Salinero Indians

The name Salinero, "salt producer," was frequently used by the Spanish to refer to Indian groups that exploited local sources of salt. This name was widely used in northern Mexico and Texas. In Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Chihuahua various unrelated Indian groups were known as Salinero. The principal Salinero group in Texas lived along the Pecos River, and their range extended northward along this river into southeastern New Mexico. These Salineros are repeatedly mentioned in documents of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sometimes the Salinero Indians were equated with the Natages. It is clear that the Salineros were Apache Indians and that they were among the groups that eventually became known as Mescalero Apaches.