"'Isdzan' is one of the Apache words meaning 'woman.' There are several, but that is the one suggested by an Apache friend of mine. Living in Arizona, amidst so much Apache history, I find that I'm exposed to it a lot - particularly up in the White Mountains. Many Apache live there. Oddly enough, the women look exactly as they did 150 years ago.

"My model for this painting was a full-blooded Apache woman, but I wasn't trying to get a literal likeness. I've wanted to do a painting of a young, seated Apache woman for some time. Here she sits beside a burden basket, wearing a Sunrise Ceremony dress. It is not an everyday dress and would normally have been worn only for special occasions. It's decorated with tin cones and some beadwork. Tin cones were used as decorations by all the tribes. They make a nice little tinkling sound, and some things made by the Apache were profusely decorated with them." - Howard Terpning