User:Copernikan

FALSEHOODS ABOUT KIT CARSON POSTED ON THE INTERNET Enumerated by Camille Cazedessus Published by Rendezvous Books, Chimney Rock, Colorado, 2010, 10 pages. Permission to include in Wikipedia is granted, not copyrighted.

Legends of America http://www.legendsofamerica.com/HC-KitCarsonBio.html

Note: A “legend” is “an unverified story handed down from early times, especially one popularly believed to be historical. “ - American Heritage

Error No. 1. “his 60 years of travels throughout the southwest.” False. He didn’t get to the SW until 1826 and died there n 1868. That’s 42 years

Error No 2. “expeditions...to Colorado Rockies” Far beyond Colorado Rockies into Montana & Idaho.

Error No. 3 “from 1832 to 1840 hunter at Bent’s Fort” False. He didn’t start at Bent’s fort until 1841.

Error No. 4. “presented...capable of superhuman feats.” Kit Carson was not “superhuman”, just an experienced frontiersman who was very lucky to have lived so long.

Error No. 5 - with “partner L. Maxwell...sheep to California.” False. It wasn’t Maxwell.

Error No. 6 - “marching through...destroy crops, orchards and livestock” False. Most of the crops were fed to his horses & mules, no orchards were destroyed, nor livestock, which was confiscated and returned to owners who surrendered.

Error No. 7 - “forced nearly 8000 Navajo...” False. Forced by the Gen. Carleton, U. S. Army, not Kit Carson. A persistant error. A flat out lie.

The New Mexico Dept. of Cultural Affairs - BOSQUE REDONDO http://www.nmmonuments.org/publications/elpal_bosque.pdf

Error No. 1  -  “...a distance of about 450 miles” From Gallup, New Mexico, the approx. gathering point for Navajos to begin their walk to Ft. Sumner is about 300 miles; 296 miles says Map quest along the Interstate

Error No. 2 - The author says “herded like cattle....by Kit Carson”. False. Carson was not there. A flat out lie.

Error No. 3 - Paul Iverson says it was a “forced march driven by harshness and cruelty” and “according to stories of survivors...might be shot for falling out of line. “ False. I have a document that describes and pictures an entirely different situation. It is “The Long Walk of Very Slim Man”, a survivor of the walk, Desert Magazine, April, 1946.

Error No. 4 - This entire article ignores the 200 year record of Navajo raids on peaceful settlers in New Mexico, all the way up to 1863 when the U. S. Army was forced to begin the Navajo roundup, both to protect the settlers and to protect the Navajo themselves who were being re-raided by angry settlers. When children are kidnapped by Indians, an angry anti-Indian feeling is engendered, and parents will attempt to retrieve their children by force.

Fort Sumner/DeBaca County Chamber of Commerce: http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/Southeast/De_Baca/FortSumner/BosqueRedondo-destination.html

Error No. 1 - “Carson ordered.....cut down all the peach trees” False. He did not give that order and the trees were cut by another Army officer in 1865.

Error No. 2 - “...also told to cut all wheat and corn.” False. The corn & wheaT was fed to Army horses and mules. A few fields were burned.

Error No. 3 - “Carson started them on the long walk...some 400 miles” False. The Army forced them to make the journey, not specifically Carson, and it’s 300 miles, not 400.

Error No. 4 - Tony Hillerman says too few American are aware of those dark chapters...” Had the Navajo kept the several peace treaties signed with them in the 1840’s,1850’s and early 1860’s, there would have been little reason for removal except to protect them from reprisal from those that they had been raiding for over 200 years.

The Museum of New Mexico: http://media.museumofnewmexico.org/press_releases.php?action=detail&releaseID=79 Kate Nelson, Palace of Gov 554-5722 cell, or land line: 505-476-1141

Error No. 1 - “one man’s misguided notion of a utopia for Native Americans” False. Neither Canby who thought up the idea to remove the Navajo to Bosque Redondo/Ft. Sumner, nor Carleton who rounded them up and sent them there, ever said it would be “utopia.”

Error No. 2 - “history of Kit carson -- who he was and what his rightful legacy might have been.” What is the meaning of this? Several historians have detailed Kit Carson’s life story, and it is an admirable “legacy”; there is no “might have been”, there is simply his true history.

Error No. 3 - “Carleton...perceived a threat to settlers...” The Navajo Indians were constantly raiding settlers and other peaceful Indians. To perceive that was to simply witness it, which 1000s of New Mexico settlers had done for over 200 years.

Error No. 4 - “...siege of Canyon de Chelley...” False. Canyon de Chelley was never under siege.

Error No. 5- “Carson burned the tribes crops and peach orchards, shot their livestock and destroyed their wells.”  The corn was fed to the Army’s mules and horses, not burned. The documents indicate only two fields were “burned.” Carson did not burn any peach  orchards, they were cut down in 1865 by another officer. Carson did not shoot any livestock. Livestock was treated as individual Navajo property and not permitted for personal or Army use unless in emergency. That was the specific order of Gen. Carleton. I have not seen any record of any water wells in Navajo land in 1863; I doubt there were any wells and there is no record of any being “destroyed.”

Error No. 6 - “10,000 of them began the 350 mile march” False. The count is closer to 8000, and the distance is about 300 miles.

Error No. 7 - “marched at a constant pace...one in five died.” False, they traveled at a varying pace, and only about 300 died, or were unaccounted for. 300 dead or missing out of 8000 is not even close to 1 in 5 of 10,000.

Error No. 8 - “Comanche raids cost the tribes what little they had.” False. The the historical record is the opposite: Navajo warriors left the reservation and captured 1000 horse from the Comanche, kept them and brought them back to Navajo land in 1868.

Error No. 9 - “1500 perished in the winter of 1863-4 alone.” There is no record of that number in any of the many Kit Carson records I have examined. There was good food and water the first year, but the 2nd and 3rd years witnessed severe crop damage and hunger. There was a hospital and a school at the reservation, which was not fenced or locked in any fashion.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/carson.htm

Error No. 1 - “presented in popular fiction...capable of superhuman feats.” Kit Carson was not “superhuman”, rather an experienced frontiersman who was very lucky to have lived so long.

Error No. 2 - “refused to be confined upon a distant reservation” False. About 8000 did agree to be removed to a distant reservation, since they had refused to abide by the several treaties their leaders had signed with the U. S. Army during the previous 20 years.

Error No. 3 - “Carson waged a brutal economic war......marching...to destroy their crops, orchards and livestock.” The corn crop was fed to the Army mules and horses, no orchards were destroyed by Carson’s men, the livestock was confiscated, not destroyed, and Gen. Carleton ordered that none of it be used for personal or Army use except in emergency need.

Error No 4. - “...most surrendered to Carson who forced nearly 8000 (Indians) to take...” False. The U. S. Army forced the Navajo to go to the Bosque Redondo, not Carson. Attributing this “forced march” to Carson is wrong; he did not do it and he did not go with them.

Error No. 5 - “After the Civil War...moved to Colorado in hope of expanding his ranching business” False. He was breveted a General and appointed as commandant of Ft. Garland for two years. At his own expense, in 1867, he escorted four Ute chiefs to Washington DC to meet the President and plea for more help to their people. He returned to his home and pregnant wife in early 1868 and died there just weeks after his return on May 23.

NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY http://library.nau.edu/speccoll/exhibits/indigenous_voices/navajo/longwalk.html

Error No. 1 - “Carleton’s particular Manifest Destiny included relocating...” False. Carleton had no consciousness of “manifest destiny” whatsoever. Carleton removed the Navajo from their land because they would not abide by any of the treaties negotiated with them over the previous 20+ years, and his predecessor had chosen Bosque Redondo/Ft. Sumner as the place. It was far from their homeland, AND, far from the farming settlements along the Rio Grande, making it difficult for revenge raiding by farmers who had their stock stolen or killed, and their children kidnapped.

Error No. 2 - “Carson...ruthlessly attacked the Navajo people with his cavalry units, burning Navajo cornfields and poisoning water sources.” False. There is no record of any “ruthless attack”, most of his men were not Cavalry troops, the cornfields were used to feed his mules and horses, and only two wheat fields were burned. There is no record of any water sources being poisoned. The detailed record of what Carson did in Navajo land is recorded in the book: NAVAJO ROUNDUP, by Prof. Lawrence C. Kelly, published in 1970.

Error No. 3 - “US. military forced 11,468...to walk” False. About 8000.

Error No. 4 - “...those who could not keep up pace...left to die or were shot.” False. A lie. Along the way, about 300 died or were unaccounted for.

Error No. 5 - “more died at Bosque Redondo - close to 2000.” I have not seen any documentation of this number. I know of no Navajo grave count at Ft. Sumner

THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH - FILM TRANSCRIPT http://www.kued.org/productions/thelongwalk/film/transcript.php

Error No 1 - “we were considered as enemy...” False. In the sentence just previous, Gen. Kearney wrote “The US would protect the persons and property of all quiet and peaceful inhabitants ...” But the Navajo were not “quiet and peaceful inhabitants.”

Error No. 2 - “The Anglos and Hispanos actually saw themselves as the victims of the massive wave of Navajo raiding in the 1850s” True, they were victims.

Error No. 3 - “Navajo country was rich in gold.” All unexplored Western country was considered to be rich in one mineral or another. Navajo land was not.

Error No. 4 - “Kit Carson and his soldiers captured much of the Mescalero Apache tribe.” False. The Mescalero were captured by other members of the U. S. Military and sent to Bosque Redondo before Carson even got close to their homeland in S. New Mexico.

Error No. 5 - “...they destroyed crops, livestock and homes...” False. The corn was fed to the mules and horses, only two or three fields were burned, and livestock was not destroyed but confiscated and returned to any Navajo that would surrender.

Error No. 6 - “worse to conquer a people...because you believe it’s right..doesn’t let Kit Carson off the hook morally.” False. Kit Carson is not on “the hook” because he was in a military unit during a war authorized by his commanding officer.

Error No. 7 - “Kit Carson’s men assaulted Canyon de Chelley.....stormed Canyon de Chelly” False. Kit Carson’s men rode horses and mules through the Canyon, there were no battles of any sort, and several dozen Navajo surrendered and joined the soldiers as they marched through. Hardly an “assault” and certainly not a “storming.”

Error No. 8 - “Kit Carson killed our sheep right in front of us” False. There is no record killing sheep in Navajo land except this oral history. Better to confiscate sheep and that is what was done. If anyone killed sheep in Navajoland, they did it without Carson’s knowledge, since Carelton has ordered that all livestock be given back to the Navajos who surrendered.

Error No. 9 - “All of us walked” False. Some rode in wagons, some on their own horses and mules and some children rode behind soldiers on horseback. I have document verification.

Error No. 10 - “Carson...was completely uncompassionate ...” False. There are several letters from Carson to Hdq. demanding the govt’ send more food and blankets to the starving and near naked Indians. Carson repeatedly permitted old Navajo men to leave his camp and go back into the wilderness to ask others to surrender, instead of fighting or starving.