The history of the Eastern Apache tribe called the Mescaleros is one of hardship and oppression altering with wars of revenge. They were friendly to the Spaniard until victimized by them. They were also friendly to the white man until they were betrayed again. For three hundred years they fought the Spaniards and Mexicans. For forty more they fought the white men, before subsiding into a long period of lethargy and discouragement. Only since 1930 have they made real progress. In the early days their principal range was between the Rio Grande and the Pecos rivers in New Mexico, but it extended also into the Staked Plains and southward into Mexico. They moved about freely, wintering on the Rio Grande or farther south, ranging the buffalo plains in the summer, following the sun and the food supply. They owned nothing and everything. Now they are in a precarious economic condition, they are recognized as American citizens and still own their reservation in the Tularosa country of New Mexico. Their children are beginning to go away to college and prepare themselves for leadership, and while in many ways they have not bridged the gap between their old life and the new, they have made amazing progress. Their story is told from the earliest records to the present day, from the Indian's point of view. Cruel and revengeful as this tribe was at times, they always had more than sufficient provocation, and a catalog of the sins committed against them is revealing, even appalling, to the white reader. (Author/NEC)