Editing Kit Carson (section)

== Mountain man (1829–1841) ==
{{See also|Fur trade}}
[[File:Carson and his horse Apache.jpg|thumb|upright=1|alt=Mountain man Kit Carson and his favorite horse|Mountain man Kit Carson and his favorite horse, Apache, from ''The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains'' by De Witt C. Peters. The book was Carson's first biography and was printed in 1858.]]
At the age of 19, Carson began his career as a mountain man. He traveled through many parts of the American West with famous [[mountain men]] like [[Jim Bridger]] and [[Old Bill Williams]]. He spent the winter of 1828–1829 as a cook for [[Ewing Young]] in Taos.<ref>Guild and Carter 32</ref> He joined Young's trapping expedition of 1829. The leadership of Young and the experience of the venture are credited with shaping Carson's early life in the mountains. In addition to furs and the company of other mountain men, Carson sought action and adventure. Carson probably killed and scalped a Native for the first time when he was 19, during Young's expedition.<ref>Sides 16</ref>

In August 1829, the party went into [[Apache]] territory along the [[Gila River]]. The expedition was attacked, giving Carson his first experience of combat. Young's party continued on to [[Alta California]]; trapped and traded in California from [[Sacramento]] in the north to [[Los Angeles]] in the south; and returned to Taos, New Mexico, in April 1830 after it had trapped along the [[Colorado River]].<ref>Carter 42–50</ref>

Carson joined a rescue party in Taos searching for the perpetrators of an attack on a wagon train, although the perpetrators managed to escape. Carson joined another expedition, led by Thomas Fitzpatrick and William Levin, in 1831. Fitzpatrick, Levin, and his trappers went north to the central [[Rocky Mountains]]. Carson hunted and trapped in the West for about ten years. He was known as a reliable man and a good fighter.<ref>Guild and Carter 48</ref>

Life for Carson as a mountain man was not easy. After collecting beavers from traps, he had to hold onto them for months at a time until the annual [[Rocky Mountain Rendezvous]],<ref>Sides 15</ref> held in remote areas of the West like the banks of the Green River in [[Wyoming]]. With the money received for the pelts, the necessities of an independent life, including [[fish hook]]s, [[flour]] and [[tobacco]], were bought. As there was little or no medical access in the regions in which he worked, Carson had to dress his wounds and nurse himself.<ref>Cleland 44</ref> There was also sometimes conflict with Indians.<ref>Cleland 40–41</ref> Carson's primary clothing then was made of deer skins that had stiffened from being left outdoors for a long period of time. This clothing offered some protection against weapons used by hostile Indians.<ref>Cleland 21</ref>

[[Grizzly bear]]s were one of the mountain man's greatest enemies.<ref>Cleland 43</ref> In 1834, when Carson was hunting an elk alone, two bears crossed paths with him and quickly chased him up a tree. One of the bears tried, unsuccessfully, to make him fall by shaking the tree, but eventually went away. Carson then returned to his camp as fast as possible. He wrote in his ''Memoirs'', "[The bear] finally concluded to leave, of which I was heartily pleased, never having been so scared in my life."<ref name="Roberts 80">Roberts 80</ref>

Carson's Memoirs are full of stories about hostile Indian encounters. In January 1833, for example, warriors of the Crow tribe stole nine horses from Carson's camp. Carson and two other men sprayed the Crow camp with gunfire, killing most of the Crow. Carson wrote in his ''Memoirs'', "During our pursuit for the lost animals, we suffered considerably but, the success of having recovered our horses and sending many a redskin to his long home, our sufferings were soon forgotten."<ref>Roberts 82</ref>[[File:Jim Bridger.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Jim Bridger|Jim Bridger]]
Carson viewed the [[Blackfoot Nation]] as a hostile tribe and the greatest threat to his livelihood and safety. He hated them and killed them at every opportunity. The historian David Roberts wrote: "It was taken for granted that the Blackfeet were bad Indians; to shoot them whenever he could was a mountain man's instinct and duty."<ref>Roberts 85</ref> Carson had several encounters with the Blackfoot. His last battle with the Blackfoot took place in spring 1838. He was traveling with about one hundred mountain men led by Jim Bridger. In [[Montana Territory]], the group found a teepee with the corpses of three Indians who had died of [[smallpox]] inside. Bridger wanted to move on, but Carson and the other young men wanted to kill Blackfoot,<ref name="Roberts 87-88">Roberts 87–88</ref> so they found the Blackfoot village and killed ten Blackfoot warriors. The Blackfoot found some safety in a pile of rocks but were driven away. It is not known how many Blackfoot died in this incident. The historian David Roberts wrote that "if anything like pity filled Carson's breast as, in his twenty-ninth year, he beheld the ravaged camp of the Blackfoot, he did not bother to remember it." Carson wrote in his ''Memoirs'' that the battle was "the prettiest fight I ever saw".<ref name="Roberts 87-88" />

His last rendezvous with trappers was held in 1840. At that time, the fur trade began to drop off as beaver hats went out of fashion and beaver populations across North America were declining rapidly from overexploitation. Carson knew that it was time to find other work. He wrote in his ''Memoirs'', "Beaver was getting scarce, it became necessary to try our hand at something else."<ref>Sides 33–34</ref> In 1841, he was hired at Bent's Fort, in Colorado, at the largest building on the Santa Fe Trail. Hundreds of people worked or lived there. Carson hunted buffalo, antelope, deer, and other animals to feed the people, paid one dollar a day. He returned to Bent's Fort several times during his life to provide meat for the fort's residents.<ref name="Roberts 99-101">Roberts 99–101</ref>

Carson's views about Indians softened over the years. He found himself more and more in their company as he grew older, and his attitude towards them became more respectful and humane. He urged the government to set aside lands called [[Indian reservation|reservations]] for their use. As an Indian agent in his later life, he saw to it that those under his watch were treated with honesty and fairness and clothed and fed properly. The historian David Roberts believes his first marriage, to an Arapaho woman named Singing Grass, "softened the stern and pragmatic mountaineer's opportunism".<ref name="Roberts 80" />