfully adapted to federal policies to preserve traditional land occupation, settlement, and resource-use patterns similar to those in the precontact period. Current federal Indian policy emphasizes American Indian leadership with regard to reservation landuse and landscape modification. The research presented here focuses on the persistence of precontact eastern-Apache settlement patterns on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico as an indicator of cultural adaptation and reassertion of Apache culture on the Southwest landscape (Fig. 1). Settlement patterns on the reservation are examined during five radical shifts in federal Indian policy since the mid-nineteenth century, and the factors that have permitted retention of eastern-Apache settlement patterns are identified. Evidence of change was provided by archival and field research. Library sources, historical maps, United States Department of the Interior records, field mapping, and interviews were other sources of data to validate historical and modern settlement patterns. To measure eastern-Apache adaptation since 1883, these data were correlated with five distinct eras of federal Indian policy. TRADITIONAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS The location and the pattern of settlement prior to contact with westwardadvancing Americans are keys to eastern-Apache culture retention. The pre* DR. HENDERSON is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minnesota 55812-1496. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.231 on Thu, 06 Oct 2016 04:39:57 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms MESCALERO APACHE RESERVATION 227