Beginning in 1869, the Warm Springs band of Chiricahua Apache first faced hostile Mexican soldiers, then the aggressive U.S. Army. The Chiricahua chose to fight rather than give up their ancient Arizona homeland for a new reservation in New Mexico. In a battle against extermination, they roamed Colorado to Mexico, raiding white settlements for horses.
Under this pressure, great Chiricahua leaders developed. One was Lozen, cousin of the Apache warrior chief Victorio. Lozen was sixteen when a Seneca leader lodged with her band while seeking a refuge for his New York tribe. Grey Ghost had a mission to perform and continued on his way, leaving Lozen with a broken heart. She vowed to dedicate her life to her tribe's survival.
For two decades she rode with Victorio and Geronimo, displaying great courage. During one battle, she darted into enemy fire to retrieve a sack of bullets dropped by a runner. She was especially valuable for her ability to sense the whereabouts of enemies.
In 1887 Lozen and her surviving band were taken prisoners of war. They were herded to Florida, Alabama, and finally Oklahoma. Each site was a death sentence for more of Lozen's people. At Mt. Vernon Barracks, Alabama, Lozen herself died from tuberculosis. Her people buried her anonymously, according to custom, and waited almost a century before repeating her oral history to outsiders.
SOURCES:
Kimberly Moore Buchanan, Apache Woman Warriors (University of Texas at El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1986).
Carl Waldman, Who Was Who in Native American History (New York: Facts on File, 1990).
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell grew up in Washington Hall, the great house on the Yorkshire coast built by her grandfather. Her mother died when Gertie was only four. When she was eight her father married Florence Olliffe, an artist, playwright and lady. Florence brought to the household a lively, free-thinking atmosphere, genuine love for Gertie and her younger brother, and in time three more Bell children.
Although Gertie was always at the top of her private classes, her Victorian father wasn't sure a girl should go to university. But several family dowagers believed fervently in women's rights. Thus in 1886, at age 17, Gertie entered one of two Oxford colleges that admitted women.
It took Gertie only two years to earn a top degree in modern history--the first woman to do so--while participating in swimming, rowing, acting, tennis, hockey, dancing and debate. After graduation, she used family contacts to visit the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. She even became an accomplished mountain climber. Her mental schedule was equally vigorous. Throughout her life she studied five to seven hours a day, mastering French, German, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Farsi, Chinese and Japanese. She also pursued history, geography and archaeology.
Everything Gertie did she did well, whether publishing a light travel book about a trip to Persia (Iran) or producing a critically acclaimed translation of the poems of the Divan of Hafiz. After several years of archeological studies, in 1902 she participated in digs in Turkey, northern Syria and Cilicia. In 1906 she worked with Sir William Ramsay searching out early Christian churches in Turkey and Greece. Their major book on this subject was published in 1909, introducing Gertrude's name to Mideast scholars everywhere.
After World War I, Gertrude served as chief political officer to Sir Percy Cox's transitional government in Iraq. Her thorough knowledge of desert tribes helped ease tensions as the British handed power to a native monarchy. Later King Faisal appointed Gertrude founding director of the Iraqi Museum.
Gertrude was chagrined when a native uprising surprised the British and cost her insider status among her peers. Not long afterward she died from overwork. Her funeral was attended "by the whole of Baghdad," according to one observer, and her family honored her multi-faceted contributions through a bronze plaque set into a wall at Washington Hall.
SOURCES:
H. V. F. Winstone, Gertrude Bell (New York: Quartet Books, 1978).
Brian M. Fagan, Return to Babylon: Travelers, Archaeologists and Monuments in Mesopotamia(Boston: Little, Brown, 1979).
In 1993 Julieanne Louise Krone, 30, became the first woman anywhere in the world to win a top-ranked thoroughbred horse race. As she and Colonial Affair rode to victory in the Belmont Stakes, it was the culmination of a hard-won career.
Julie was raised on a farm in Eau Claire, Michigan. She was only nine when her mother bought her an Arabian-Shetland filly. Her mother also enrolled her in 4-H and the Pony Club of America. Soon Julie was riding in horse shows.
At 14, Julie watched on television as Steve Cauthen won the Belmont Stakes. She turned to her mother and said, "I'm going to be a jockey." Instead of merely humoring her, Judi Krone chauffeured Julie to Churchill Downs where both got jobs walking racehorses.
In 1981, only 17, Julie began riding as a pro. That February she and Lord Farkle won at Tampa Bay Downs. Over the next three years Julie built a reputation as the best jockey in Atlantic City.
At first, male jockeys did not accept her, deliberately pushing her against the inside rail to hold her back. Reacting to such treatment, Julie got a reputation for being tough and brash. She still wears a baseball cap that reads, "No Cry Babies." And she once had to be dragged away from a punching match with a top male jockey who had boxed her in, then snapped a whip at her during a race. Later, she retaliated by hitting him over the head with a chair!
But it was this grit that helped her to victory after victory. In 1992 Julie began riding for New York's better trainers. That year she beat out all other riders at Belmont Park's spring meet and came in ninth in the nation in total earnings.
It was the following spring that Julie first rode Colonial Affair. Two years old and in his first racing season, Colonial was taller than Julie--68" at the withers. In four early races, Julie tried several tactics on him and found it was best to let him drop behind slightly, then push him wide down the final stretch. At Belmont she knew if she let Colonial lag too far behind, he would not be able to catch up, as had happened in one race. Yet if she pushed him too hard too soon, he would get discouraged and slow down before the finish line.
As it turned out, Julie made just the right decisions. Colonial's trainer boasted, "She rode him to perfection."
SOURCES:
Julie Krone with Nancy Ann Richardson, Riding For My Life (New York: Little Brown, 1995).
"Five Reins of Terror," Sports Illustrated, vol. 79 #26 (December 27, 1993), p. 60.
William Nack, "Bittersweet Victory," Sports Illustrated, vol. 78 #23 (June 14, 1993), p. 34.
"My Mother Made Me," U.S. Kids, vol. 9 #3 (April/May 1996), p 18.
Among Mississippi River frontiersmen, an Iowa Indian was known as "the Dorion Woman" because she was the wife of Pierre Dorion, well-known trapper and explorer. Later, as her exploits became legendary among a few people, the name stuck.
Marie Dorion was born in 1786 to a tribe that was dying. The Iowas had migrated from Canada to Minnesota in the early 1700s but by 1760 numbered only 1,100. By 1804, through smallpox and other European diseases, only 800 members were left. Yet Marie learned many survival skills from her people, who remained expert buffalo hunters, beaver trappers, and farmers.
In 1806, while living in southwestern Arkansas, Marie met Pierre, who was managing a trading post on the Red River. Half-Sioux, Pierre knew several Indian languages plus English, French and some Spanish. He had interpreted during one leg of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Marie and Pierre married by Indian law and had two sons.
In 1810 John Jacob Astor determined to compete in the fur trade. To establish a trading post in Oregon, he sent one company by sea and another along Lewis and Clark's route to the Pacific. The overland company was to scout other post sites and negotiate trade agreements along the way with Indian tribes. Wilson Price Hunt, Astor's agent, recruited Pierre Dorion away from the Missouri Fur Company by offering him better pay. But Marie had had enough of separation and insisted on going with her husband. This meant bringing their small sons.
The Hunt Expedition left St. Louis in March 1811. At first the men objected to having a pregnant woman with two children along. But Marie proved tough and independent. In addition, her negotiating savvy spared company lives during several Sioux attacks.
In Wyoming the Hunt company ran into worse trouble. Abandoning Lewis and Clarke's route, they headed south across the Divide, then northwest into the Tetons where four members drowned in the Snake River. Straying into a box canyon, the survivors were ambushed by Crow Indians. Their horses were stolen and they ran out of supplies until they had only wild berries and boiled moccasins to eat. Someone suggested shooting the one remaining horse for dinner. But when a vote was taken, the men chose to starve rather than make Marie walk.
On the day Marie went into labor, Hunt gave an order to make camp. Pierre said, "No, no, the woman will be offended." Marie stayed behind as the men moved on. In a few hours she caught up with them, carrying her newborn son. Little Baptiste and Paul were placed on the horse behind her. Two days later the group came upon a friendly Indian camp. Although the squaws gently tended mother and baby, at eight days old the infant died.
In February the company reached the Columbia River. Some days later they entered the Astorian camp on the Pacific coast. As soon as spring arrived, members of the group started back to St. Louis. The story of this return journey -- of which Marie and her sons were the only survivors -- is even more thrilling than the westward leg.
SOURCES:
Cloe Boyce Rogers, "The Dorion Woman," in Heart Throbs of the West, (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1947), vol. 1, pp 119-124.
Rebecca Bartholomew, Lost Heroines: Little-Known Women Who Changed Their World (Uintah
Springs Press, 1997).
For more lost heroines, click on: Lost Heroines the Book
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Last Updated May 16, 1998. Your comments and questions are welcome. Write Carrie at: uintah@magiclink.com