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Jim Beckwourth
Mountain Man, Explorer, Scout
Legends of the West
Scott # 2869q
Issued on October 18, 1994 in
Tucson, AZ; Laramie, WY; and Lawton, OK
Design by Mark Hess
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James Pierson Beckwourth was born in Fredricksburg
Virginia on April 6, 1798 to Sir Jennings Beckwith and a slave mother.
Jim headed west while still in his teens and was adopted by
the Crow Indians. (The term Crow is a European American term. The Crow called
themselves Absaroke or the Sparrowhawk people.) While living
with the Absaroke , Jim trapped and hunted along the Yellowstone
and Bighorn rivers and became known to the tribe as Bloody
Arm due to his fierceness in battle. Jim rose in the tribal
hierarchy to become a War Chief and according to his own account later became
the head Chief of the entire Absaroke Nation.
Jim married several Absaroke women, (according
to some accounts, at least ten), but never stayed with any of them for
more than a few weeks.
In 1837 Jim recruited some of his fellow mountain men and
fought under Colonel Zachary Taylor in the Seminole War at the Battle of
Okeechobee in Florida. He returned to the Absaroke in
1838.
Jim left the Absaroke in 1844 and headed for
California. In 1851 while working for General Fremont, Jim
discovered a pass through the Northern Sierra Mountains that bears his name
today. There is also a mountain, valley and town in California that bear his
name.
Jim died in 1866 and according to the legend, the Absaroke
fed him poisoned food after he refused to return as their chief.
Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia
Africana
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