Where and what
Bosque Redondo is a place on the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico, near Fort Sumner. Spanish for “round grove”, the name referred to a stand of trees along the river. In the early 1860s the United States Army turned the area into a reservation and military post where it confined Native people from New Mexico. The Mescalero Apache were the first to be held there, and the Navajo, brought in much larger numbers, followed.
The Navajo experience, known as the Long Walk, is the better known part of the story, and it is a separate nation’s history. This article concerns the Mescalero people, whose time at Bosque Redondo was shorter but equally consequential.
The background
Before the 1860s the Mescalero lived mainly in the mountains and deserts of south-central New Mexico and adjoining parts of Texas and Mexico. As American settlers, miners and soldiers entered the region after 1848, and as Hispanic settlement continued, disputes over land, livestock and resources grew. Some of these led to violence on both sides. A treaty in 1852 between the United States and the Mescalero was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, so its promises did not become binding.
During the American Civil War, Confederate forces from Texas briefly entered New Mexico in 1861 and 1862, and Union troops were reorganised. In 1862 General James H. Carleton took command of the Union forces in New Mexico and set about a campaign against the Mescalero. Carleton’s policy has been widely criticised by historians as harsh. He wanted Mescalero people brought in and confined, and the army, together with New Mexico volunteer troops commanded by Kit Carson, pursued them in the Sacramento Mountains and elsewhere.
Confinement
In late 1862 and early 1863, many Mescalero people surrendered or were taken, some after losing relatives in the fighting. They were sent to the new post at Fort Sumner and the surrounding Bosque Redondo reservation. Sources differ on the number of Mescalero people held there, and estimates vary, so no figure is given here.
Conditions were hard. The site had limited firewood, water of poor quality, and difficult farming conditions. Crops were affected by drought and pests, and supplies were not always adequate. When the large Navajo population began arriving in 1864, the strain on resources increased sharply. The Mescalero and Navajo were separate peoples with different languages and histories, and the camp was crowded and tense. Disease was also a serious problem.
Departure in 1865
In November 1865, the Mescalero left Bosque Redondo, generally dated to that month. Many slipped away at night and returned to their mountain country. Army efforts to bring them back were limited, and soldiers did not recapture them in large numbers. The Navajo remained at Bosque Redondo until 1868, when a treaty allowed them to return to a portion of their homeland, an outcome that is part of Navajo history.
The departure is often described as an escape, and it was certainly a refusal to remain in a place of suffering. But it did not mean that the Mescalero’s problems were over. Their homeland remained contested, and for years the question of a secure reservation went unresolved.
Consequences
After 1865 the Mescalero lived in a precarious position. Some groups moved around the mountains and the plains, while others made arrangements near Fort Stanton, a military post in the area. Conflicts with settlers continued, and there was ongoing pressure from the federal government to concentrate Native people on reservations. Out of this came the establishment of a reservation for the Mescalero in the Sacramento Mountains area in 1873, generally dated to an executive order of that year. This is the origin of today’s Mescalero Apache Reservation, whose later history includes the arrival of Chiricahua and Lipan families, as covered in the article on the Mescalero Apache people.
Bosque Redondo has remained part of the memory of the Mescalero and Navajo nations. The site is now a state historic site, and the Navajo and Mescalero experiences there are interpreted differently by different communities. Anyone planning to learn more should consult the nations’ own sources, as well as the museum at the site.
A wider pattern
Bosque Redondo reflects the reservation system as it was imagined in the 1860s: concentrating Native people far from their homelands, often with insufficient food or shelter, and often with the goal of ending conflict by force. It is one of several episodes in the history of forced relocation experienced by Apache and other Native nations. The Mescalero case, however, shows both the harm of confinement and the persistence of people who chose to return home.
Caution about details
Accounts of this period come largely from army officers and government agents, who wrote with their own interests and assumptions. Mescalero oral history and later scholarship supply other perspectives. Where numbers, exact dates or the motives of individuals are uncertain, this article has avoided guessing.