Mescalero - Bands

Bands

• Natahéndé / Nadahéndé (Spanish rendering as Natages, spelled Na-ta-hay, "Mescal People"; lived between Rio Grande and Pecos River in central New Mexico, with local groups wandering on the southern and western edge of the Llano Estacado onto the southern Texas Panhandle)
• Guhlkahéndé / Guułgahénde (Spanish rendering as Cuelcajenne, "People of the Plains"; lived east of the mountains and the Pecos River, on the High Plains from the Texas Panhandle to the Pecos Valley, between Amarillo, Tucumcari, Lubbock and the Llano Estacado, along the Sandia and Tijeras Mountains westward to Santa Fe, from Nogal Canyon to the north to Las Vegas, from the Organ Mountains eastwards to El Paso. In Oklahoma (Indian Territory) they developed kinship ties by marriage with the Comanche.)
• Dzithinahndé / Tsilnihéndé (Spanish rendering as Chilpaines, "Mountain Ridge Band People", lived in the mountains west and south of the Pecos River, extending in northern Chihuahua and Coahuila of present-day Mexico.)
• Ch'laandé / Tslahahéndé ("Antelope Band People"; lived west of the Pecos west to the Rio Grande in the mountains of central and south New Mexico and the Tularosa Basin.)
• Nit'ahéndé / Niit’ahénde ("People Who Live Against the Mountains", "Earth Crevine (Deer) People"; lived in the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico and the Guadalupe Mountains in western Texas.)
• Tsehitcihéndé ("People of Hook Nose", several bands, who lived in the Guadalupe Mountains, the adjacent Plains of Texas and in northern Coahuila and Chihuahua of Mexico.)
• Tsebekinéndé ("Rock House People", often called by Spanish and Americans Aguas Nuevas or Norteños, have had their center around Nuevo Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, migrating north toward the Sacramento Mountains and south to Agua Nueva 60 miles north of Chihuahua City, also on both sides of the Rio Grande between El Paso and Ojinaga, Chihuahua; some local groups lived in the Guadalupe and Limpia Mountains)
• Tahuundé / Tá'huú'ndé ("Mountains Extending into the River People", lived on both sides of the Pecos River in southern New Mexico and into southwestern Texas)
• Tuintsundé / Túntsande ("Big Water People", once the Tú sis Ndé band of the Lipan Apache, who lived in southcentral Texas and in northern Coahuila, camping with several bands of the Mescalero together on the Plains for hunting and raiding; they merged with the Mescalero, forming a Mescalero band)
• Tuetinini / Tú’é’dinénde ("No Water People", "Tough People of the Desert", once the Tú é diné Ndé band of the Lipan Apache, who had territory in northern Coahuila and Chihuahua, and eventually merged with some southern Mescalero bands)

The Natahéndé had had a considerable influence on the decision-making of some bands of the Western Lipan in the 18th century, especially on the Tindi Ndé, Tcha shka-ózhäye, Tú é diné Ndé and Tú sis Ndé. To fight their common enemy, the Comanche, and to protect the northeastern and eastern border of the Apacheria against the Comancheria, the Mescalero (Natahéndé and Guhlkahéndé) on the Plains joined forces with their Lipan kin (Cuelcahen Ndé, Te'l kóndahä, Ndáwe qóhä and Shá i`a Nde) to the east and south of them.

In August 1912, by an act of the U.S. Congress, the surviving members of the Chiricahua tribe were released from their prisoner of war status. They were given the choice to remain at Fort Sill or to relocate to the Mescalero reservation. One hundred and eighty-three elected to go to New Mexico, while seventy-eight remained in Oklahoma. Their descendants still reside in both places.