CHRISTOPHER (KIT) CARSON Scout, Indian Agent 1809 - 1868 Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web gardenofpraise.com

Christopher Carson, known as "Kit" was born on Christmas Eve 1809 in Kentucky. His father was a farmer. Kit never had an opportunity to go to school and remained illiterate* during his lifetime. He was apprenticed to a saddle maker when he was 15 years old.

A beaver lodge

Carson joined a group of traders and moved with them to Sante Fe, New Mexico. He worked as a cook for a while and then was hired by a wealthy trader to be his interpreter because Carson had learned the Spanish language during his stay in New Mexico, but after a while he craved more adventure and joined a group of men who were trapping beavers.

Carson was not a very large man, standing 5 foot 6 inches tall, but he was brave, and once when the camp was approached by a band of 500 Indians, repelled the group by telling them if they didn't leave, the trappers would attack them and kill them. Even though they were only a handful of men, the Indians were convinced and left peacefully.

After several incidents in which the Indians stole horses from them and vice versa, Carson and two of his companions started off on their own to trap beaver. After a successful hunt they return to Taos, New Mexico.

Once Carson challenged a Frenchman, a Captain Shunan, who was boasting and knocking down the other men. In the duel that took place Carson was able to wound the Captain and divert his shot and save his own life. Captain Shunan didn't give them any more trouble.

Kit Carson learned the Indian sign language and took an Arapaho Indian as his wife. Her name was Waa-nibe or Grass Singing. They had one or two children. Their daughter was Adeline . After Grass Singing died he was married briefly to a Cheyenne * Indian woman, but that marriage ended in divorce, and at that time he sent Adeline to a school in St. Louis, Missouri to receive an education.

When he was 33 years old, he married a 15 year old Hispanic girl, Josefa Jaramillo in Taos. Her family opposed the marriage because of the age difference and the fact that Carson was an Anglo foreigner. Carson loved her dearly and during their years together they had seven children.

In 1842 Carson joined John Fremont as a guide to map the Oregon Trail. They left St. Louis on an overland route to the Pacific. They traveled 1200 miles that summer. Carson was always loyal to Fremont, and when Fremont published his expedition* he praised his guide. People used these publications as travel guides as they moved west.

Carson was chosen to carry dispatches to Washington. They knew if anyone could get the messages through, he would be the man to do it.

Many twenty-five cent novels were written about Kit Carson. The editors of the books used his name without his permission. Ironically*, Carson was never able to read one of them himself because he was unable to read. Comic strips and silent movies were also made about his "adventures".

Carson was once a part of a rescue party attempting to rescue the wife of Mr. James White from a group of Apache Indians who were holding her captive. The Indians killed her as she was trying to escape. One of the items the party found at the site was a Kit Carson adventure book the woman evidently had been reading. She possibly had hopes he could rescue her, knowing he was in the area.

There was constant strife between the white settlers and the Indians. As the settlers began moving west they took over the land on which the Indians formerly lived. The Indians raided and killed the settlers to get provisions.

Brigadier General James H. Carleton who was the commander in New Mexico contacted Kit Carson to help alleviate* the Indian situation. His orders were to kill all the men of the Mescalero Apache tribe, but Carson refused to do it.

The government wanted the Navajo Indians relocated. Carson adopted a "scorched earth"* policy to force the Navajo off the land. With the help of the Ute tribe, who were enemies of the Navajo, he burned the Navajo's homes, cornfields, and food supplies. They torched 1,000 peach trees and killed their livestock.. The starving Navajos were hiding in the canyons and caves. Their spirit was broken, and they were ready for a truce. He gave them food and guaranteed protection if they moved to the Bosque Redondo (bos KA rih DON doe) Reservation*. The Indians said he acted without mercy and that he deserted them on the trip.

Long Walk of the Navajo

The march to the reservation in the spring of 1864 is remembered as "The Long Walk". Nearly 9,000 Navajos started the trip. 350 died during the trip and 2,000 of them escaped and were missing. They would stay stay for four years in that location, and then were returned to the area which is the Navajo reservation today.

Carson made a treaty with the Plains Indians and established a permanent reservation for the Utes in their land.

In 1866 Carson was appointed Brevet Brigardier General, a temporary rank. In 1868 he was appointed Indian Agent. The Indians all knew him and many respected him as a truthful man.

Carson left the army and began ranching in Colorado. His wife Josefa died shortly after giving birth to their last child. Carson had been having chest pains for some time. The doctors said he had an aortic* aneurysm* and they didn't give him long to live. He died at the age of 59 just a month after Josephine died.

After Carson's death General Sherman showed kindness to William Carson, Kit's oldest son.

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PRINTABLES Kit Carson Word Search Kit Carson Crossword Puzzle Kit Carson - Word Scramble Kit Carson Study Sheet Worksheet Color a picture of Kit Carson Print Excerpts from "The Life of Kit Carson"

Kit Carson PBS.org American Experience - Kit Carson watch the program online at PBS Kit Carson at Wikipedia Kit Carson short biography at Enchanted Learning Christopher "Kit" Carson biography includes pictures of his wife Kit Carson biography Kit Carson and the Santa Fe Trail contains details of the attempted rescue of Mrs. White The Long Walk Navajo Long Walk to the Bosque Redondo Christopher Carson, Familiarly known as Kit Carson online book by John S.C. Abbot, 1874 The Life of Kit Carson online book by Edward S. Ellis at Gutenberg.org

American Hero Stories CD-ROM By Aabennett Books Inc If you would like to help your children learn more about American history in a fascinating way, these new studies should help meet that desire. With interesting stories about Americans like George Washington, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and many more, this book will help students in 2 - 8th grades enjoy American history while laying a sound foundation for future study. The stories used in these studies were originally published in the early 1900's, and were written almost 100 years closer to the lives of these heroes than those written today. I have taken the stories and shaped each one into a unique study. The stories are all here, along with some added features that have been included to help with the learning adventure. By having it in PDF format on CD-ROM, the pages are printable so that each student can have his/her own copy of the stories, to read along with you or on their own. They can put these stories in their own notebooks, along with other information that they want to include from the Internet resources that are included on the CD-ROM (they are clickable). Perfect for a read-aloud book, this will offer interesting insight into many important people and places in American history. With 29 stories (160 pages), your children can work on one each week for 29 weeks, or read one story/study daily to learn more about American history and heroes over a six week period.

From Word Central's Student Dictionary
by Merriam - Webster
(Pronunciation note: the schwa sound is shown by &)

illiterate
il LIT uh ruht
Function: adjective
having little or no education; especially : unable to read or write

Cheyenne
shi AN
Function: noun
a member of an American Indian people of the western plains of the U.S.

expedition
ek spuh DISH un
Function: noun
a journey or trip undertaken for a specific purpose (as war or exploring)

irony
I ruh ne
Function: noun
inconsistency between an actual and an expected result of a sequence of events

alleviate
uh LE ve ate
Function: verb
to make easier to put up with : to relieve

scorched earth
Function: noun
land stripped of anything that could be of use to an invading enemy force

reservation
rez uhr VA shun
Function: noun
something reserved for a special use; especially : an area of public lands
so reserved (as for use by American Indians)

aortic
a ORT ik
Function:adjective relating to the main artery that carries blood from the heart to
branch arteries by which it is carried throughout the body

aneurysm
AN yuhr iz uhm
Function: noun
an abnormal widening or ballooning of a portion of an artery,
related to weakness in the wall of the blood vessel.

Biographies in this Series

Presidents of the United States	George Washington 1st U.S. President	John Adams 2nd U.S. President	Thomas Jefferson 3rd U.S.President
	James Monroe 5th U.S. President	Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President	Abraham Lincoln 16th U.S.President
	Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd U.S. President	John F. Kennedy 35th U.S. President	James Madison 4th U.S. President
	Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President	Ronald Reagan 40th U.S. President
American Patriots	Benjamin Franklin patriot and statesman	Francis Scott Key Star Spangled Banner	Deborah Sampson woman soldier in the Revolutionary War
World Leaders	Constantine Roman Emperor	Alexander the Great conqueror	Winston Churchill British Prime Minister
Inventors	Alexander Graham Bell telephone	Johann Gutenberg printing press	Cyrus McCormick mechanical reaper
	The Wright Brothers first airplane	Henry Ford Automaker	Thomas A. Edison electric light bulb
	Sequoyah Cherokee alphabet	Nikola Tesla 700 patents	.
Explorers	Christopher Columbus explorer	Meriwether Lewis explorer	Robert Peary Arctic explorer
	John Muir Naturalist	Matthew Henson Arctic Explorer	Sir Edmund Hillary Mr.Everest
	Kit Carson Indian agent	"Johnny Appleseed" orchardist	.
Women who made a difference	Clara Barton founder of the Red Cross	Helen Keller overcame blindness & deafness	Florence Nightingale founder of nursing profession
	Joan of Arc religious and military leader	Amelia Earhart Aviator	Annie Oakley sharpshooter
	Susan B. Anthony Suffragette	Elizabeth Keckly Seamstress	Harriet Tubman deliverer of slaves
	Anne Frank Diarist	Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian	.
Scientists	George Washington Carver botanist and educator	Sir Isaac Newton explained gravity and properties of light	Marie Curie scientist, physicist
	Louis Pasteur Biologist	Albert Einstein physicist, genius	Galileo Astronomer, physicist
	Lise Meitner Physicist	.	.
Educators	Noah Webster writer of dictionary	Booker T. Washington leader and educator	Aristotle Greek philosopher
Physicians	Hippocrates father of medicine	Walter Reed discovered cause of yellow fever	Albert Schweitzer humanitarian
Religious Leaders	Increase Mather Salem witch trials	.
Athletes	Lou Gehrig baseball player	Wilma Rudolph Olympic gold medal winner	Tiger Woods golfer
	Michael Phelps Olympic swimmer	.	.
Civil Rights Leaders	Martin Luther King civil rights leader	Rosa Parks bus desegregation	Sojourner Truth Former slave
	Frederick Douglass Abolitionist	Mary Ann Shadd Cary Civil rights leader	James Forten Inventor, abolitionist
Composers	Beethoven composer
Artists	John James Audubon artist and naturalist	Gutzon Borglum sculptor, Mount Rushmore	Ansel Adams photographer

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