Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation

Area set aside for the Mescalero Apache people in south-central New Mexico. The reservation covers 1,862 sq km/719 sq mi, and has a total population (1990) of 2,700 (93% American Indian). Located northeast of Alamogordo and between two units of the Lincoln National Forest, it has its headquarters at the unimcorporated town of Mescalero, in Otero County; population (1990) 1,200.

The residents of the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation run a number of successful businesses, which include lumbering, cattle ranching, managing the well-known ‘Ski Apache’ resort in the Sierra Blanca, and other recreational and tourist operations. Their interest in storing nuclear waste here created controversy in the mid-1990s. Just to the north of the reservation lies the town of Ruidoso, while the resort centre of is Cloudcroft immediately south.