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Lozen 1840-June 17, 1889, sister of famous Chiricahua Apache leader Victorio, was a female warrior, military strategist, midwife, and medicine woman.

Geronimo’s people called her Woman Warrior. Her own Warm Springs Apaches called her Little Sister, and revered her as a holy person. An accomplished warrior and medicine woman, she could ride, shoot, and fight as well as a man.

All great Apache leaders had power, and Lozen’s was to know the location of the enemy. She would stand with outstretched arms, palms up, and pray. While turning slowly, her hands would tingle and the palms change color when they pointed toward the foe. The closer the enemy, the more intense the feeling.

In the 1870s, Victorio and his band of Apaches were moved to the wretched conditions of the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona, but left around 1877 and began marauding and raiding against Americans who had appropriated their homeland around western New Mexico's Black Mountain. Lozen fought beside Victorio while helping them avoid capture by the military.

Victorio said: “Lozen is as my right hand: strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people… I depend on Lozen as I do Nana.”

Late in Victorio’s campaign, Lozen left the band to escort a new mother and her newborn infant across the Chihuahuan Desert from Mexico to the Mescalero Apache Reservation, away from the hardships of the trail.

Equipped with only a rifle, a cartridge belt, a knife, and a three-day supply of food, Lozen set out with the mother and child on a dangerous journey through territory occupied by Mexican and U.S. Cavalry forces. En route, afraid that a gunshot would betray their presence, she used her knife to kill a longhorn, butchering it for the meat.

Lozen stole a Mexican cavalry horse for the new mother, escaping through a volley of gunfire. Next, she stole a vaquero’s horse for herself, disappearing before he could give chase, and soon also acquired a soldier’s saddle, rifle, ammunition, blanket, and canteen – and even his shirt. Finally, she safely delivered the mother and child to the reservation.

Taken into U. S. military custody after Geronimo’s final surrender, Lozen traveled as a prisoner of war to Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama. Like many other imprisoned Apache warriors, she died as a POW of tuberculosis on June 17, 1889.

“Riding first into danger, as an example and leader, Lozen inspired pride in her fellow warriors. She was a model of fearless bravery and heroism, a person of humility, great knowledge, and power. Lozen holds a respected place among the Apache and continues to inspire women today.”

by Valerie Rangel