Who was James Beckworth? The black pioneer with a lasting legacy
It’s not often that we see the words “Black Pioneer” and “Wild West” in the same sentence. In popular culture, the 19th century frontier is often associated with white American figures – snipers like Butch Cassidy and fearless folk heroes like Davy Crockett. But there is one black mountaineer who deserved his own chapter in the history of westward expansion: James P. Beckwourth.
“I’ve always been impressed that he was one of the early pioneers, and people who are pioneers like (explorer) Jedediah Smith,” says Everett Brinson. Brinson, 84, was a member of the James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club in Colorado, active from the early 1990s through the late 2000s.
“Beckwourth was … one of their peers and respected by them for his prowess and the fact that he was able to live with Native Americans and become a warlord,” Brinson says.
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Beckworth overcame what seemed impossible. Born into slavery in the late 1700s to a black mother and a white slaveholder, Beckwourth moved to St. Louis with his father – who freed him as an adult. He joined William Henry Ashley’s fur trapping business, later known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, traveling through what is now Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Along the way, he befriended native peoples, such as members of the Crow Nation (Apsáalooke), with whom he spent years trapping and selling furs to white traders.
The James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club encourages black people to explore the outdoors
He was one of the founders in 1842 of the El Pueblo trading post in present-day Pueblo, Colorado, and is credited with discovering a pass in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in 1850. col is named after him, as is a nearby town in California.
Inspired by all he accomplished, the James P. Beckwourth Mountain Club formed to encourage black people to live his legacy by exploring the outdoors.
“We were right at the foot of the Rockies, and there were all kinds of outdoor trails in Rocky Mountain National Park and all kinds of places to hike and have fun,” Brinson recalled. “We found that there was a tremendous number of black people in the Denver metro area who really had a desire on their own to go outdoors and bring the kids outdoors.”
At its peak, the club had more than 300 members, Brinson says.
“Every weekend we had hikes and outings like horseback riding and rafting. In the winter, (we enjoyed) skiing, outdoor skating and outdoor sports,” says Brinson. “For me, it was amazing to see so many black people interested in doing this stuff.”
Although Brinson claims the club no longer exists, a passionate community of Beckwourth admirers continues to study and promote his achievements. When the movie “The Harder They Fall”, featuring a fictionalized version of Beckwourth’s character, was released in 2021, the community was appalled.
“They took a number of characters that were important in the West and they put them all in one movie. James Beckwourth was actually born in the late 1700s, and there were other people in this movie who were born in the (1800s),” Brinson says, referring to Nat Love, an American cowboy and former slave born in the 1850s, outlaw Rufus Buck Gang of the 1890s and Stagecoach Mary, born in the 1830s. “They made Beckwourth a young man character in there. We were upset that it wasn’t well represented, and other people were very well represented.
Brinson says Beckwourth deserves a movie that honors his legacy.
“We all want the story to be told, and told well,” he says.
USA Today
