Lozen & Dahteste: Apache Warrior Women vs The US Army

I don't like mint and chocolate. But here's what I was thinking. I was like, man, this would be my scene if there was like a zombie apocalypse and I hadn't had this would be these would be my twinkies right the zombie land. I found a chocolate orange truffle and ate it. After like you know, six months of not having you know, having to eat rats and whatever canned beans I could find. Yeah, I'd be like this

this is it was all about rats and beans. So if there was a zombie apocalypse and you hadn't had like human food, you know, you've been eating dog food and you know, whatever water you can scrape out of a gutter, grape out of a gutter. What a dismal future you have planned for me? But then you finally found like a chocolate orange truffle. Would it be delectable

to you? Or would you be like, god, damn it, I mean it would I would be mad, like wow, this is sort of a what's that thing where they say like a gift with the left hand or something where it's not really a gift actually occurs. It's like a monkey poth thing where it's like, he'll get sort of what you want, but not really version you hate. Alright,

so I don't know. I would still eat it, certainly, but I would I begrudge it for not being a delicious peanut butter confection or something with caramel perhaps, or a butter cream. Even so, you'd be acceptable to need dog food and you're still in the back of your mind going to be like, well, this could be a better chocolate than what I got. I'm a spoiled bit, all right, fair, It's good that you know yourself. I like what I like. I don't care what conditions in

which brings us to today's story. Well that he said that I sound crazy, not crazy, just entitled. Okay, well enough now, well We're so glad to be back to our usual ridiculous romance show after spending all that time in the Crypti Bugs and Andy Addicts, Booky Addicts. You got possessed by those demons briefly. That was really messy around the house. Happens all the time. I gotta scrubble all those blood messages off the wall. But but we're

back to straight history now. Straight history started kicking it off with a lesbian story. Well, I mean, I guess non supernatural natural historical history. Yeah, this story takes place in the eighteen eighties when two Apache warriors, Lowsen and Tadaste, came together over a struggle against US forces who were working to take their land and force them under reservations. And I do want to say right now, if you've looked at the title of the episode, it's Lowsen and Tadaste.

It's not. I don't know what white person heard this woman's name and wrote it and spelled it like they did, but it's pronunciations I found are Tadaste not da Teste. Well, while sources on their actual romance are sparse, these two shared an intimate love for each other in the midst of constant war. They fought alongside some of the most renowned APACHE leaders in history, like Victoria and Geronimo, and they used their brilliant strength and special abilities to save

Apache lives for decades. This one's so exciting. Let's do it, hey their French come listen well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships, a lover, it might be any type of person at all. And abstract concept are a concrete wall. But if there's a story, were the Second Glance show Ridiculous Rolevance a production if I Heart Radio.

In the mid eighteen hundreds, there were at least seven Apache bands spread across an area known as a Pachariah in a region that we now know as eastern Arizona and more or less southwest New Mexico. Now. One of these bands was called the Chehenna Apache, and they were also known as the Red Paint People because of the red band of clay paint they wore on their faces during ceremonies. This was a matriarchal culture and according to a quote on history dot Com from Joey Padilla, the

medicine man from the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. Quote, the Apaches always had a woman with them. She stood right behind the man with a knife or a gun. If the man went down, you had to deal with the woman too. Behind every great man is a woman with a knife. Bath Now ranty. A girl was born here who would become known as Lowsen. Lowson's brother was Victorio, and he would grow up to be the chief, and the two of them grew up best buds because lows

In was just basically the ultimate badass. Her name means dexterous horse thief because a dexterous horse. So she would sneak into enemy camps totally undetected and like sneak back out with all their horses, which was partly a hilarious prank and partly a brilliant strategy of tactics because now we got horses and you don't know. So Lowson was a badass. She was just incredibly skilled at a bunch of different things. And she is considered by some to

have been a two spirited person. In a Bustle article, Arin Wise from the g Karrea Apache says that quote too spirit is a name for people in Indigenous culture who carry the duality between the sacred feminine and sacred masculine within them, though definitions vary per indigenous nation and person. Yeah, this is interesting because I always, you know, had a had a very cursory understanding of what too spirit it was, and often compared it to non binary or gender fluid

or something like that. But apparently within the different cultures it can mean a number of different things. Doesn't really have a direct translation to, uh, you know how you and I might talk about gender in our culture. Yeah,

it's interesting. Yeah, now wise rights quote I was told my entire life that there were no Apache women who were that way, and Encyclopedia dot Com says that female bodied two spirit status was never documented among the Apaches, but quote Losen's career parallels those of such women in other tribes. Basically, lows And just crushed gender norms, Like

that's kind of what it boils down to. In the Quality of Folk, Encyclopedia of Gay Folk Life, author Mickey Weims says that Lowsen just never cared about the traditional roles of Apache women. She was tough and quote more masculine than other men. In her tribe, and when she wasn't out on a raid, she was just rough housing with the other guys and earning their respect as an athlete. Okay,

all right. When she was twelve, she went through the usual puberty rights, which included a feast before her being sent into the mountains, and according to oral history, she gained supernatural powers on this journey, the ability to heal wounds and to locate enemy armies. That's pretty dope compass

for your enemy, right right. And this, from what I could tell, these kinds of skills were typically more for men, Like generally you'd have medicine men more often than medicine women, And so that was another way that she was kind of shaking things up. Yeah, and she became an incredible medicine woman with this vast knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants and minerals. But she didn't just go out with her people to heal them. She was also one

of the most badass warriors they had. She could ride, fight, shoot, rope and steal with the best of them, and her detection powers saved their asses time and time again. I bet it got to a point where the life I ain't going out unless low and okay, okay, I guess we're staying home tonight leftovers. How would you have at twelve years old if someone was like, okay, Diana, we're going to have a big feast and then you're going

off to the mountains. You're going to go off to Stone Mountain all by yourself, and you got to take care of yourself for a week and make your way back home. How would you have done? I mean I would have been fine. I guess admitted that if I was eating rats, I would still begrudged. A dark chocolate orange truffle come in my way. That makes me think you wouldn't be fine. That's what I'm saying. You would not farewell. I think you know what I'm torn. I

don't think. I think I would complain about it a lot, but I do think that I would come through. I think I would come through. I have had to take care of myself many a time in the past. So you would come back with like dirt all over you, blood war pain on your face, like you've murdered your way back home again, and you'd be like, that's sucking, sucked, and I want a latte right now. Exactlylike lows and he was probably like, that was hell a good time.

Let's do it again. I feel alive. Annual trip, I would be like, I'm gonna go chill by the fire. All y'all owe me one meal. Is it someone's job in our band of people to watch Brooklyn nine a couple more times? Because I'm willing to volunteer. That is

clearly my purpose. All right well. History dot Com cites Harlan Geronimo, who's the great grandson of Geronimo, as saying that quote lows In would lift her hands and walk in a circle until the veins in her arms turned dark blue, indicating the direction from which the enemy would

approach now wise rights. In their article that in ceremony quote Lowsen would sing, extend her arms and turn in a circle until her palms tingled, and then that's what told her which direction the enemies were in, so whether her hands were actually changing color or not. She turned around and was like, I got a feeling there over there, and she was right often enough that, like you said, everyone was like, we gotta get lows In out here.

They really respected this power that she had. She would pray to the apache's highest deity usen for guidance and once they knew where the enemies were, and she also apparently knew how far away they were. She was also a head strategist and counselor and fighter in the battles that would follow her. Brother. Chief Victorio said of her quote, lows In is as my right hand, strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy. Lows In is

a shield to her people. Super cool. I do want to put out to Chief Victorio and everyone that if a woman is as strong as a man, she's as strong as a woman, because that's how strong a woman is. So it's like, you know, take the compliment, but also you know, just check check yourself. That's why I should be by weight. There's some very big women out there who could beat the ship out of a small man. Look, I know some small women out there who could beat

the ship out of a large man. Quite frank you, some small, small men and women can sometimes be the scariest fighters that you'll ever be up against. You regularly physically overpower me, and I don't like him because we won't give it up. That's the thing. Like little terriers. Once the fight begins. I got a winner. I'm dead, that's it, and I got two choices. That's so. I gotta just to grab on your ankles with my teeth. Damn, I gotta watch my ankles. Yeah, watch out, yeah, right,

like my teeth can handle that. After dental work, then you need to watch your ankles, your teeth, or your biggest weakness. If I can't escape you, I go for the teeth. Please, don't govern my teeth. It's already so expensive. Now not far from the Chehennay Apache. Around eighteen sixty, Tadaste was born into the choke, a un band of Apaches, and List has written about her life growing up, but she was also a warrior since youth. New Mexico. Nomad dot com says that her people remember her as a

great hunter and fighter. Her chief was a guy named Coaches, and he was one of the most noted Apache leaders to resist Western intrusions in the eighteen hundred's. His name meant having the quality or strength of an oak, because he was like a big, solid, strong as hell do and now Coaches is slang for the ultimate badass and a biker gang. I had never heard this before. I had heard where it was like you heard it as

like a California like yeah, something like that. Okay, coachese something like that, And I didn't know what it meant really, but I mean pretty amazing to be a slang word for the ultimate badass. Yeah, when people say, like, you're a real Diana in the future, they're just gonna mean you've got bad teeth. Wow, rude future folk. I disagree how I disapprove how you're using my name, but I guess you don't get to choose. They remember you anyway.

So Coaches was dope, and Todas Stay rode with him, helping to push back settlers and soldiers who were coming over from the East. Now, Unlike Lowsen, Todas Stay put effort into her feminine appearance. She was well groomed, she dressed in feminine attire, despite her also being a great fighter. She just she liked to look good. It's like Commander Leiwaway, Remember, she was always like, let me look good? Right, did I stay like? It said that She always wore her hair,

her hair down, but it was always brushed. She always just like wanted to present herself. Is very feminine, and why not right now, Losen never married or had any children, but todas Stay married young to a warrior named Ann and they had several children together. She and her husband rode together during battles, and it was said that she was a better writer than most of the men in her tribe. Tadaste was also fluent in English, and she was a skilled translator and an effective mediator with the U.

S Cavalry. So we've got these two badass women out here kicking ass, taking names. But Lowsen and her brother had to deal with the US government setting up reservations and shockingly, spoiler alert, it did not go in their favor. Na, But our history with that is so cool and chill. But it did give Mosen the chance to be a bad s and eventually it led to her and Tada Stay meeting and we will hear about that right after this.

Welcome back to the show, everybody. So in the US government offered Victorio and coaches both reservation land at Warm Springs, New Mexico, and Victoria was like, okay, hold up, let me just go check with my sister. My right hand and I need to confer. We don't do nothing without asking Lowson. That's right, and he went back to Lowes and he's like, hey, you know, do you think it's a good idea to take this prop you know, take this land from the government or whatever. She's basically like,

I mean, no stress, but what are other choices? You know, it's kind of we're kind of David and Goliath over here, right, and we don't need to go into the whole history here. But of course the US was moving in, they were colonizing the western plains. They all saw this happening, and they were like, there, it might be best if we kind of take a deal early on rather than getting into fighting later getting killed and then getting nothing left over. Yea.

And Victoria was like, okay, great point, and he goes back to the US governments, as we'll take it. Well, guess what. It did not work out so great, because soon after they moved to Warm Springs, they got moved again to a totally different reservation. In December of eighteen seventy two, President Ulysses S. Grant established the San Carlos Apache Reservation. And this place was notoriously horrible. First, the

US government couldn't find anyone good to run it. They asked people and a bunch of people turned it down of over and over and over again. Also, the U. S Army there were incredibly cruel to the indigenous people that lived there. Sometimes they would torture or kill apaches just for sport. Now, politicians also in setting this reservation up, made no effort to learn the difference between the various tribes in the region and just lumped them all together.

So you had some bands of Apaches that were enemies living right up against each other. And while Apaches were supposed to be fed and housed on the reservation shan, a lot of their caretakers were never even given the federal money that was set aside for them. So they're like, hey, too bad, So sad, I can't feed you. So everyone just suffered. There wasn't enough grass for livestock degrayes, there

wasn't game to hunt. The water was bad, it was hot, overcrowded, and there were malaria outbreaks, which the Apache had barely experienced before that. Oh my god. So it was just an awful, terrible, horrible place. And this is where Victorio lows In and their band of Apaches were sent to live in the mid eighteen seventies. Now, without getting too deep into the history here. Victorio was a great leader and he negotiated a lot with the American and Mexican armies,

so he knew this place was bullshit. He's like, this is not what we talked about. Not one time did I say malaria was yeah, you throw in some malaria, then we'll do it in the contract where I signed off. And in eight seventy six, he and lows In and their patches just got the funk out of there. They're like, you know what, We're not living here. So they packed up their ship and they just walked away, and army patrols were like, no, you can't leave, because actually you're

a prisoner. So they kind of surrounded them as they moved west and forced them to another reservation near oh Kellyane in northern New Mexico. They were classified as prisoners of war, just sitting waiting for the usr ME to like decide what to do with them. Two years of uncertainty pass and rumors started circulating that they were going to be moved back to Stan Carlos, that worst reservation ever that they had left in the first place. So Victoria,

of course was pissed about that. He's like, no, bitch, I said, I would not accept this. So he probably looked looked over at lows In and what was like and she gave him like a solemn little nod like Robert redfor me, like yes, let's do it. And in the autumn of eighteen seventy nine he declared war. Victorio was facing the entire might of the U. S. Army, which obviously was a lot, but the Apaches still had

a few major advantages. They knew the terrain, they were more accustomed to traveling long distances without rest or food, or water, and plus, the white settlers had plenty of horses for loads and to steal. The Apaches would just ride their horses hard until they were too tired, and then they would just trade them out. They just slip into somebody's camp, steal their horses, and they would keep going.

And then you know, the U. S. Army only had their regular ass horses that were still tired and they couldn't keep up. But battles were difficult and the Apaches had to constantly stay moving. Victorio did sometimes raid ranches, and he killed ranchers and miners that had settled on Apache lands, and of course, the US government inflated this and made him seem like, you know, just the butcher of the West, Like he's out there just trying to

kill everyone he can get his hands right, right. But history net dot com says that while at the time the New York Times claimed that Victorio killed four hundred civilians, the real number is likely far smaller. Again, just propaganda trying to make these people look like we need, we need to go in and civilize them, you know, that was the message they were always trying to push. But between battles Lows and was out there saving everyone's asses constantly.

One account from a man named James Kawaikla, who was a child at the time, said that at one point their band was pressed up against the Rio Grand with U S forces closing in. Kawakla wrote, quote, I saw a magnificent woman on a beautiful horse, Lows and sister of Victorio, and she held her rifle high over her head, and a glint of lights sparkled against her boot, and she kicked her horse into action. The horse reared and charged into the river Lows and turned him upstream, and

they swam across to the other side. The rest of the women and children followed her into the raging river, and soon all of them had made it safely to the other side. Lows And told kawakeless mother to take charge, and then returned across the river to join the other warriors in battle. Awesome, so cool, so cool. She was like, listen, ladies, let's go girls. I hope she didn't say that, just kidding,

but she girls, get it done. Girls kidding, but she definitely inspired them, you know, to to brave this verifying river. There can you imagine standing there at the Rio Grand River. It's like raging and surging. It's a huge as river and you're like, easily they're gonna kill us if they catch up to us, or I can cross the water work and drown in this river. And Lowson was just like, follow me. I got this. Watch Sha, how it's done. We can do If I can do it, you can

do yeah. And they're like, you're way cooler than me. But I guess a lot of them are like, there's a lot of you can do that I can. In eve Ball's book In the Days of Victorio, she describes los In helping a pregnant woman in their band who was about to give birth. As the apaches pressed forward, los And stayed back and helped this woman find a hidden place in enemy territory and helped her quietly deliver

the baby without getting caught. It's like the scene in the Quiet Place, Yes, except the monsters are white people, if you can imagine that? What uh? The next morning they snuck out and made for the river, just her and this woman and her one day old baby. The woman had just given birth, like sneak out around to come on. All they had on them was a blanket, Losens rifle, and Losens night. So lows In goes down to the river, starts chopping off willow shoots, and builds

a little cradle for the baby. Of course, of course, like that's exactly what I would do. It's the first thing I would think of. Then she told the mom, like, hang on, I gotta brb real quick. We're running out of food. There were enemies all around them, so she couldn't risk firing her rifle to hunt. So Lowsen did what eve Ball calls quote a feat that few men would undertake. And she went out and she wrestled and killed a longhorn bull with nothing but one empty hand

and a knife in the other. I mean, do you think she jumped out of the bushes just like punched him in the face. I imagine she was probably like, I'm sorry I have to do this, but I'm gonna kill you and eat you. Uh. I mean, come on, that thing is huge. See the horns on that thing. So lows In and this new mother and this newborn they had to leave the river, but neither of them had a water jug and it would be too far to go on foot without one, so Losin is probably

like rolling her. I was like, okay, hang on, let me go handle this too, right, I'll go get us a horse, and she cut a bridle from the hide of the long horn, and then she gave the woman her rifle and then jumped into the river to go steal a horse from the Mexican army on the other side. Before long, she found a group of Mexican soldiers, and she waited until nightfall. She picked out a big, powerful,

restless horse, snuck up to it. She tied the bridle to its snout, but when she cut the horse's hobbles, it reared up and made a loud noise, and the Mexican soldiers woke up and realized they were being robbed, but lows In jumped on the horse's back, turned its head towards the river and started riding bull It's whizzing past her. She rode the horse straight into the river, sing to safety and out of range of gunfire. By morning, the two women were miles away. Amazing, such an adventure,

incredible ship. And I also feel like she's deserved some royalties from many films who have done this exact same scene. Like I was thinking immediately at the mask of Zoro when he goes and gets his the black horse that he becomes really well known for, he goes and steals it from all these like Mexican Yeah, they're not asleep, they're like partying or something, but it's the same. He's like, be quiet and he's like sneaking around. And then the

horse was like they all get it. They all like the horse was like what now, he was like, okay, thank you a good horse sound effect. So Victorio is often credited as being one of the greatest apache military strategists of all time, and history net says that quote no Western American Indian chief received shabbier treatment from the U. S Government than Victorio, and no one demonstrated a greater

mastery of guerilla warfare. He would hit him hard and keep moving that they had to keep when they really had no where they could stay. So if the if U S forces were ever catching up, they knew exactly where to hide. They would ambush them, or they would just position themselves in the mountains in certain ways where they were totally unreachable. Really really impressive strategic moves, but

it wouldn't last forever. By eight eighty he and Losen had the US and Mexican armies both hunting them down. When Lowson dropped the mother and child off safely at a reservation, she learned then that Victorio and most of his warriors had been defeated by Mexican forces. James K. Wakeless says in eve Ball's book that he was the sole survivor of the massacre at Trace Castillos, which was Victorio's last stand. He said that after firing his last bullet,

Victorio took his own life rather than surrender. History dot Com says that his death made him a martyr and the Apaches resolve was fortified. One of the great Apache leaders who stepped up afterwards was Geronimo, and Geronimo had a particular warrior running with him. Somebody was helping him fight and translating their negotiations into English. Really none other than to Daste. Oh hey girl, how you doing? Where

you been? So lows and rushed back to help her surviving people escape, and soon was helping Geronimo escape from San Carlos. She was ready for vengeance for her brother's death, and she brought deadly aid to Geronimo's cause. But this is also I wish she met to Daste, and we're going to hear about their love for each other right after this. Welcome back to the show. So Geronimo and his people, including Tadaste, had been shipped off to San Carlos,

the worst reservation that we talked about earlier. Losen followed her new chief, Nana, who was another renowned APACHE leader who was kicking ass well into his seventies, uh, and they went to regroup with Geronimo's forces to try and get some action going. Nana, there's a lot written about him.

He was kind of a protege under Victorio even though he was older than him, and after Victoria died, everyone was kind of like, hey, Nana, you're you're taken over, right, Yeah, And he was like, all right, I guess I will and her hand right. And he had like a bad leg, and so everyone's like, this guy with a with a bum leg over seventy years old was like outwitting and out maneuvering and out fighting the U. S. Army. That

was pretty awesome. Yeah. In the book The Woman in the Shaman's Body, author Barbara Tedlock calls Taste and Losin friends and lovers who worked as messengers and warriors with Geronimo's band of Apaches. Did Asta was still married to an Andia, but Tedlock writes she was bisexual, and when she met Lows and Sparks started Lion, they just had so much in common. They were both skilled writers, fighters,

and strategists. They probably bonded over like talked about the sharpness of their knives or what kind of horses they like to steal best. She's like, oh my god, So this one time I had this pregnant lady and I had to like go across the river and steal a Mexican horse and then right back over and get her the hell out of there. It was crazy. Wow, gir all, that is so cool. Meanwhile, I've just been negotiating with the US government this whole time. Sounds like even scarier,

I know. Seriously. On May seventeenth of eighty five, the Apaches overpowered the reserve asitions commanding Officer Britton Davis and fled the reservation once again. The Apaches had a real advantage of knowing and surviving the southwestern terrain, but U s forces under General George Crook had employed around one hundred Apache scouts who knew how to find the mountain hideouts where Geronimo and his people were trying to rest.

And Geronimo, of course, is heartbroken that Apaches were siding with US forces to root him right, right, That felt like a real betrayal, real betrayal. Right, But of course Geronimo had a few secret weapons of his own, notably to Das Stay and Lowson. Geronimo was able to stay a step ahead of US forces because Losin used her special powers to know exactly where the enemy was coming from. She stretched her hands out to the sky and said a prayer poem which was translated in eve Ball's book

In the Days of Victoria. So let's go down to poetry corner, and here Lozen's prayer upon this earth on which we live, us in has power. This power is mine for locating the enemy. I searched for that enemy which only us in the Great can show to me. She would turn in a circle, her palms tingled, and she knew which way to look. You Pati say that this kept Geronimo and his forces alive. And some believe that if Lozen had been with Victoria at trace Castillo's,

he would not have been ambushed and defeated. I mean, they really believed in this. Again, she she was. She was right often enough that they were like this, this is some real magic. This is legit. Yeah, even if you get it wrong. Sometimes if you're right seven times out of ten, I mean, l five times out of ten, I'm pretty good, even half, I think so. Yeah, I mean that's that's a lot better than the no times I got one. I guessed I didn't find a single

one of Geronimo's enemies. Or you know, there's some magic happening, or there's some magic happening that might that could be true. I'm not I'm not here to say it is speculation. Station it was magic fully. The Geronimo's forces were completely undefeated in battle, but they were tired and hungry and

homesick after months of just running and fighting. Encyclopedia dot com says that apachees described Losen and Tadaste as quote regular companions at this time, and that in the nineteen thirties, Apache informants told anthropologist Morris Oppler about two unnamed women who had a sexual relationship. They are believed undoubtedly to be Lozen and Tadaste. Now. Tadaste was in her mid twenties at this time. Lowson was about twenty years older than her, but they were in separable both on and

off the battlefield. They also continued their work as negotiators under Geronimo. In Marcia of eighteen eighties six, he decided it was time to negotiate a surrender. They were still undefeated, but they were exhausted. They couldn't keep running forever. He could tell the end was in sight. Better to have a say and how it will end. So let's go make a table and then get a seat at it right quick. So Lowsen and Tadaste arranged a conference with

General Krook. They met in the Sierra Madre mountains just south of the US Mexico border, little neutral territory there, and they had negotiations for three days. Photographer CS Fly, who along with his wife Mary are some of the most prolific photographers of the Old West, got Geronimo to stand for about fifteen pictures during this time, and these are the only known pictures of an American Indian who

was currently at war with the US. Losen and Tadaste kept negotiations going, and eventually they arranged some terms with Crook and brought those back to Geronimo. He was just south of the Mexican Board Order, and he agreed and said that he would cross the river and sign in the morning. But that night a U S soldier who sold Geronimo some whiskey told him, Hey, man, no, no, no, no, as soon as y'all crossed the US border, they're gonna

kill al y'all. It's over now. Geronimo, Toda stay lows, and they all had plenty of reason to believe that the US government wouldn't keep their word, so the three of them, along with nearly forty of their followers slipped away during the night. Well that really piste off the US government Krook felt like he had failed, so he requested to be relieved of this mission to deal with Geronimo um and was eventually replaced with General Nelson Miles,

who sent a huge expedition out to find them. History dot Com says they were pursued by five thousand US soldiers, which was nearly a quarter of the U. S. Standing army at the time. Can you imagine if a quarter of the U. S. Army was after you? No, I mean like you like, on one hand, I'm like, wow, I must be real special, you know. Well, and there's like forty of them. For five thousand people to catch forty of them, how badass they were though? They were

like a real scary enemy army. Absolutely, Now me, I don't think I'd be a scary enemy to have to do a quarter of the U. S. Arm The teeth just go over the teeth. They sat it right here on their podcast now. For nearly five months, Losen and Tadaste helped Geronimo evade capture, but by August they were once again tired, hungry, and homesick. In September, US soldiers caught up with them in Mexico and to save the

lives of his remaining people. Geronimo laid down his rifle, becoming the last American Indian leader to formally surrender to the U S military. Todaste and Lowsen once again headed up negotiations for this surrender, and they agreed that they would go into Eggsi for two years on a Florida reservation before being allowed to return to the West. But guess what this was, In the words of New Mexico

nomad dot com quote a deliberate, calculated lie man. Lows And and Taaste were in the first group who was sent to Florida as a good faith gesture to the US, but there was no intention of letting them return home. After two years. They ended up in Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida, were Washington Post reports that quote the Apache died like

flies at frost time. Meanwhile, white businessman used Geronimo as a tourist attraction, charging visitors to come see this blood thirsty Indian warrior, you know, while he's locked up in his cell. A lot of these Apaches still had children back in the reservations in Arizona, and the US government came in and was like, well, we'll go pick up your kids, and we'll send him to a school in Pennsylvania. Oh God, well, at that school, more than a third

of those children died very quickly of tuberculosis. Man Yeah. Los And and Tadaste maintained their relationship while imprisoned, and during this time Tadasti divorced her husband and Nandia. But in many of the Apaches were relocated to the Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama, and it seems this is where

they were separated. Between eighteen seventy seven and eighteen eighty los And lost her brother, her homeland, most of her people while fighting with US and Mexico, and now in Alabama, she lost the woman she loved and thousands of miles from her home. She, like nearly a quarter of the Apaches at Mount Vernon, contracted tuberculosis and died in eighteen eighty nine. Didaste was moved to Fort Marion in St. Augustine and was confined as a pow there for eight

more years. During this time, she survived pneumonia and tuberculosis. After these eight years, she was moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, along with Geronimo and many others, and she remained a prisoner there for another nineteen years. Although these prisoners, some of them were offered some land. Um that kind of it was more like the reservation where they like weren't allowed to leave, but they kind of lived a little

with a little more freedom, if you can call that freedom. Um. After these nineteen years were up in nineteen nineteen, she was offered the choice to either stay in Fort Sill and be given land to live there, or returned to the West, and she chose the West at the Muscalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. And there she remarried an Apache scout named Cooney. And it said that she never

spoke English again understandable. I cannot blame her. Yeah, And though she did live well into the modern era, she wore only traditional Apache clothing. She passed away in nineteen fifty five, over ninety years old. She was interviewed by Eve Ball before her death, and Eve wrote quote Taste to the end of her life, mourned Losen. Mickey Weems says that biographies on Losin and Tadaste are sparse in their details and tend to downplay their affection for each other,

not an unusual things. The best friends they were regular compaions. There's one remaining photograph of Losen and Tadaste sitting together, but biographical sources tend to even cut that picture in half and portray them separately. But the evidence is clear that these two loved each other very much. Mickey says that their resemblance, to a quote lesbian butch fem relationship has elevated the couple to iconic status in the two

spirit community who have reintegrated. The visual and biographical image is of Losin and Todaste, so that they are once again reunited. It is nice. Yeah, it's really fascinating the way this, uh, their story has kind of been recaptured and being told again more seemingly more accurately now. And if you want more information about these two, Eve Ball's book In the Days of Victorio is really fascinating. Um. She talks to her and a lot of people from

this era and there are just some really deep stories there. Um. And then Aaron Wise says on that Bustle article that you can check out Seating Sovereignty dot org to learn more about two spirit warriors from history and support the work that they're doing. So I thought those are really really interesting sources. Um, you know, haven't spoken to these people, but but I love their work, um, and there's some

really fascinating history here. It took some effort to try and just stick to toda stay in Losin story because if you get into what was Victorio's war is what it was called after they left the reservation, and he was just like, I've had it, look into it because it's a really fascinating history. UM. A lot about Geronimo as well, who of course was his own sort of figure in history. Geronimo, I read, was really popularized by uh Us propagandists as a figure, and that's kind of

why we know him so well. But I was reading that, you know, Victorio and Nana were actually better generals um, and kind of had more of an impact on the Apache back in the day than even Geronimo did. Um. Geronimo was just kind of the last one, um, but

still just fascinating history. Funny who they pick to decide to put into the zeit guys sometimes, well they had him, you know, he was a prisoner because you could go see him, so they held a big story around him so that you would want to go see him and pay a little quarter or whatever, and he, you know, he continued to negotiate and work with the US. He

marched in, uh, Theodore Roosevelt's inauguration. Geronimo was there kind of you know, he tried to be the symbol of like, can we just stop killing each other and get along a little bit here? Um, you know, to an arguable degree of success. But but he was out there trying. I mean, there are still Native Americans today, so I suppose that is a good thing that he managed to not have a total genocide of free tribe, which could

be easily could have been the outcome. And it is really upsetting that it's like the only concessions were ever made by them in the US government to make any concession about ship. Every time they said they did, it was a blatant lie. And they were just like, let me put you on this free range prison or a real prison. Yeah, that's just really galling. Hey, we need the land you got, but there's a way better one over here we're going to send you to and they

get there and there's like no grass. Yeah, because that's why the US government didn't want it. I mean, it's just crazy to be and we had talked in past episodes about how the killing of Buffalo was such a concerted effort to be like, we don't want you to have food to eat, and you're really trying to like starve you out. Um, it's just really just a sad blight, I guess on our on us. Yeah, yeah, it's it's not a fun part of history. No, nope. But but

I do love these two badass ladies. These two are awesome. They're very cool people and a beautiful little love story. I wish there was a little bit more about them, But just knowing that they were out there and cared so much for each other in the face of all this chaos, has some some inspirational quality to it, doesn't it sweet. I hope you all enjoy the story. Yeah,

let us know what you thought. Yeah, please do go look more into this kind of part of history, because there's there's only so much we have time for here, but there's so much to know and it is valuable, I think. So, Yeah, let us know what you thought. Our email is with Dick Romance at gmail dot com. You can find us on social media on Twitter and Instagra. Am I'm at Oh great, it's Eli. I'm at dynamite

boom and the show is at ridict romance. Yes, and we really appreciate you spending your time with us today. We love you, guys. We'll see you next time. So long, So long friends, it's time to go. Thanks for listening to our show. Tell your friends neighbor's uncle s indance to listen to a show ridiculous roll Dance