Mescalero Indian Agency (New Mexico)

The Mescalero Agency is a currently operating agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Its supervising office is the Albuquerque Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Mescalero

Agents and Appointment Dates
Lorenzo Labadi 1861, Lt. A. G. Hennisee 1869, Robert S. Clark 1870, Andrew J. Curtis 11871, Samuel B. Bushnell 1873, William D. Crothers 1874, Frederick C. Godfroy 1876, John A. Broadhead 1878 and Samuel A. Russell 1878

Records
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value (for the tribe and tribal members) were created by and maintained by the agencies.

A few records for the Mescalero Agency are in the Rocky Mountain Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Denver.

The 1900 federal census included population schedules for the Mescalero Apache Indians in New Mexico. The Indians residing on this reservation in 1900 were under the jurisdiction of the Mescalero Indian Agency and are listed on Indian Population Schedules as District 178, Mescalero Apache Reservation, in Otero County, New Mexico.

Records Available Through the Family History Library
Annual Indian Census Rolls were taken at this agency for 1900 thru 1939. These rolls have been microfilmed by the National Archives as part of their Microcopy Number M595, rolls 196 thru 198. Copies of these records are also available at the National Archives, their Regional Archives, and at the Family History Library and its family history centers (their ). These census rolls are also available online at Ancestry.com's subscription web site.

Inventory of the Records of the Mescalero Indian Agency. by Robert Svenningsen. FHL Book: 970.1 Al#13