orig. James Pierson Beckwith
born April 26, 1798, Virginia, U.S.
died 1867?, Denver, Colo.
U.S. mountain man.
Born a slave, the son of a white man and a slave woman, he was taken by his father to St. Louis and set free. In 182324 he was hired by trading expeditions in the Rocky Mountains. He married a series of Indian women and lived among the Crow for about six years. During the California gold rush (1848) he established a route through the Sierra Nevada. In California he met Thomas D. Bonner, who in 1856 published many of Beckwourth's stories and recollections.