People of the Mescalero

Edward Little Interview:

The next interview I will discuss is the interview of Edward Little. He is a Mescalero native who is 60 years old. He was born on the Mescalero reservation and has lived his entire life there. He is the only native who questions his actual heritage. He goes on to say that some of his family members were actually adopted so his actual lineage is unknown which has always been a hardship for him throughout his life. He recalls one passed down story of his grandpa when he describes the depression that struck the Mescalero reservation. He said that his grandfather was one of the great Mescalero leaders who held the tribe together during the food scarcity. His grandfather would help each family find food so that no more of his tribe would die of famine.

            One of his most interesting jobs on the reservation was that of a herder on a Cow Camp. It was his job to look after his family’s herd of cattle so they had plenty of meat to eat. He says that having that job at the ripe age of 12 was a difficult experience because his parents basically counted on him for a majority of their food

            Edward recalls his experience in education and said it wasn't very easy to acquire one. He went to Elementary school on the Mescalero Reservation but then had to find a place outside of the reservation to attend boarding school. He, as many other interview-ee’s, blame the government for not supporting native reservations and providing higher education for its inhabitants. He said he had to travel many miles away to attend middle school and high school. He said he would have pursued his education further if a college or place of higher education was around the reservation.

past.

http://www.chiricahua-apache.com/blog/photographs/white-tail-mescalero-apache-reservation-post-1913/

The link above gives great pictures of examples of children and adults from the Mescalero Apache reservation of White Tail in the early 1900's.