| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 32.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Kit Carson & the Indians. By Tom Dunlay. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. xx + 525 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. £30.00, UK; $45.00, US.)

     Christopher Houston Carson was raised on the Missouri frontier. Tom Dunlay traces the origin of Carson's belief that violence must be used to resolve some issues, his ability and willingness to discern between "hostile" and "friendly" bands and tribes, and his caution as a mountain man and military leader to experiences during these early years. 1

     Carson fled his apprenticeship by joining a westbound Santa Fe caravan. He worked as trapper and later as a hunter for Bent's Fort. A short, modest, illiterate man, Carson would have been remembered, if at all, as an obscure figure in American history had he not chanced to meet and be employed by John C. Fremont. 2

     In Fremont's Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, and to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843–44, the Pathfinder praised Kit Carson's skill and courage as a guide and scout. This acclaim led to the publication of many greatly exaggerated dime novels about Carson, permanently rendering him not only a national celebrity but also a mythic frontier hero. . . .

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