Mescaleros Close Inn Of The Mountain Gods Because Of COVID-19

If you are planning on heading out this weekend to Ruidoso to enjoy the cool mountain air and maybe get in a little gambling at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, you need to rethink your travel plans. Ruidoso is still open, but the Inn of the Mountain Gods and the entire Mescalero Apache reservation are closed to the public for at least two weeks. The tribe announced on their Facebook page that because of a surge in COVID-19 cases, they have declared a state of emergency, and judging from the orders that they issued to the residents of the reservation, things are pretty bad.

The Mescalero tribe is limiting shopping trips for the whole reservation to one person per household, Mondays and Thursdays, from 8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents are allowed to take care of their home's gardens and yards, but if they have to leave the immediate area around their homes to tend livestock they have to have written permission from the president of the tribe. People don't have to stay in their houses, but can only move about in the immediate area of their home and can only send one person to drop off trash at the nearest dumpster between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. All businesses, restaurants, and churches are closed. Face masks are also required. You can check out all the details about the state of emergency on the Mescalero Tribe reservation by clicking here.

To be honest, I have to hand it to the Tribe. This is how you lock down a community in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. Are they draconian measures? Yes. Is it done to make sure that people don't hang out together anywhere. We could all learn a lesson from the Mescaleros. Hopefully this will work and they will be able to open back up.