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Gouyen was born around 1857 into the Chihenne band of Chiricahua Apaches who lived in the Warm Springs, or Ojo Caliente, area of what is now New Mexico.

She rode with Chief Victorio and was the niece of Nana, a well-respected Apache warrior.

She married young and had a son, Kaywaykla, and a daughter.

In the early 1870s, Gouyen’s husband was killed during a Comanche raid. Gouyen watched as a Comanche warrior scalped her husband before her eyes.

Mourning her husband’s death, Gouyen cut her hair, an accepted practice among the Apaches when one loses a spouse. Her knife was taken from her to prevent more harm.

Apache culture demanded vengeance for the death of a warrior as a matter of honor. However, Gouyen’s family only had elderly men, no one strong enough to avenge her husband’s killing. She was determined to extract retribution from the Comanche assassin.

Knowing she would be stopped if her family knew her intentions, Gouyen waited until the moon fell behind the horizon before stealing out of the campsite and following the trail left by the Comanches. She took with her the formal dress from her puberty ceremony, but she dared not take a horse. She had few provisions and no knife.

For three nights, Gouyen ran. During the day, she rested while on constant watch for both pursuers and enemies.

On the fourth night, she saw the fires of the Comanches as they celebrated their victory over the Apaches. Crouching just beyond the firelight, Gouyen saw the warrior who had taken her husband’s life. She also recognized his horse. Stealthily untying the animal, she led it away from the revelers.

Changing into her ceremonial dress, Gouyen furtively entered the circle of dancers around the fire. As she approached the warrior, she saw her husband’s scalp suspended from the man’s belt. He was drunk.

Again and again, she enticed the man with her gestures until he finally grabbed her hand and entered the dance circle with her. Before long, he led her away from the fire and into the darkness.

Gouyen wrested her hand from his grasp and ran ahead, just fast enough to stay out of his reach. But he soon angered at her flirtations and threw her to the ground.

Knowing he was much stronger, Gouyen tried to grab his knife and finish the job she had come to do, but just as she unsheathed it from his belt, the knife slipped out of her hand and fell out of reach. She had to act quickly before he overpowered her.

Struggling against his weight, she managed to sink her teeth deep into his neck. Blood spewed from the wound, spilling over her face and down her dress. But she knew this was her last chance to overpower him and held on with all the strength she could muster.

She felt him weakening and finally let go when he stopped moving. She knew he was dead.

Finding his knife, she quickly extracted his heart from his chest and deftly removed his scalp. Grabbing his headband, breechclout and moccasins, she ran to the hidden horse, leaped on, and fled into the night.

For two days and nights, Gouyen rode, only stopping when the horse needed a respite. She found water along the way but had no food. She dared not sleep as every time she loosened her grasp on the horse, it headed back toward the Comanche campsite.

She heard hoofbeats before she saw the men coming toward her. When she realized it was her own people, but fearing she might be punished for leaving camp without permission, plus on the brink of exhaustion and starvation, Gouyen fell to the ground, losing consciousness.

When she awoke, she was lying in the tepee of her in-laws, being cared for by her husband’s mother. She gave the tokens she had extracted from the dead Comanche to her father-in-law, who took them to the tepee opening for all to see.

“My daughter is a brave and good woman,� her father-in-law proclaimed. “She has killed the Comanche chief; and she has brought his weapons and garments to her people. She has ridden his mount. Let her always be honored by my people. And let her name be Gouyen.�

Several years later, during the Battle of Tres Castillos — a hard-fought clash between Mexico soldiers and Victorio’s band of warriors that occurred on Oct. 14, 1880 — Gouyen was with Victorio as the Apaches entered the fray. Victorio and 78 of his followers perished during the melee. Gouyen and her son, along with just a handful of others, escaped. During her flight, Gouyen lost sight of her young daughter and never saw her again.

Eventually, Gouyen remarried. Kaytennae was one of the few warriors who had escaped during the Battle of Tres Castillos. They had two sons.

After being captured and sent to the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Southeast Arizona, Gouyen and her son rode with Geronimo when he escaped from the encampment in 1883. She was also with Geronimo when he surrendered three years later.

Gouyen survived imprisonments in Texas, Florida and Alabama before arriving at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894. She died there in 1903 and is buried at Fort Sill.

Gouyen’s son, Kaywaykla, was sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and returned to the Fort Sill reservation in 1898. He was given the name of James.

James Kaywaykla recounted his childhood memories to historian Eve Ball, who recorded his words in several of her books. “Until I was about 10 years old,� James once said, “I did not know that people died except by violence.�

James Kaywaykla died in 1963.