Sioux Dawn, The Fetterman Massacre, 1866 - Plot & Excerpts
mulatto Jim Beckwourth said as he leaned over, whispering to his old friend, “Big Throat” Jim Bridger. Together the two had trapped from the Marias and Milk rivers clear down to South Park in the Colorado country. When beaver was prime. Then years ago Beckwourth had parleyed his dark skin into a place of honor among the Crow tribe as one of their respected warriors. Jim’s father, it was rumored among the trappers of the old west, had been a wealthy Virginia landowner who sired his son by one of his plantation slaves. Rather than owning up to his paternity, Beckwourth’s father had instead granted that son his freedom. After years of homeless wandering, Jim found himself happy among the mountain trappers to whom a man’s color simply didn’t matter. Ultimately the Crow, who had captured Beckwourth in a horse raid many years back, believed the man with the remarkable mole on one eyelid a long-lost son returned home to his people at last. The tribe had treated him so regally that Jim couldn’t bring himself to leave.
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