Born into slavery in Virginia in 1798, James Pierson Beckwourth was the son of his family’s white owner. Being recognized as a white man’s son, Beckwourth proved that there’s nothing you can’t do in your life, no matter what your background or circumstances.

After being freed by his father, Beckwourth joined “Ashley’s Hundred,” a fur-trapping company founded by William Henry Ashley. Roughly 100 fur trappers and mountain men made up the company that would inevitably become the “Rocky Mountain Fur Company.”

While traveling with said company, Beckwourth developed relationships with Indigenous peoples. It was through them that he learned methods of hunting, fishing, tracking, and trapping. Sometime during the mid-1820s, he married a Crow woman and lived with the tribe until the mid-1830s.

After a brief time in the army, he returned to the Rocky Mountains as an independent trapper, trader, and guide, paving the way to becoming one of the most noteworthy mountain men of the era, including owning the most prestigious hotel in Santa Fe.

During the revolution and gold rush, Beckwourth spent some time in California, where he trapped with Kit Carson, who waged one of the worst wars against the Navajo, and Jim Bridger, one of the first mountain men to explore the Yellowstone region.

Beckwourth was also an army scout for Colonel Chivington’s campaigns against Native Americans in the Colorado Territory and witnessed the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre. Beckwourth’s skills and charisma helped him become respected among fellow trappers in trading posts of Colorado, the Crow villages along the Rocky Mountains, the gold fields of California, and beyond.

He became a staple in stories told of the frontier and was sought out by the army and settlers as a guide and scout. Beckwourth passed away in 1866, leaving behind a book of memoirs that have a story of their own.

To learn more about James P. Beckwourth visit https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/digitalcolorado/ colorado- histories/ beginnings/james-pierson- beckwourth- african- americanmountain man-fur-trader-explorer/.