Reluctant Rebel

mind takes over everything in the body. Others believe that certain physical aspects like the car's angle, made the feat possible. Well, today's story revolves around a woman who accomplished incredible feats. However, in her scenario didn't attribute it to extreme motivation or sheer luck. They perceived it as something much harder to define. Sometime around eighteen forty nine, American colonizers arrived in a large area called Apache Rhea. This region now makes up

parts of Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. They were there to take the land from the native inhabitants. About seven Apache tribes lived in that region. They were known for their nomadic lifestyle and their strong battle skills. By the time the colonizers arrived, the Apache people had been fighting Mexican soldiers for years. One day, the colonizers quietly crept in on an Apache settlement near New Mexico. They planned to surprise attack the people, raid the settlement, and then

kill everyone living there, but they underestimated the tribe. When the attackers descended upon the settlement, the Apache people came out in full force. The attackers were stunned. Not only did the tribe seem to know that they were coming, but for every Apache man there was a woman behind him, ready to strike should he go down. The colonizers were completely unprepared. They were beaten in a landslide, and those

who survived were scared away. The Apache tribe was left mostly unscathed, especially because the women who didn't fight protected the children. However, there was one child, a girl of about twelve years old named Lozen, who didn't receive protection because she was on the battlefield. After the attack, many of the warriors, including the great grandson of Geronimo, praised

Lozen's skill in battle. From the day she was born, Lozen was ready to fight the tribe she was born into had a matriarchal culture, so the fact that she was a girl never really stood in her way. In fact, one of the tribe's deities, known as the White Painted Woman, was believed to be a great healer and an example of heroism and womanhood. When girls came of age, the tribe carried out a four day ceremony during which the girl's emulated White Painted Woman. The ceremony involved tests of

the girl's endurance. Afterward, the girls were considered women and took on more responsibility for their families. Legend has it that loezen ceremony was especially powerful as she went through the rituals. White Painted Woman visited with her and gifted her with unparalleled skills in battle. These abilities equip Lozen for the endless fighting that she would endure throughout her lifetime.

After New Mexico became a US territory, the gold Rush sent floods of miners through her tribe's region, so the Apache people constantly fought to keep their land. Thanks to her gift, Lozen was instrumental in these battles. She often carried out a secret operation. She snuck behind enemy lines rounded up their horses and stole them. The enemy never saw her coming. This was how she got her name, which means dexterous horse thief. But Lozen was capable of

so much more. Her brother, Chief Victorio described her as strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. He also said that Lozen was a shield to her People's brother wasn't the only one who admired her so much, though she was also a close friend and ally to Geronimo. Lozen's people were always at the center of her heart. Throughout all the battles and raids that she fought in. There were multiple times when she helped women and children

cross rivers safely and hide from the enemy. She even once helped a woman deliver a baby amid their escape journey. She always seemed to know which routes to take to avoid being caught. Many wonder how Lozen always evaded enemy detection. Her ability to do so infuriated her opponents and mesmerized her tribe. But Lozen's tribe knew something that their enemies

did not. It all went back to that fateful day in Losen's life when she went through her coming of age ceremony, when the White Painted Woman visited Lozen and gifted her with skills in battle. They weren't just any skills, they were supernatural powers, and this is why it was said that Lozen could predict which direction enemies came from. When preparing for battle, she would walk slowly in a circle with both hands raised in the air. Eventually, the

veins in her arms would turn dark blue. When that happened, Losn knew the direction she was facing was where the enemy would come from. Regardless of whether you believe people can actually have these kinds of powers, there's no denying that Lozen had a cunning ability to predict attackers' movements. Today,

apache girls undergo the same coming of age ceremony. We don't know if anyone has reportedly been visited by the White Painted Lady again, but this tradition, alongside Lowsn's legacy, serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience and strength of womanhood. We tend to mythologize the concept of the dream job that if you set out to be a dancer, or a firefighter, or even a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon designer for a living, there's a set path to

achieve that goal. In reality, most people's journeys have a lot of zigs and zags before they figure out what they want to do. Sometimes it's not so much a dream or an achievement that sets you on the right path, but a huge blunder, like how in the two hundreds BCE, the course of Chinese history was changed forever when a county sheriff named Lubang made a royal mistake. Bong didn't start out wanting to change the world. He mostly just wanted to hang out with his friends and shirk his duties.

He was born in two fifty six BCE, the son of peasant farmers on the east coast of China. Most kids in his position would have ended up working the rice paddies like his parents, or else making a living as a fisherman. Only by gaining an education could someone from the rice fields rise above their station. Except Bang wasn't particularly interested in learning or hard work. He ran into trouble with the law very often, and was characterized

in his youth as a delinquent and a rascal. Still, what Bong lacked in wealth, education or ambition, he more than made up for in charm. You see He was

a charismatic young man who made connections very easily. Although he had very little money and reportedly lived off what his working brother could give him, he was generous with his coin, and this led to him befriending several mid level bureaucrats working for the imperial government, and with his new friend's help, Bong was able to secure a well

paid job as a local sheriff. Now, this cushy government job might have been the end of his history of falling upwards if it wasn't for an incident in the early two hundreds BCE, when Bong was in his forties. At that time, the Chin dynasty ruled China for decades. The Chins had been building an immense mausoleum to house their first Chin Emperor, who had just died in two

ten BCE. The planned mausoleum was the size of a city, several miles across and housing not only his tomb, but also palaces, fake rivers made of flowing mercury, and thousands of terracotta warriors to protect the emperor in the afterlife. In the year two oh nine BCE, Sheriff Bang was ordered to escort a group of prisoners to work on that mausoleum. The Qin dynasty was known for harsh laws, which punished many small offenses with hard labor, imprisonment, and

sometimes even death. This upset the people under Chin rule, as they might find themselves laboring for the rest of their lives over such a small offense. During transit, several of the prisoners escaped Bang. Under Chin law, the official who let the prisoners escape, was supposed to be executed. Seeing no way out of his punishment, he decided to double down and free all of the prisoners. He quickly found himself the unlikely leader of a group of anti

Chin rebels. Many of the freed prisoners followed him to a nearby mountain, where they occupied an abandoned fort. Now an outlaw, Bang decided that he may as well go all in. All across the empire, different groups had sprung up to fight against the emperor from his stronghold in the mountains. He joined this network of resistance and became a leading force in the fight against the Qin dynasty.

He played up his humble beginnings to attract sympathy from disgruntled peasants, and with their support, began conquering Chin territory state by state by two two BCE. Just seven years later, the Qin dynasty had officially come to an end, and Liu Bang, the Lazy Peasant's son and failed sheriff, was the new Han Emperor of China. He only ruled for

seven years, but his impact lasted much longer. The Han dynasty reigned for four hundred years, during which it expanded the Chinese Empire further than it had ever stretched before. His focus on trade and expansion led to the legendary Silk Road, which connected East Asia to the Middle East, North Africa, and the Roman Empire starting in the one hundreds BCE. Today, many scholars of Chinese history consider it Lu Bang as influential to a in China as Julius

Caesar was to Rome. While they had very different origins, they reached the same heights. As William Shakespeare said, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. And like Lou Bang, you never know what might kickstart your next career change. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the

show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.