The very last Apache holdout, a man named Juan who was captured by Mexican authorities in the 1930s and who was reportedly confused and disoriented when he encountered the modern world that had developed during the decades of his isolation, represents the extreme endpoint of a trajectory that began in the Victorio War — the determination to remain free rather than accept captivity, maintained past all practical possibility.

Lozen did not survive long enough to become one of the Broncos.

She died in captivity in 1889.

But she died with the same refusal to surrender — having fought until fighting was no longer possible, having accepted the end of the resistance without ever accepting the legitimacy of what was being imposed on her people.

The Mountains That Remain

The mountains that Lozen defended are still there.

The Black Range of New Mexico, the Mogollon Mountains, the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona — the specific terrain through which she rode, the canyons where she stood watch, the ridges from which she scanned the country for signs of pursuit — these are still present in the landscape of the American Southwest.