Mescalero Apache Band Organization and Leadership

Abstract

Among the Mescalero Apache of the mid-19th century, small groups ("bands") centered on leaders constituted the basic integrative elements of the society at the political level. Mescalero were highly mobile equestrian hunters, gatherers, and predators who utilized the resources of an extensive region in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Unrestricted freedom of access to strategic resources linked individuals and bands in a maximally solidary tribal economic entity. Bands were multifunctional, non-localized, decision making units; although they included a kin-based nucleus, their variable composition reflected the options with respect to group affiliation available to Mescalero. In this non-centralized polity, with its individualistic and egalitarian emphases, the strategic significance attributed to the leader seems paradoxical, particularly since the position lacked means of coercive control. However, as the only effective groups above the domestic level, bands performed critical functions, especially in the spheres of subsistence and defense. The leader was the fixed reference point about which band members oriented themselves and, more importantly, was a catalyst in decision making processes and the major factor in regulating the adaptive responses of the band to internal and external problems.