Mimbreños (Spanish: ‘people of the willows’). A branch of the Apache who took their popular name from the Mimbres mountains, southwest New Mexico, but who roamed over the country from the east side of the Rio Grande in New Mexico to San Francisco River in Arizona, a favorite haunt being near Lake Guzman, west of El Paso, in Chihuahua. Between 1854 and 1869 their number was estimated at 400 to 750, under Mangas Coloradas. In habits they were similar to the other Apache, gaining a livelihood by raiding settlements in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. They made peace with the Mexicans from time to time and before 1870 were supplied with rations by the military post at Janos, Chihuahua. They were sometimes called Coppermine Apache on account of their occupancy of the territory in which the Santa Rita mines in southwest New Mexico are situated. In 1875 a part of them joined the Mescaleros and a part were under the Hot Springs (Chiricahua) agency, New Mexico. They are now divided between the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico, and Ft Apache agency, Arizona, but their number is not separately reported.
