Upon this earthOn 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.
Lozen, 1840 - 1890
Lozen, a skilled and respected warrior and shaman of the Chiricahua Apache, was born around 1840, into the Chihenne band. Apache Chief Victorio, Bidu-ya, 1825 - 1880, was her older brother. She succeeded in battle by using her powers, Diya, to detect the movements and location of the enemy.
A quote attributed to Victorio is "Lozen is my right hand... strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lozen is a shield to her people."
In the 1870's, when Victorio's band was living on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona where they had been forcibly removed to, he and his warriors left the reservation and evaded the military. They returned to their ways of raiding and marauding and battle with their old, as well as the new enemies. Lozen rode and fought in battle beside her brother to try and regain their home lands, around west New Mexico's Black Mountain, which had been appropriated by the white Americans.
In one such battle, it was Lozen who stood for the women and children who were terrified and confused. She urged them to flee from the American forces by crossing the raging waters of the Rio Grande. Her bravery and courageous command while sitting on her horse, her rifle held high above her, inspired the people to move and flee to safety across the river. Once the women and children were safe, she returned back to join the battle with the other warriors.
It was said that she could ride, shoot, and fight as well as the men in the band and had great skill in military strategy. Victorio depended upon her and her skills as a fierce, cunning, and intelligent warrior.
Lozen, although a woman of the tribe, chose to dress and act like a man and fight with other warriors in Victorio's band. Apache warriors were fierce, feared and ferocious in battle and Lozen was one of the best. She never married. She preferred to ride and fight in battle and dedicated her life to her people by fighting for them. She was included in the ceremonies for warriors, sang their battle songs, and prayed with them before the battles. Lozen was also a respected medicine woman and shaman. People sought her out for her knowledge to heal and her wisdom.
Just before Victorio's last battle, in October of 1880, Lozen had left the band to escort a young mother and her new baby across the Chihuahuan Desert from Mexico to the Mescalero Apache Reservation. She stole horses and provisions to keep them alive and took them to safety. Once at the reservation, she learned that Victorio had fought his last battle and had died at his own hand rather than be captured and enslaved by the Mexicans they had fought against.
Lozen returned to her people, the survivors of the battle, in Sierra Madre, where Nana, the aging patriarch of the band was holding them together. She continued to fight in battle with Nana and also fought beside Geronimo in other battles.
After the last campaign of the Apache wars, around 1885, Lozen, along with Geronimo and many other warriors, were taken into custody by the U.S. military and transported to the Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama. She died there from tuberculosis sometime after 1887.
Even though she preferred to be a warrior and fight with the men of her tribe, she held the respected place of a woman among the Apache.
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Photograph of Lozen is in the Public Domain and was retrieved from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lozen04.jpg
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