James Pierson Beckwourth, circa 1860, in Denver, Kansas Territory CHAPTER 25 Jim dusted off years of serenity from his creased trousers as he walked into Miss Elizabeth Ledbetter’s mother’s house in Denver. He had grown restless with his perfect life in Beckwourth Valley and left it, seduced by travel again. First, he visited St. Louis in 1859. If the dead could have accepted invitations, he would h

Each home consists of two rooms in this adobe dwelling of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, built bewteen 1000 and 1450 by the Native American tribe of Puebloans CHAPTER 23 Sometimes Jim felt like a shadow, fuzzy; he felt like smoke, amorphous. But what to do to become sharper? He did not know and it frustrated him that he did not. Like a bulwark, he guarded his treasure chest of courage handed down to him by his mother, Winifred. It calmed hi

"Three Fingers, Cheyenne" (1898) by Frank A. Rinehart From the New York Public Library CHAPTER 21 Swift Fish, Lots of Trees and Red Cherry fretted for their husband who risked his life like a daredevil on the battlefield. However, they carried their worry no further than that. They did not expect Morning Star to change becaus

Anti-slavery literature began to appear about 1820. Abolitionist press produced newspapers, periodicals, sermons, children's books, speeches, abolitionist society reports, handbills, and memoirs of former slaves. The anti-abolitionist handbill below demonstrates the depth of pro-slavery feeling. CHAPTER 20 In St. Louis, a numbness closed around the hearts of Eliza and Portia Shepheard. Eliza had changed.

"Catching the Wild Horse" (1845) by George Caitlin From the New York Public Library CHAPTER 18 Morning Star strode through the village of seventy lodges with the gait of a large, proud cat. While inside his home, he primped with the care of a young girl about to meet her suitor. His long hair, his skin, his nails shined with the glisten of

"Crow Indians" (circa 1840-1843) by Karl Bodmer CHAPTER 17 Way up north of the Oregon Trail and Blackfoot country on that side of the continental divide was a wonderland of hot springs and cold streams. The green valleys of the Big Horn, Rosebud, Tongue and Powder rivers and some land on the Yellowstone’s northern bank—this was Absaroka, home of the Sparrowhawks. Its ten thousand people roamed Absaroka a

Certificate of Freedom of Harriet Bolling (1851) in Petersburg, Virginia This certificate of renewal states that Harriet Bolling was freed by James Bolling on 14 May 1842. It says that Harriet Bolling, "a free woman of color"... is now of the following discription (sic), to wit: four feet 9 1/2 inches high, about forty two years of age, of a mulatto complexion, has some spots or splotches on each oh his (sic) cheeks, a scar on his (sic) left wrist occasioned by a cut". Fre

"Buffalo Chase in Winter, Indians on Snowshoes" by George Caitlin (From the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.) CHAPTER 13 Several snow showers had fallen in the last few weeks but the sugary flakes had dissolved as they alighted the ground. Jim watched a moving cloud of dust approach at a steady rate from the top of a hickory tree. He thought that

FREE STATES/ SLAVE STATES By United_States_1837-01-1837-03.png:Made by User.Golbez CHAPTER 11 Jim and Estelle breathed in unison as they slept. They were tender like the wispy morning and unafraid like the dawn that always comes after night. They could afford to be brave because they had no different future together than what they had in the present. Neither wanted to change the other or the other

"Pawnee family", a woodgraving (circa 1899), in John Clark Ridpath's Universal History (From the New York Public Library) CHAPTER 9 In the twenty-first year of young Mr. Beckwourth’s life, he left St. Louis a second time for far more distant memories. Most of the men on the Ashley expedition, one of his company’s first, were in their teens and twenties. They could all take a stab at fame by discover

Steamers at St. Louis on the Mississippi (1875) (From the New York Public Library) CHAPTER 7 Jim was slipping into another world. It scared him. He was feeling so comfortable in Galena. Whenever he found himself being lulled, Eliza forced her way into his thoughts. She was a reminder of the way things were in St. Louis. He missed her. He missed not having a woman to visit in the evenings. But Eliz

George Caitlin's "Buffalo hunt. Under white wolf skin" (1845) (From the New York Public Library) CHAPTER 5 The dark blessed and tightened the bond among Jim, Blue Corn Harvest, Pierre and Spotted Calf. They had spent many an early morning like this together on hunting trips. Today, it was Virginian de

CHAPTER 3 Ten barechested men on shore pulled a sixty-foot keelboat on the Fever River in northwestern Illinois. A line passed through their hands to the bow where it was attached to a longer line running up to the top of an eighteen-foot-high mast near the boat’s center. The crew heaved on the cordelle in a rhythm synchronized with the bars of a work ditty sung by the French Creoles from Louisiana and Canada on the expedition of eight boats. Sprays of fresh river water

James Pierson Beckwourth (1798-1866) About 62 years old Dedication JOURNEY TO HONOR is dedicated to my father’s parents, Joseph and Adina Kirkwood, for their family’s story, which is a presence throughout the novel, and to my mother’s parents, Edgar Roberts and Vilma Russell, for the heart to wri