Lozen: Apache Warrior Princess

Victorio, however, was not intent only on survival he was also determined to fight back. On 28 April, 1880, he committed what became known as the Alma Massacre when his band of warriors went on the rampage killing 38 settlers. He then led an unsuccessful attack on Fort Tularosa. On 15 October, 1880, however, his luck ran out when he was ambushed at Tres Castillos, by the Mexican army. Cornered and with no where else to go Victorio refused to surrender, and in a desperate two day struggle 85 Apache warriors were killed, many of them women who had taken up arms in support of their men. Some 70 Apaches were taken captive, most of them children. Lozen had been away delivering the child of a pregnant woman. As Victorio’s chief scout and guide so accurate had she been in her predictions that it was believed that she was imbued with special powers. She was known to be a Shamen and Holy Woman. She would stare into the sky and with her arms outstretched she would chant prayers to the Apache God Ussen, “Upon this earth, On which we live, Ussen has power, This power is mine.” A tingling in her arms would indicate to her where the enemy were and she would point in that direction. She was never wrong. Many believe to this day that Victorio would never have been ambushed had she been present.

Geronimo and his Warriors (Geronimo is on the right) 

Following Victorio’s death and the massacre of his band at Tres Castillos, Lozen joined up with the tribal patriarch, the 74 year old, Nana, and effectively led his three month campaign of resistance. Nana, said of her, “Though she is a woman, there is no warrior more worthy than the sister of Victorio.” When the elderly Nana was compelled to surrender, Lozen left to fight alongside Geronimo. With so few Apache warriors remaining and knowing that there was nothing left to fight for, Lozen joined with Geronimo in surrendering to the U.S Army on 4 September, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. The last campaign of Native Indian resistance to the incursions of the white man had come to an end. She was made prisoner and transported to Mount Vernon, Alabama, where she died of tuberculosis sometime in 1887.