Kit Carson
N 36° 24.505 W 105° 34.189
13S E 448909 N 4029400
Kit Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868), born Christopher Houston Carson, was an American frontiersman.
Waymark Code: WM123Y
Location: New Mexico, United States
Date Posted: 12/21/2006
Views: 174
Born in Madison County, Kentucky near the city of Richmond, Carson was raised in Franklin, Missouri, where his family moved before his second birthday. At fifteen, Carson left an apprenticeship to a saddle maker and traveled west to New Mexico. There, he established himself as a trader and trapper in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Utah.
In addition to his work as a trapper, Carson served as a guide, military scout, Indian agent, shepherd, farmer, soldier (rising to the rank of brigadier general), and rancher during his time in the southwest. His reputation grew when he guided John C. Frémont on an expedition to map the western trails to the Pacific Ocean. In 1842, Frémont described Carson with the following words: “I was pleased with him and his manner of address at this first meeting. He was a man of medium height, broad-shouldered and deep chested, with a clear steady blue eye and frank speech and address; quiet and unassuming.” (Frémont’s Memoirs, p. 74) Descriptions in Frémont's popular report of his expeditions made Kit Carson famous.
After ending his career as a trapper, Carson became a hunter for Bent's Fort. While taking his daughter back to Missouri to receive an education, he again met John C. Frémont and agreed to serve as his guide on three major expeditions in 1842, 1843 and 1845. In the meantime, Carson re-settled in Taos, New Mexico. After receiving instruction from Padre Antonio José Martínez, he was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1842. When he was 34, he married 14-year-old Josefa Jaramillo, his third wife, on February 6, 1843. They raised fifteen children, the descendants of whom remain in the Arkansas Valley of Colorado.
Carson was active in military service, reaching the brevet rank of brigadier-general. He fought against the Mexicans in California in the 1840s alongside John C. Fremont. Under indirect orders from Fremont, Carson presided over the cold-blooded killing of three Californio citizens at Point San Pablo: the two young De Haro twins and the elder Jose de los Reyes Berreyessa. Carson also fought in the Battle of San Pascual, where General S. W. Kearny and a small force of Americans were surrounded. He and Lieutenant Beale crawled two miles (3 km) through prickly pear and rocks and finally reached San Diego to report the siege to Commodore Stockton who immediately sent a relief force.
Brigadier General James H. Carleton, the new commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, ordered Carson to lead an expedition against the Navajo Indians who continued to raid Pueblo Indians and European newcomers throughout the Rio Grande Valley. The Navajos should be told, Carleton instructed Carson, "You have deceived us too often, and robbed and murdered our people too long, to trust you again at large in your own country. This war shall be pursued against you if it takes years, now that we have begun, until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject."
Under Carleton's direction, Carson instituted a scorched earth policy, burning Navajo fields and homes, and confiscating or killing their livestock. He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. Carson was pleased with the work the Utes did for him, but they went home early in the campaign when told they could not confiscate Navajo booty.
Carson also had difficulty with his New Mexico volunteers. Troopers deserted and officers resigned. Carson urged Carleton to accept two resignations he was forwarding, "as I do not wish to have any officer in my command who is not contented or willing to put up with as much inconvenience and privations for the success of the expedition as I undergo myself."
There were no pitched battles and only a few skirmishes in the Navajo campaign. Carson rounded up and took prisoner every Navajo he could find. In January 1864, Carson sent a company into Canyon de Chelly to attack the last Navajo stronghold under the leadership of Manuelito. The Navajo were forced to surrender because of the destruction of their livestock and food supplies. In the spring of 1864, 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march or ride in wagons 300 miles (480 km) to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Navajos call this "The Long Walk". Many died along the way or during the next four years of imprisonment. In 1868, after signing a treaty with the U.S. government, remaining Navajos were allowed to return to a reduced area of their homeland, where the Navajo Reservation exists today. Thousands of other Navajo who had been living in the wilderness returned to the Navajo homeland centered around Canyon de Chelly.
Many of the early images and recollections of Carson by his peers and early writers portray him in a positive light. Albert Richardson, who knew him personally in the 1850s, wrote that Kit Carson was "a gentleman by instinct, upright, pure, and simple-hearted, beloved alike by Indians, Mexicans, and Americans" (Richardson, p. 261).
Oscar Lipps also presented a positive image of Carson: "The name of Kit Carson is to this day held in reverence by all the old members of the Navajo tribe. They say he knew how to be just and considerate as well as how to fight the Indians" (Lipps, p. 59).
Carson's contributions to western history have been reexamined by historians, journalists and Native American activists since the 1960s. In 1968, Carson biographer Harvey L. Carter stated:
In respect to his actual exploits and his actual character, however, Carson was not overrated. If history has to single out one person from among the Mountain Men to receive the admiration of later generations, Carson is the best choice. He had far more of the good qualities and fewer of the bad qualities than anyone else in that varied lot of individuals. (Carter, p. 210)
Some journalists and authors during the last 25 years present a less benign view of Carson. Virginia Hopkins stated that "Kit Carson was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Indians" (Hopkins, p. 40). Her viewpoint is contrasted with that of Tom Dunlay, who wrote in 2000 that Carson was directly responsible for less than fifty Indian deaths and that, as Carson was not there at the time, Indian deaths on the Long Walk or at Ft. Sumner were the responsibility of the U.S. Army and General James Carleton. (Dunlay, chapter 8)
Ed Quillen, publisher of Colorado Central magazine and columnist for The Denver Post, wrote that "Carson...betrayed [the Navajo], starved them by destroying their farms and livestock in Canyon de Chelly and then brutally marched them to the Bosque Redondo concentration camp." (Denver Post, April 27, 1993) In 1970, Lawrence Kelly noted that Carleton had warned 18 Navajo chiefs that all Navajo peoples "must come in and go to the Bosque Redondo where they would be fed and protected until the war was over. That unless they were willing to do this they would be considered hostile." (Kelly, p. 20-21) Quillen's contention that Bosque Redondo was a concentration camp has been challenged. For instance, several men went off the reservation and stole 1,000 horses from the Comanche Indians to the east. (The Navajo Treaty, p. 14.)
On January 19, 2006, Marley Shebala, senior news reporter and photographer for Navajo Times, quoted the Fort Defiance Chapter of the Navajo Nation as saying, "Carson ordered his soldiers to shoot any Navajo, including women and children, on sight." This view of Carson's actions may be from General James Carleton’s orders to Carson on October 12, 1862, concerning the Mescalero Apaches: "All Indian men of that tribe are to be killed whenever and wherever you can find them: the women and children will not be harmed, but you will take them prisoners and feed them at Ft. Stanton until you receive other instructions" (Kelly, p. 11).
Description:
See long description.
Date of birth: 12/24/1809
Date of death: 05/23/1868
Area of notoriety: Historical Figure
Marker Type: Headstone
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daylight Hours
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
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