Lozen: Apache Warrior / Medicine Woman

from various sources

Lozen, a Warm Springs Apache woman and the sister of the renowned chief Victorio, became legendary both as a warrior and as a shaman. She had what the Apaches called "Power," supernatural abilities on the battlefield and in spiritual communication. According to Peter Aleshire (Woman Warrior: The Story of Lozen, Apache Warrior and Shaman), Lozen fought in more campaigns against the Mexicans and the Americans than any of the great Apache leaders such as Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, Juh, Chihuahua, Geronimo or her own brother, Victorio. "Lozen began fighting Mexican soldiers and scalp hunters, eternal enemies of her band, when she came of age in the 1840’s," said Aleshire. "After the Americans arrived in 1848 to lay claim to her homeland, she battled them as well."

Lozen fought beside Victorio when he and his followers rampaged against Americans, who had appropriated their homeland in west central New Mexico’s Black Mountains and had tried to confine her people, first, to Arizona’s San Carlos Reservation then to New Mexico’s Mescalero Apache Reservation.

As the band fled U. S. forces, Lozen inspired women and children, frozen in fear, to cross a surging Rio Grande. "I saw a magnificent woman on a beautiful horse—Lozen, sister of Victorio. Lozen the woman warrior!" said James Kaywaykla, a child at the time, riding behind his grandmother. "High above her head she held her rifle. There was a glitter as her right foot lifted and struck the shoulder of her horse. He reared, then plunged into the torrent. She turned his head upstream, and he began swimming." Immediately, the other women and the children followed her into the torrent. When they reached the far bank of the river, cold and wet, but alive, Lozen came to Kaywaykla’s grandmother. "You take charge, now," she said. "I must return to the warriors," who stood between their women and children and the onrushing cavalry. Lozen drove her horse back across the wild river and returned to her comrades.

"I depend upon Lozen as I do Nana (the aging patriarch of the band)," said Victorio, according to Kaywaykla. "She could ride, shoot, and fight like a man," said Kaywaykla, "and I think she had more ability in planning military strategy than did Victorio."

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, she set out with the mother on a perilous journey through 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. She stole a Mexican cavalry horse for the new mother, escaping through a volley of gunfire. She stole a vaquero’s horse for herself, disappearing before he could give chase. She stole a soldier’s saddle, rifle, ammunition, blanket and canteen, even his shirt. Finally, she delivered her charges to the reservation.
There, she learned that Mexican and Tarahumara Indian forces under Mexican commander Joaquin Terrazas had ambushed his brother Victorio and his band at Tres Castillos, three stony hills in northeastern Chihuahua. It happened on October 15, 1880. Terrazas, said Stephen H. Lekson in his monogram Nana’s Raid: Apache Warfare in Southern New Mexico, 1881, "surprised the Apaches, and in the boulders of Tres Castillos Victorio’s warriors fought their last fight. Apache tradition holds that Victorio fell on his own knife rather than die at the hands of the Mexicans. Almost all the warriors at Tres Castillos were killed, and many women died fighting; the older people were shot, while almost one hundred young women and children were taken for slaves. Only a few escaped."

Knowing that the survivors would need her, Lozen immediately left the Mescalero Reservation and rode alone southwest across the desert, threading her way undetected through U. S. and Mexican military patrols, and rejoined the decimated band, now led by the 74-year-old patriarch Nana, in the Sierra Madre, in northwestern Chihuahua.

According to Kimberly Moore Buchanan in Apache Women Warriors, Lozen fought beside Nana and his handful of warriors in his two-month long bloody campaign of vengeance across southwestern New Mexico in 1881. Just before he began, Nana had said, "Though she is a woman there is no warrior more worthy than the sister of Victorio."

Lozen also fought beside Geronimo after his breakout from the San Carlos reservation in 1885, in the last campaign of the Apache wars. With the band pursued relentlessly, she used her Power to locate the enemies, the U. S. and Mexican cavalries. According to Alexander B. Adams in his book Geronimo, "She would stand with her arms outstretched, chant a prayer [to Ussen, the Apaches’ supreme deity], and slowly turn around."

Upon this earth
On which we live
Ussen has Power
This Power is mine
For locating the enemy.
I search for that Enemy
Which only Ussen the Great
Can show to me.
From Eve Ball’s In the Days of Victorio

"By the sensation she felt in her arms, she could tell where the enemy was and how many they numbered," according to Adams.

Taken into U. S. military custody after Geronimo’s final surrender, Lozen traveled as a prisoner of war to confinement at the Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama. Like many other Apache warriors, she died there of tuberculosis sometime after 1887, her life a validation of the respected place women held among the Apaches.

Great Warrior Woman of the Apache By Leigh Michaels | February 2nd, 2007

Warrior Woman by Peter Aleshire. St. Martin’s Press: 0-312-24408-8

In the introduction of his work, Aleshire begins boldly “The stories of Geronimo, Crazy Horse, and Custer pale beside the tale of another warrior - one who fought relentlessly, successfully, and against all odds almost continuously for forty years. This warrior fought longer then Geronimo or Crazy Horse and more effectively than Custer. History suggest this warrior wielded supernatural powers, evaded successfully a full one-quarter of the United States Army, and displayed an epic personal courage and heroism. But you’ve probably never heard of her.” And it is no more than the truth, for who has ever heard of Lozen? This great warrior of the Apache is never mentioned in the White accounts of the Indian wars of the Southwest, and Aleshire believes that this was done by her own people. Not because they were ashamed of her, but because they wanted to protect her from the attention of the Whites who they had learned not to trust.

Lozen would appear to be the sister of Victorio, she was known to be among Nana’s band after her brother’s death, and she was listed as one of Geronimo’s band at his surrender. This means that she had fought for more than thirty years. Among her own people she had renown for her supernatural abilities; she was able to tell what direction the enemy was coming from, how close they were, and how numerous. She was also known for her ability to steal horses, one of the most treasured warrior skills among the Apache. Lozen was also a healer and midwife.

No one can say why she chose the rather unnatural path of the warrior. Apache women are traditionally very powerful. A man moved into the woman’s band when she accepted his advances, creating the alliances between bands that the Whites of the time did not understand, mostly through ignorance and lack of effort. She had the right to divorce him at anytime - without question, but the women were expected to remain faithful and supportive. Their council was sought after, and they were widely respected. But Apache women did not become warriors, they did not need to in order to be powerful.

Lozen, however, made the decision to become a warrior from an early age. Aleshire attributes this to her supernatural powers, which is certainly the strongest explanation. Since Lozen herself, and all of her compatriots, were illiterate there is no way of knowing the details of her remarkable life. This is one of the most tragic losses to history. Aleshire acknowledges this from the introduction, and gives a detailed explanation of his almost unique way of approaching this problem. (he acknowledged his debt to Sandoz’s Crazy Horse for the origin of several of the decisions he made.) He utilizes anthropological works, army lists, personal reminisces both from U.S. army men and the stories told by the captured Apache leaders, and the oral histories gathered from the people who were children as Lozen’s life came to an end. His telling of her story is humanistic and sympathetic. He also gives his readers a very complete picture of the traditions and beliefs of the Apache, and puts Lozen into these traditions with great skill.

The life of this great warrior woman, famed for power, wise counsel, horse stealing, and being a crack shot, is too little known. If you can bear the constant misunderstandings between the Whites, the Mexicans, and the Apache and the tragedy that results when three such different traditions and cultures collide, Warrior Woman: the Story of Lozen; Apache Warrior and Shaman is well worth your time.

Leigh Michaels

Lozen, The Apache Warrior

“…Strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy, Lozen is a shield to her people.”

Scalp Hunters
Lozen was born into the Warm Springs Apache band during the late 1840s - times of great uncertainty and bloodshed. For decades, the resourceful Apache warriors had frustrated and defied the entire might of the US army. But the threat to Apache survival also came from the Mexican cavalry and bounty hunters who were intent on obliterating the Apache tribes. These bounty hunters were paid handsomely for every Apache scalp they brought to the Mexican government - man, woman, or child. In fact, any black hair and scalp was accepted as proof, so profiteering ‘backyard barbers’ wiped out entire villages of peaceful Indians.

Guerrilla Tactics
The Apache were born warriors - the fiercest of all the tribes. No other tribe could match them for their tracking and fighting skills. They used speed, stealth, surprise, and even the land itself as weapons. They also had one distinct advantage over the ‘White Eyes’ (white settlers) - knowing where water was. In the knowledge that good water existed underground in even the most inhospitable locations, they could pollute the obvious water sources if pursued. In this way, the Apache killed many of their enemies.

Lozen was the younger sister of the famous Victorio – a fearless warrior and leader, who often sought peace, despite the provocation and deception of the US army. Victorio’s fighting prestige was due in part to his ability to know from which direction the Mexican and US armies were approaching. His ambushes were so well planned; it was as though he had eyes everywhere. But, according to accounts left by the Warm Springs Apache, his secret weapon was his sister, Lozen. In fact, he is quoted as saying: “Lozen is my right hand”.

Sixth Sense
Victorio was elected Chief of the Warm Springs Apache and went to war against the US cavalry. Legend has it that Lozen was able to use her powers in battle to predict the movements of the enemy and that she helped each band she accompanied to successfully avoid capture. Lozen was a multi-talented woman: not only was she a prophet and a skilful warrior, but a healer and midwife too.

In 1872, the US government began its policy of detaining all Apache tribes together at San Carlos. Time and time again, Victorio and his sister Lozen sought peace in return for their right to go back and live undisturbed at Ojo Caliente. Finally, they made their escape. With the US Cavalry determined to hunt them down, Lozen insisted on stopping to help one of the Apache women who had gone into labour. Meanwhile, Victorio was killed, along with the 400 men in his tribe.

Apache POWs
After Victorio's death, Lozen continued to ride with Chief Nana and eventually joined forces with Geronimo's band, eluding capture until she finally surrendered with the last free group of Apaches in 1886. At the age of 50, Lozen died of tuberculosis in the Mount Vernon Barracks in Mobile, Alabama. Today, Lozen is remembered for her acts of bravery and her clairvoyant ability to guide her people away from danger, as they fled the settler armies in Arizona and into Mexico.

Victorio's Campaign

In the 1870's Victorio and his band of Apaches were moved move to the deplorable conditions of the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. He and his followers left the reservation around 1877 and began marauding, raiding, and evading capture by the military. Lozen fought beside Victorio when he and his followers rampaged against Americans, who had appropriated their homeland in west central New Mexico's Black Mountains

As the band fled American forces, Lozen inspired women and children, frozen in fear, to cross a surging Rio Grande. "I saw a magnificent woman on a beautiful horse—Lozen, sister of Victorio. Lozen the woman warrior!", said James Kaywaykla, a child at the time, riding behind his grandmother. "High above her head she held her rifle. There was a glitter as her right foot lifted and struck the shoulder of her horse. He reared, then plunged into the torrent. She turned his head upstream, and he began swimming."

Immediately, the other women and the children followed her into the torrent. When they reached the far bank of the river, cold and wet, but alive, Lozen came to Kaywaykla’s grandmother. "You take charge, now", she said. "I must return to the warriors", who stood between their women and children and the onrushing cavalry. Lozen drove her horse back across the wild river and returned to her comrades.

"I depend upon Lozen as I do Nana (the aging patriarch of the band)", said Victorio, according to Kaywaykla. "She could ride, shoot, and fight like a man," said Kaywaykla, "and I think she had more ability in planning military strategy than did Victorio."

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, she set out with the mother on a perilous journey through 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.

She stole a Mexican cavalry horse for the new mother, escaping through a volley of gunfire. She stole a vaquero’s horse for herself, disappearing before he could give chase. She stole a soldier’s saddle, rifle, ammunition, blanket and canteen, even his shirt. Finally, she delivered her charges to the reservation.

End of Apache Wars and Lozen's later years

Knowing that the survivors would need her, Lozen immediately left the Mescalero Reservation and rode alone southwest across the desert, threading her way undetected through U. S. and Mexican military patrols, and rejoined the decimated band, now led by the 74-year-old patriarch Nana, in the Sierra Madre, in northwestern Chihuahua.

According to Kimberly Moore Buchanan's Apache Women Warriors, Lozen fought beside Nana and his handful of warriors in his two-month long bloody campaign of vengeance across southwestern New Mexico in 1881. Just before he began, Nana had said, "Though she is a woman there is no warrior more worthy than the sister of Victorio."

Lozen also fought beside Geronimo after his breakout from the San Carlos reservation in 1885, in the last campaign of the Apache wars. With the band pursued relentlessly, she used her Power to locate the enemies, the U. S. and Mexican cavalries.

According to Alexander B. Adams in his book Geronimo, "She would stand with her arms outstretched, chant a prayer to Ussen, the Apaches’ supreme deity, and slowly turn around."

Upon this earth

On which we live

Ussen has Power

This Power is mine

For locating the enemy.

I search for that Enemy

Which only Ussen the Great

Can show to me.

From Eve Ball's In the Days of Victorio.

"By the sensation she felt in her arms, she could tell where the enemy was and how many they numbered", according to Adams.

Taken into U. S. military custody after Geronimo’s final surrender, Lozen traveled as a prisoner of war to confinement at the Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama.

Like many other Apache warriors, she died there of tuberculosis sometime after 1887, her life a validation of the respected place women held among the Apaches.

Lozan was the subject in the 2002 novel Ghost Warrior, Lozen of the Apaches by Lucia St. Clair-Robson.

Ghost Warrior, Lozen of the Apaches is a 2002 historical novel by Lucia St. Clair Robson. This novel was the runner-up for the Golden Spur Award in 2002.

The Chiricahua Apaches revered Lozen while she lived and they revere her still. One Apache described her as their patron saint. She is one of history’s most remarkable individuals. The human story is richer because it includes her life and her spirit.

Plot summary

The Chiricahua Apache chief, Victorio, called his sister Lozen his wise counselor and his right hand. He said she had the strength of a man and was a shield to her people. Even in a society possessing extraordinary courage, endurance and skill, she was unique. The Apaches believe that when she was young, the spirits blessed her with horse magic, the gift of healing and the power to see enemies at a distance. In the Apaches’ thirty-year struggle to defend their homeland, they came to rely on her strength, wisdom, and supernatural abilities.

Because of her gift of far-sight, she was the only unmarried woman allowed to ride with the warriors and fight alongside them. After her beloved brother Victorio's death, she joined Geronimo's band of insurgents. With Geronimo and fifteen other warriors, she resisted the combined forces of the United States and Mexican armies, and the heavily armed civilian populations of New Mexico and Arizona Territories. She and the sixteen warriors, and seventeen women and children held out against a total of about nine thousand men.

Excerpt from Ghost Warrior

Smoke from the grass fire smudged the blue sky of early May, but it did not obscure the footprints in the moist sand in the arroyo. The footprints weren’t a mystery. For miles the soldiers had been following the woman who made them.

“She’s heading up the canyon.” Lt. Howard Bass Cushing beckoned to thirteen of the sixteen privates in the company. “These men and I will trail her. Sergeant Mott, you and Collins, Green, Pierce, and Fichter cover the rear.”

“The tracks are too clear, sir,” said John Mott.

“What do you mean?”

“The squaw set her feet down heavy. She avoided places where the prints won’t show. Looks like she wants us to follow her.”

“More than likely she doesn’t know we’re here. She’s being careless.”

“Apaches aren’t careless.” Rafe knew that disagreeing with Cushing wouldn't change his mind, but he had to try. … Rafe kept his peace on the subject of Cushing and stared at the thorny landscape until his eyes watered.

“If I were an Apache. I’d set up an ambuscade in that canyon,’ said Mott. “That dry gulch is a sack waiting to close around us.”

As though on cue, rifle fire reverberated across the canyon. Where no Apache had been, dozens appeared. Cushing and his troops retreated and joined Mott and Rafe to form a line, firing as they fell back.

The Apaches advanced down the slope in two lines, keeping formation rather than scattering…