Mescalero Apache Schools (MAS), also known as Mescalero Apache School, is a tribal K-12 school in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Otero County, New Mexico Otero County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,797. Its county seat is Alamogordo. Its southern boundary is the Texas state line. It is named for Miguel Antonio Otero (born 1859), ...

, associated with the

Bureau of Indian Education The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C., and formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP), is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant S ...

(BIE). It is of the

Mescalero Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

tribe. It is outside of the

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

although it has a Mescalero post office address. In 2011 it had about 500 students.

History

In 1954 the tribe asked for the school to be placed in the Otero County school system. By 2009 there was an epidemic of suicides among young people on the reservation. By September 2009, Mescalero Apache School established a suicide crisis center. Additionally the

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

in 2010 gave the school $48,000 for suicide prevention programs.

Curriculum

Every student in elementary and middle school must take classes in the

Apache language Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The language is spoken to a ...

, and every high school student must take at least one year of Apache language classes. In the early 1990s the school introduced Apache language classes.

References

External links

Mescalero Apache Schools
Public elementary schools in New Mexico Public middle schools in New Mexico Public high schools in New Mexico Public K-12 schools in the United States Schools in Otero County, New Mexico Native American K-12 schools Mescalero Apache {{NewMexico-school-stub