Given that it is Black History Month, I thought I would write about something a bit different. Montana’s population is a pretty homogeneous group that is overwhelmingly white. There are the indigenous people and a number of reservations in the state, but there is no question, Montana is predominantly white. I did a little investigating and found an article written by a Montana historian discussing several black people who made a name for themselves here in Montana. I found it fascinating and have included the link to the entire article below. I decided rather than me trying to paraphrase this, I would just include the first portrait verbatim. I would encourage everyone to read the entire article.
James Pierson Beckwourth (c 1800 – 1866)
James Pierson Beckwourth (c. 1800- 1866) was apparently known as far as France for his adventures in the American West (oui oui!). He lived for several years with the Crow (Apsáalooke) nation, participating on raids against the Blackfeet, learning the Apsáalooke language, marrying an Apsáalooke woman (or two, depending on your source), and having adventures that make me want to have a beer with the man and just listen.
He was a trained blacksmith born into slavery around 1800 (sources differ on his date of birth). His white father technically owned him (just in case you didn’t know how shitty slavery and the laws surrounding it were), but freed him at some point. Most of Beckwourth’s Montana adventures occurred after the 1820s, while he worked with the Apsáalooke nation. When he wasn’t there he was getting a mountain pass named for him in the Sierra Nevadas, running a store in Denver, being a professional card player in California, or trapping just about anywhere in the West that had fur-bearing critters. He is the only black man who had his adventures in the West published under the grandiose (and glorious) title The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians in 1856. (The link will take you to a Wayback Machine copy of the entire book.)
Beckwourth dictated his life story to a Mr. Thomas Bonner who was working in the California gold fields in the 1850s and one wonders how much Bonner’s hand had in skewing some of Beckwourth’s words (there’s a lot of power you have as the writer of something being dictated to you!) . Beckwourth’s book, while successful, eventually became dismissed as the far-fetched tales of a big-mouthed black man by white readers. Meanwhile, white men could tell the same stories (whether truthful of not) and be taken much more seriously! James spoke at least two or three languages fluently (if you’ve ever seen Apsáalooke written out, it doesn’t seem like a casual language you just pick up), traveled thousands of miles on horseback and on trains, probably got away with his life by the skin of his teeth more often than we can know, but still had a lot of his stories written off as fables.
It’s important that if we’re going to continue to glorify the “intrepid mountain man” trope (as Montanans can never seem to NOT do) that we include such larger-than-life characters as James Pierson Beckwourth. Black men were just as adventurous, determined, creative with their tales, and hard-living; we just don’t have as much testimony about their experiences. This is purposeful: keep in mind that the reason men like Beckwourth aren’t as well-known as Jim Bridger and the like is because they were kept out of narratives or telling their own stories by multiple, strategically placed barriers. Today Beckwourth’s book is considered a valuable primary source for information about the US Army, the Apsáalooke people, wildlife, geography, and information about diseases!
Mr. Beckwourth died in 1866 in Montana. He was working for the US Army leading them to an Apsáalooke outpost when he died, and some believe he was poisoned.
I am sure that the vast majority of Montanans have never heard of any of the people cited in this article. I certainly hadn’t. It is probably also true that none of these individuals are ever mentioned in high school history classes taught in this state. That was certainly true when I went to high school in Miles City back in the dark ages. That is a real tragedy because it would just add to the rich historical fabric of this, “The Last Best Place.” Hopefully someday we can all embrace the entire, complicated, and sometimes controversial history that got us to where we are today as opposed to just embracing those parts that we like and which look like us.
Very interesting story. His story reminds me of Kit Carson. I also live in Trumpsville where I hear people make comments they think are normal such as “I do not know why the blacks are always complaining? We freed them 150 years ago.” Also “Black people are just fine if they live in their own neighborhood and their children go to their own schools.” They have this delusion on what they are saying is proper and accepted. As long as they believe that the racial problem is not not real it will probably take a few more generations before things change.