The ceremony itself, with its all-night singing and dancing and its celebration of a young woman’s entrance into the community of adult women, embodies values about womanhood, community, and spiritual power that are continuous with the world Lozen inhabited.

The Place of Women in Apache Political Life

Beyond the specific case of women warriors like Lozen, women played important roles in Apache political and social life that are often overlooked in accounts focused primarily on the military history.

Apache social organization was matrilineal — descent was reckoned through the mother, and the social unit of the extended family was organized around groups of women related through the female line.

A married couple typically lived with the wife’s family, and the husband entered a social network dominated by his wife’s relatives.