Greenwood stretches the yarn a little further and replies that Beckwourth had been bought by the whites and has become a famous brave among them. He further elaborates by saying that all the enemies of the Crow fear Jim. The Crows gallop off for their village to relate this astonishing news. Here is one of their own lost little ones, over six-foot tall by now, returned to the bosom of his tribe. And he is a great white chief too-boot, with a lodge-pole full of Blackfeet scalps.
Sometime later, while Beckwourth and Jim Bridger are looking for a missing trap Bridger sees a large group of Indians overtake Beckwourth and make off with him. Knowing he is helpless to alone attempt a rescue, Bridger returns to camp where all mourn the sure death of their old friend Jim Beckwourth.
When the kidnapping Indians reach their village Beckwourth is surprised to realize these red men are Crows and do not intend to kill him. They were merely escorting him to their village. Beckwourth is honored as a lost son returned after one old woman proclaims that if Beckwourth has a mole on the lid of one certain eye, she claims him as her son who was abducted in that long ago raid by the Cheyenne.
After a painful inspection of Jim's eyelid it is discovered that he does have a mole just where the old woman indicated. After that the mulatto mountain man is celebrated and honored in high style. All new buckskin clothing is presented to him among other honored possessions. In time, Jim Beckwourth is made a chief of the Crows. It is an outcome that not even Old Greenwood could have yarned a lie about.
To learn more about James Beckwourth and other African Americans who helped settle the west on the Internet see:
James Beckwourth http://www.utahhistorytogo.org/beckwourt...
Beyond the Pale...African-Americans in the Fur Trade West http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/furtrade....
Two George Washingtons http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/wash... This interesting article concerns two African Americans, both names George Washington, who traveled west.
The major printed sources for this article are:
Old Greenwood by Charles Kelly and Dale L. Morgan. Published by the Talisman Press, Georgetown, California, 1963.
The Mountain Men by George Laycock. Published by Outdoor Life Books, Sedgewood Press, New York, 1988.
The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, by T. D. Bonner, University of Nebraska Press Edition, 1972.
THE WILD WILD WEST HAS ARRIVED AT SUITE 101 UNIVERSITY
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