Biographies

Lozen — 1840-1890

Sister of famed Apache chief Victorio, Lozen was the most renowned of the Apache War Women. At a young age, Lozen made it known that she had no interest in learning the ways of the women of her tribe but wished to set out on the path of a warrior. Victorio called her "his right hand" and "braver than most."

Lozen was a gifted medicine woman, seer, and shaman. Legend says that Victorio's band relied on her to evade the enemy. She would pray with her arms outstretched and palms upward while turning in circles. When she felt a tingling in her hands that would be the direction in which the enemy was located. Based on the intensity of the tingling she could tell how far they were away.

Lozen was not with Victorio's band when Mexican army trapped them in the Tres Castillos Mountains. Many believed the band would not have been ambushed if Lozen had been with them.

After Victorio’s death Lozen rode with Geronimo. At his request Lozen, along with Dahteste, another woman warrior, went to arrange Geronimo’s surrender in 1886. She became one of the Apache prisoners sent to Florida and then Alabama. In the unsanitary conditions in Mobile, Lozen was one of the many who died in prison.