That this memory survived at all, given everything that was done to suppress and erase Apache cultural heritage during the prisoner years and the subsequent decades of reservation life, is itself remarkable.

The Chiricahua World She Defended

The landscape that Lozen fought to defend is worth describing in its own terms, because understanding what was at stake in the Apache resistance requires understanding what it was that the Apache were defending.

The territory of the Chiricahua Apache — including the Warm Springs homeland of Lozen’s band — is some of the most dramatically beautiful terrain in North America.

The Mogollon Mountains rise from the desert basins of southwestern New Mexico to altitudes above ten thousand feet, their peaks forested with ponderosa pine and aspen while the basins below are desert scrubland.