James Beckwourth

1798 -1866

Name: James Beckwourth

Birthplace: Virginia

Occupation/Training: Early American traders, scout, explorer, trapper, and trader.

Aboitionist Involvement: James Beckwourth was a pioneer in the truest sense. Born into a large family. He is often described as a mulatto who was fathered by an American Revolutionary patriot who was White, and a Negro mother. Whether she was free or slave is not known. As a child however, the family was already west of the Mississippi River, settling in Missouri near the Missouri River. As a young boy, he ran away to New Orleans, but quickly was disillusioned at the lack of opportunities for free blacks in the deep south. He soon signed up as a scout with General William Henry Ashely's Rocky Mountain Fur Company. This is the trip that initially took him to the west, and it was during this time that his skills as an outdoorsman developed. It was this time spent over the next decade that he would experience life as a mountain man. By the 1830s he was known to have associated with many Indians particularly the Crow nation, but by the late 1830s he left the west to live briefly in Missouri again.

The Seminole Wars attracted his attention encourage him to serve. By the 1840s he was back on the Western frontier, this time in New Mexico, and later in California. He frequented the mountains of the west, and was known to have discovered a pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains between the Feather and Truckee Rivers in California, which became part of the major emigrant route to California. This is now known as the Beckwourth Pass.

His earlier experience with the Crow Indians had made him a prominent man for both the Crow and the American government, as he was seen as a valuable interpreter also. He had earlier lived among the Crow, had had Crow wives, and participated in their wars with other Indians. The Crow nation wanted him to live among them as a chief, but he declined the offer. However, it is said that since he chose not to live among them that they would prefer to have his remains among them in death. It is stated that he was poisoned by the Crow people so that his body and his powerful medicine would remain with them.

Family: Although it is stated that he had Crow wives, it is not known if children from Beckwourth emerged from those unions.

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