Trailblazers
December 2024

Sanctuary celebrates Little Sister Lozen, a beloved and respected Apache warrior and medicine woman who was a fierce defender of her people's rights and dignity.

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Little Sister Lozen
​(1840-1889)

Little Sister Lozen was a respected Apache warrior and medicine woman. She resisted Apache placement onto reservations alongside her brother, the Warm Springs Apache chief, Victorio, his successor Nana, and later Geronimo. With outstretched hands, it was said she was able to determine the location of an enemy. Apaches have credited her special powers for Victorio’s successful evasion of pursuers.

Little Sister was born in the 1840s, likely somewhere in southwestern New Mexico, to the Warm Springs or Ojo Caliente Apaches — the eastern branch of the Chiricahua, also known as the Mimbres Apaches. She acquired several names including, “Little Sister,” “Warrior Woman,” and “a Shield to her People,” a name bestowed by Victorio.

Eve Ball, a noted historian of Apache history, attributed Little Sister's previous anonymity to Apache discomfort at revealing that an unmarried woman had joined men on raids. Little Sister excelled in horseback riding, shooting, roping, and horse thievery, and Victorio considered her on par with other male warriors and did not go on a raid without her.

In the early 1870s, the U.S. government moved the Warm Springs Apaches to a reservation in Tularosa, New Mexico, and in 1877 to San Carlos, Arizona, despite their protests to remain at Ojo Caliente. Under Victorio’s leadership, the Warm Springs Apaches resisted. In October 1880, the Battle of Tres Castillos in Chihuahua State, Mexico, resulted in the death of Victorio. Litter Sister narrowly escaped the ambush because she had stayed behind to aid a woman in labor. After Victorio's death, she continued to fight with other Apache bands. She passed away of tuberculosis in 1889.

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Some interesting facts...

• ​Little Sister remained unmarried throughout her life.
• Some Apaches believed that if Little Sister had been at Tres Castillos, her people would have survived that day.
• Little Sister studied with older shamans.
• In 1877, she and her people fled the San Carlos Reservation where they had been living in intolerable conditions. This place was so bad, it was called “Hell’s Forty Acres.”
  
• Between 1877 and 1880, Little Sister and Victorio had lost nearly half of their people in skirmishes with the U.S. and Mexican armies that had taken over the surrounding lands.
• After her brother's death, she rejoined Nana and other survivors at an encampment where they gathered with other Apache bands, including those led by Geronimo and Juh. Little Sister eventually joined Geronimo’s group.​​​

Educational Video: New York Historical Society: 

Click on book cover to learn more.

Victorio's War

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