Kit Carson: The Life of an American Border Man
- ISBN-10
- 0806183276
- ISBN-13
- 9780806183275
- Series
- Kit Carson
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 320
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-11-10
- Publisher
- University of Oklahoma Press
- Author
- David Remley
Description
History has portrayed Christopher "Kit" Carson in black and white. Best known as a nineteenth-century frontier hero, he has been represented more recently as an Indian killer responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Navajos. Biographer David Remley counters these polarized views, finding Carson to be less than a mythical hero, but more than a simpleminded rascal with a rifle. Kit Carson: The Life of an American Border Man strikes a balance between prevailing notions about this quintessential western figure. Whereas the dime novelists exploited Carson's popular reputation, Remley reveals that the real man was dependable, ethical, and—for his day—relatively open-minded. Sifting through the extensive scholarship about Kit, the author illuminates the key dimensions of Carson's life, including his often neglected Scots-Irish heritage. His people's dire poverty and restlessness, their clannish rural life and sternly Protestant character, committed Carson, like his Scots-Irish ancestors, to loyalty and duty and to following his leader into battle without question. Remley also places Carson in the context of his times by exploring his controversial relations with American Indians. Although despised for the merciless warfare he led on General James H. Carleton's behalf against the Navajos, Carson lived amicably among many Indian people, including the Utes, whom he served as U.S. government agent. Happily married to Waa-Nibe, an Arapaho woman, until her death, he formed a lasting friendship with their daughter, Adaline. Remley sees Carson as a complicated man struggling to master life on America's borders, those highly unstable areas where people of different races, cultures, and languages met, mixed, and fought, sometimes against each other, sometimes together, for the possession of home, hunting rights, and honor.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2011-05-05
- 320 pages
- Paperback
- University of Oklahoma Press
Similar books
-
Blood and Thunder
By Hampton SidesChicago: Consolidated Book Publishers, 1954. Supplee, Charles, and Douglas and Barbara Anderson. Canyon de Chelly: The Story behind the Scenery. KC Publications, 1990. Taylor, John Bloody Valverde: A Civil War ...
-
Kit Carson's Own Story of His Life: Facsimile of Original 1926 Edition
By Kit CarsonIn 1826 17-year-old Christopher "Kit" Carson ran away from his job as apprentice to a saddler in Franklin, Mo., and joined a merchant caravan bound for Santa Fe. In the decades that followed, Carson gained renown as a trapper, hunter, guide ...
-
Kit Carson's Autobiography
By Kit CarsonThe account-as modest and undemonstrative as Carson's feats were remarkable-covers his life as a trapper, Indian fighter, guide, and buffalo hunter up to the fall of 1856.
-
Kit Carson: A Pattern for Heroes
By Thelma S. Guild, Harvey L. CarterDescribes the life of Kit Carson, discusses his activities as a guide in the West, and examines his role in the wars against the Indians
-
Kit Carson and the Wild Frontier
By Ralph MoodyThe life of Kit Carson, legendary scout, mountain man, and Indian fighter of the Old West.
-
The Life of Kit Carson: Hunter, Trapper, Guide, Indian Agent, and Colonel U.S.A.
By Edward Sylvester EllisNot only a biography of one of America's true heroes, this is an excellent tool for teaching American history and geography.
-
Writing Kit Carson: Fallen Heroes in a Changing West
By Susan Lee JohnsonDenver: Will H. Richards, 1915. Bresser's Cross- Index Directory of Greater Denver, 1965–66. Denver: Walter Bresser and Sons, 1965. Chicago Telephone Directory. Chicago: Illinois Bell Telephone Company, 1941–47.
-
Kit Carson and the Indians
By Thomas W. DunlayCaptain Francis McCabe had left Fort Canby on March 20 ( the day after Kit's return to the post ) with eight hundred Navajo prisoners to conduct to Bosque Redondo . He had , in his own words , “ barely a sufficient supply of rations and ...
-
The Life of Kit Carson
By Edward S. EllisReproduction of the original: The Life of Kit Carson by Edward S. Ellis
-
Kit Carson: Mountain Man
By Tracey BoraasGlossary ambush ( AM - bush ) —to hide and then attack someone apprentice ( uh - PREN - tiss ) —someone who learns a trade or craft by working with a skilled person cavvy ( KAV - ee ) —a person who worked on a wagon train to herd the ...