ROCK ART IN JAMAICA:

 

As I explain below, I wanted this to be a first-hand report of wonderful rock art that I hoped to see in Jamaica. It did not turn out that way. So this is now a review of publications by Lesley-Gail Atkinson (listed below in References) on the rock art of Jamaica. 

 

 

Jamaian petroglyphs, pulseamerica.co.uk.

 

Years ago we took a cruise up the Alaskan Inside Passage on a smaller ship. During that trip the Purser's office on the ship would go to great lengths to help us make plans for our visits ashore with helpful information like the directions to Wrangell's Petroglyph Beach. They were friendly and hospitable and went out of their way to help. Well, now we have just completed a Western Caribbean cruise on the Serenade of the Seas/Royal Caribbean, and it was a completely different experience.

 

Leslie-Gail Atkinson, Rock Art of the Caribbean,
Fig. 4.3, p. 52, Bird pictographs at Mountain
River Cave, Photograph: Evelyn Thompson.

I had confirmed that Jamaica (which was a scheduled stop) has numerous rock art sites so I took my packet of information including locations and even some pictures to the Shore Excursion desk to ask for help in arranging visits to one or more sites. Now this is the desk of which the cruise line's promotional material says "let our helpful Shore Excursion staff customize your shore excursion for your most memorable cruising experience."  The result was certainly memorable, but in a very negative way - they refused to lift a finger or make a phone call to try to find directions, or a guide, or even where I could look for postcards of the Jamaican rock art. In other words they totally blew me off, essentially asking me to go away and quit bothering them. There may actually still be cruises out there that will help you try to do what you want to do, but Royal Caribbean is certainly not one of them.

 

 

Leslie-Gail Atkinson, Rock Art of the Caribbean,

Fig. 4.2, p. 51, Birdmen pictographs at Mountain

River Cave, Photograph: Evelyn Thompson.

It turns out that with some online searching and a few books I can find out a little about rock art in Jamaica to pass on to you, but not with any help from Royal Caribbean.

 

Leslie-Gail Atkinson, Rock Art of the Caribbean,
Fig. 4.1, p. 50.

Most of the rock art on Jamaica was created by the early Taino inhabitants of the island. Sources agree that caves were of great significance to the Taino, serving as receptacles for the creation and nurturing of life and as its entry point into the world. Some myths suggest that caves were the place of origin for not only humans, but the sun and moon as well. Apparently caves were also used by the Taino for burials and sanctuaries, and as places for shrines where their Shaman could work to keep balance. Much of the rock art on Jamaica is also found in caves. Most of this seems to consist of petroglyphs of faces, although Mountain River cave reportedly has a large number of painted images.

Leslie-Gail Atkinson, Jamaica: The Earliest Inhabitants,

Fig. 13.5, p. 181, Petroglyphs at Canoe Valley.

Two of the books I found are listed below in references. These writings by Leslie-Gail Atkinson were the most valuable. I have copied illustrations from these so you can indeed see what is to be found. Also, a little internet searching will give you an idea of the rock art to be found in Jamaica. In particular, the book Rock Art of the Caribbean provides a good overview and some helpful analysis. I got my access to this through interlibrary loan, but if you are into building your rock art library I would recommend this one. A number of papers by varying authors in this volume cover a broad spectrum and offer a great beginning to understanding the rock art of Jamaica, and elsewhere.

 So, based upon what I can find, Jamaica does not have any really world class art on its rocks, but remember it is all rock art, and is all valid. I am sorry that I could not present this report based on first hand data, but don't blame me - blame Royal Caribbean Cruises.

 

REFERENCES:

 

Atkinson, Lesley-Gail

2006    Jamaica: The Earliest Inhabitants: The Dynamics of the Jamaican Taino, University of West Indies Press, Jamaica

Atkinson, Lesley-Gail

2009    Sacred Landscapes: Imagery, Iconogaphy, and Ideology in Jamaican Rock Art, p. 41-57, in Rock Art of the Caribbean, edited by Michele H. Hayward, Lesley-Gail Atkinson, and Michael A. Cinquino, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

 

 

 

 

 

BIRDS IN ROCK ART - THE ROADRUNNER:

 

 

Roadrunner petroglyph at 3-Rivers (with

footprint above him), New Mexico.

Photograph Jack and Esther Faris, 1988.

 

 

 

Roadrunner tracks, St. George, Utah.

 

 A distinctive bird in the American Southwest is the Roadrunner (Geococcyx californicus). Not only is the roadrunner a bird with remarkable habits and abilities, it has a remarkable footprint consisting of a curved "X" shape. There is a petroglyph at the 3-Rivers site in New Mexico that shows a roadrunner along with his footprint. Perhaps this is like the name glyphs used to identify individuals in Ledger Book art. The distinctive footprint pointing out the identity of the bird.

 

Roadrunner petroglyph at 3-Rivers, New Mexico.

Photograph Jack and Esther Faris, 1988.

 

 

Roadrunner petroglyph at 3-Rivers, New Mexico.

Photograph Margaret Harris, 1987.

Once, at Galisteo Dike, south of Santa Fe, while focused upon the marvelous petroglyphs, I found myself attracted to movements out of the corner of my eye, way out at the edge of my peripheral vision. I looked that way a couple of times but saw nothing. Then, after another flicker attracted my attention, I sat down and just watched for a while. It was a warm morning and small lizards were crawling up on the patina-darkened cliffs to warm up. Then I saw what had attracted my attention - it was a roadrunner running up the cliff face to snatch a lizard before going back down. I watched for a number of minutes and saw a few repetitions of the performance before he (or she) quit and left. The roadrunner from 3 Rivers carved in a vertical pose on the rock reminds me of this. It even seems to carry a snake in its beak as it runs up the rock.

 

 

Roadrunner (Geococcyx californicus),

www.desertusa.com.

 

"The roadrunner, also known as a chaparral bird and a chaparral cock, is a fast-running ground cuckoo that has a long tail and a crest. It is found in the southwestern United States and Mexico, usually in the desert. Some have been clocked at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h)." (Wikipedia)
 

The genus Ceococcyx has just two (species), the greater roadrunner (G. californianus) inhabiting Mexico and the United States, and the lesser roadrunner (G. velox) inhabiting Mexico and Central America. (Wikipedia)
 

"The roadrunner is an opportunistic omnivore. Its diet normally consists of insects (such as grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles), small reptiles (such as lizards and snakes, including rattlesnakes), rodents and small mammals, spiders (including tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, snails, small birds (and nestlings), eggs, and fruit, and seeds like those from prickly pear cactuses and sumacs." (Wikipedia)

"The roadrunner forages on the ground and, when hunting, usually runs after prey from under cover. It may leap to catch insects, and commonly batter(s) certain prey against the ground. Because of its quickness, the roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes." (Wikipedia)

 

“Sityatki Polychrome, AD 1375-1625. Subject is the

hosh-boa, a bird called roadrunner or chaparral cock

which figured in an ancient Hopi courting ceremony.”

(Patterson 1992:95)
 

This last fact, that roadrunners actually are known to prey upon rattlesnakes, impressed the makers of mythology (and rock art as well) deeply. It impresses me deeply as well, having had a few encounters with rattlesnakes while out looking at rock art. Because of this, in much of the American southwest, the roadrunner is associated with warrior traits, and success in battle. This potential impact upon life and death has also led also to association with curing, and with security. (Tyler 1991:219-24) The roadrunner is definitely a remarkable and important character.

 

REFERENCES:

Patterson, Alex

1992    A Field Guide To Rock Art Symbols Of The Greater Southwest, Johnson Books, Boulder.

Tyler, Hamilton A.

1991    Pueblo Birds and Myths, Northland Publishing, Flagstaff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL, NORTH BRANCH – LOUIS ROBIDOUX:

On September 25, 2011, I posted a column entitled Antoine Robidoux, 13 November 1837 – An Historic Inscription. In that posting I told the back story of a historic inscription found along Westwater Creek, in eastern Utah. A lovely little volume, Forgotten Pathfinders Along the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail, 1650-1850, self-published in Grand Junction, Colorado, by Jack Nelson, contains a wealth of scholarship and information about that trail and some of the historic inscriptions found carved into the cliffs and boulders along it. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in historic inscriptions or the history of this part of the west.

 

Louis Robidoux inscription, May 1841. From Nelson,

2003, Forgotten Pathfinders Along the North Branch

of the Old Spanish Trail, 1650-1850.

The Old Spanish Trail was blazed in part by Frays Dominguez and Escalante in 1776 in their exploration to find a route to the Pacific Ocean. They went north from the Taos area in Spanish New Mexico following Indian trails until they hit the Colorado River near present day Grand Junction, Colorado. Then they struck generally west to the Great Salt Lake before returning back to New Mexico. Later, when mountain men and trappers were combing the Rocky Mountains for beaver pelts in 1824 and 1825, and explorers were searching for mineral wealth this became a favored exit from New Mexico toward “Winty” territory, the Uintah area of Northwestern Colorado and Northeastern Utah, and became known as the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail.

 

 

Map of the Trail up Westwater Canyon from Nelson 2003.

Antoine Robidoux inscription in the red star, Louis

Robidoux inscription location in the blue star.

As can be seen in the map the route follows Westwater Creek in Northeastern Utah up through Hay Canyon and then crosses the divide before coming down Willow Creek to join the Green River. This became known as the Robidoux Trail. The Antoine Robidoux inscription alluded to above is to be found along Westwater Creek shortly before it enters the Bookcliffs range (see the map (Nelson 2003:31).

The Robidoux brothers had opened a couple of Trading Posts/Forts in central and northern Western Colorado, Fort Uncompahgre near the present site of Delta, Colorado, and Fort Uintah up in the Brown’s Park country of Northwestern Colorado. Antoine Robidoux’s brother Louis was quite involved in the family business.

“In the late 1820's, Antoine and probably Louis set up a trading agency in Taos, for the centrality of its location and as a means of circumventing the customs office a hundred miles away in Santa Fe. After 1824, and for a period of about six years, the trade, though fluctuating, continued to increase. However, in the year 1830 a recession set in. The import tax steadily increased, while the price of trade goods dropped off. From the 1830's onward, the fur trade steadily declined, and with this decline, the Robidoux's shifted the focus of their activities and interests away from Santa Fe/Taos and more towards the Robidoux posts in the intermontaine corridor. After this date, he appears to have taken up a more permanent residence in Santa Fe, and to not have continued his sojourning in trapping and trading expeditions.

Louis appears in the account books of Manuel Alvarez buying supplies in 1829. In 1829, he also applied along with his brother Antoine for Mexican citizenship and was granted naturalization by the Mexican authorities a day later, on July 17th, 1829. He became Don Luis Robidoux. They are credited with this act in order to circumvent the customs taxes levied on foreign traders - marriage also gave them other distinct advantages in local society. http://www.lewismicropublishing.com/Publications/Robidoux/RobidouxLouis.htm.

“Louis probably served as the New Mexico agent for these posts, for they depended on New Mexico for supplies . . . On at least one occasion, in the spring of 1841, Louis Robidoux made the long journey to Fort Uintah . . . as he approached the Green River, he took the time to inscribe his name on a cliff in the Willow Creek drainage, some thirty-five miles south of [present-day] Ouray, Utah . . . The inscription reads:

 Louis Robidoux

Passo qui diade

Mayo de 1841

With the Robidoux brothers’ inscriptions located as they were along the Westwater-Willow Creek Trail, it would appear to be the one must used. - - - With the mouth of Westwater Creek Canyon marking one of the few access routes over the Roan/Bookcliff Range, the trappers undoubtedly used the trail and left other physical evidence to show the way. The Louis Robidoux inscription marks a turnoff along the Willow Creek Trail illustrating the path to the summit above Westwater Canyon.” (Nelson 2003:51)

Louis moved to California in 1844, and settled in the area of modern Riverside, California. (Wikipedia)

If you can find this book I highly recommend it not only for the information about historic inscriptions, but also about a fascinating period in the early exploration and settlement of the West. Thank you Jack!

REFERENCE:

 http://www.lewismicropublishing.com/Publications/Robidoux/RobidouxLouis.htm

Nelson, Jack William

2003    Forgotten Pathfinders Along the North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail, 1650-1850, Copyright Jack William Nelson, Grand Junction, CO.

www.wikipedia.com

THE GRANBY, COLORADO, STONE IDOL:

  

 

Three views of the Granby, Colorado

stone idol. From the 1925 report

by Samuel Hubbard.

In October and November of 1924, the Doheny Expedition to Havasupai canyon was fielded by the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California. Its purpose was to record an example of rock art that supposedly proved that dinosaurs and humans had coexisted. This expedition was led by Samuel Hubbard, director of the expedition and an honorary curator of archaeology at the museum, and accompanied by Charles W. Gilmore, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the United States National Museum. The report on this expedition was written by Hubbard and published January 26, 1925. I have written about the question of the authenticity of their “dinosaur petroglyph”, the supposed “wooly rhinoceros of Moab, Utah”, and also a petroglyph supposedly showing a fight between a human and an elephant, separately.

 

The Granby, Colorado stone idol.

From the 1925 report

by Samuel Hubbard.

 

In this instance I want to present Hubbard’s account of a ‘stone idol’ supposedly found at Granby, Colorado, and included by Hubbard on pages 36 and 37 of his 1925 report on The Doheny Scientific Expedition to the Hava Supai Canyon, Northern Arizona, October and November, 1924, published by the Oakland Museum, of Oakland, CA.  

 

The Granby, Colorado stone idol.

From the 1925 report

by Samuel Hubbard.

 

“A STONE IDOL?

These three views of what is probably a Stone Idol, were sent to me by Mr. F. V. Hammar of Saint Louis. In his letter of June 23^rd, 1926, Mr. Hammar says: - “This queer relic was found by a man named Jordan near Granby, Colorado. Mr. Jordan was excavating for a garage or a cellar and uncovered this stone at a depth of 12 feet. He found many utensils, etc., in the same place, thus giving the presumption of a settlement. The stone is exceedingly hard green material, and like nothing ever known of in the neighborhood. It may have been brought from a distance.”

 

The Granby, Colorado stone idol.

From the 1925 report

by Samuel Hubbard.

This sculptured stone is of unusual interest to me because it shows carved in high relief, the figures of two dinosaurs and an elephant. The inscriptions are also of great interest, and some of them are similar to those I saw in the Supai Canyon.

It is significant that the dinosaur and elephant are close together in the Supai drawings, and here they are sculptured together on the back of the same figure.

      The dinosaurs suggest either the “brontosaurus” or the “diplodocus,” while the elephant has a long curved tusk.” (p.36)

One of the basic questions for art historians, curators, and even appraisers, is attribution. The question of who made this, or by which culture was it produced. Individual artists have their own personal (and recognizable) stylistic and technological characteristics. That is why you can tell a Matisse painting and a Manet painting apart. Their creators had differing physical and mental abilities and biases. The same goes for art and artifacts produced by one culture as opposed to another. Their (the cultures) members have differing visual and contextual preferences and assumptions and the artists work to fulfill their audiences’ expectations. You can see the differences between the art and artifacts produced by different cultures, especially if you are experienced in such evaluations and are sensitive to the norms of those cultures’ aesthetics.

In attempting such an evaluation with the Granby, Colorado, stone idol I deeply lament the poor quality of the images, but, from what I can see, it is very easy to recognize a modern fraud. The carvings that are visible fit into no known culture of New World history, or prehistory. I have made limited inquiries to try to ascertain if this “stone idol” still exists, either in Granby, Colorado, or in Saint Louis, but I have been unsuccessful. Perhaps a detailed personal examination would allow a different interpretation, but from what can be seen in the photographs, it is definitely a hoax.

Now, I certainly do not want to imply that I think that Hubbard was part of this hoax. My problem with Samuel Hubbard, Honorary Curator of Archaeology at the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, and the Doheny Expedition that he led into Havasupai Canyon is only its (and his) lack of scientific rigor. His goal was not to gather data and see what the interpretation of that data revealed. His self-stated goal was to use the dinosaur “pictograph” and other discoveries to prove his theories about the antiquity of men and cultures in the New World.

“This canyon was first visited by the writer in November, 1894, and in February and March, 1895. Most of the matters of prehistoric interest described in this pamphlet, were observed at that time but their true significance was not fully recognized. Endeavors were made at various times to interest scientists in this discovery, but without avail.

            It is only within the past two or three years that discoveries made in Yucatan, Mexico, and the western states prove to the most conservative that a race or races of men of very great antiquity inhabited North America.

            The fact that some prehistoric man made a pictograph of a dinosaur on the walls of this canyon upsets completely all of our theories regarding the antiquity of man. Facts are stubborn and immutable things. If theories do not square with the facts then the theories must change, the facts remain.” (Hubbard 1925:5)

In this effort Hubbard has picked and chosen from a number of unrelated and questionable items to attempt to build a logical construct that will support his theory. To my mind, at least, he failed totally, and this fraudulent “stone idol” is the weakest link in the flimsy chain. I have stated before in other examples, there is a reason for the scientific method, and wandering away from it certainly led Samuel Hubbard astray.

SOURCE:

Hubbard, Samuel

1925    The Doheny Scientific Expedition to the Hava Supai Canyon, Northern Arizona, October and November, 1924, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.

NATIVE AMERICAN ASTRONOMY: THE PLEIADES - OR NOT!

While I will be the first to argue the validity of some aspects of the field known as archeoastronomy, I am also a critic of the empty assumptions made by some people who claim to be archeoastronomy researchers. The most egregious examples are in the multiple alignments some people find between rock art or archaeological features and the heavens. I actually once heard a presentation by a so-called serious researcher who was looking for alignments in a group of pits he found on a horizontal rock surface. He explained that in order to properly analyze this he had to purchase a new computer and software package, and in the end he came up with literally hundreds of alignments to different stars, constellations, planets, and phenomena throughout the year. The worst of all was that he did not see the irony in this proposal, even when he was asked what computer and software the ancient Native Americans had used to originally plot all of these alignments.

 

 

 

Fremont Indian petroglyph panel, Sego Canyon,

 Utah. Photograph: Peter Faris, June 1981.

 

One stellar sight that is apparently easy to misinterpret is the Pleiades. We know that they do have a place in the mythology of most of the ancient peoples of North America, and in some cultures they have ritual meaning as well. For some peoples their appearance marks the time to perform certain rites and ceremonies. To the Navajo the Pleiades or Seven Sisters are known as the Planter (Miller 1997:187). During nine months of visibility the Planter is seen after sunset in the Fall on the Eastern horizon, by mid-winter it is overhead after sunset, and in the Spring it slowly disappears over the Western horizon. The time of planting is reportedly indicated by Planter in the late Spring, early Summer (Cajete 2000:224). 

 

 

In this photo from Blanco Canyon (Chamberlain:207)

Dilyehe is the pattern in the center. Chamberlain has

identified a number of other Navajo panels which contain

dot patterns that he believes represent Dilyehe.

 

 

The same photo from Chamberlain

(2004:207) with an arrow marking

the Pleiades.

Dilyehe, the Planter, is thought of as feminine and as the mate to Atseetsozi, First Slim One (Orion’s belt and sword), because they accompany each other across the sky (Chamberlain 2004:211-213). I suspect that Von Del Chamberlain is correct in this interpretation. He is a serious scientific researcher, not given to wild statements based upon his imaginings instead of upon data.

 

Diagram of Sego Canyon panel

from Eaton (1999:128).

 

An example of the opposite can be seen in the illustrations from William M. Eaton. First off, he announced that examples of Native American portrayals of the Pleiades only show four dots. I cannot imagine where he got this as most legends refer to them as the "seven sisters". As an example of this he produced the Fremont panel from Sego Canyon, Utah where he found proof of this claiming an astonishing eight portrayals of the Pleiades in this one panel (a through h), although he actually seems to have missed the four dot pattern on the top of the symbol he has designated as "v". The problem is, as anyone who has actually visited Sego Canyon knows, that the dots on this panel are from gunshots, and have absolutely nothing to do with any Native Americans, prehistoric or otherwise. They were produced by cowboy vandalism.

Now I am not saying that Mr. Eaton is wrong in everything he claimed in his 1999 book, The Odyssey of the Pueblo Indians (although I had serious trouble with most of it). I even want him to be right on some of it because it would be so interesting. The trouble is like with all people who speak up without knowing what they are actually talking about. He just doesn't have a clue about rock art.

Don't quit looking, and don't quit trying to figure it out, just please use your common sense before you go way out on that limb like Eaton. Someone might shoot it off.

REFERENCES:

Cajete, Gregory

2000    Native Science, Natural Laws of Interdependence, Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe.

Chamberlain, Von Del

2004    Father Sky on Mother Earth: Navaho Celestial Symbolism in Rock Art, pages 195-226, in New Dimensions in Rock Art Studies, edited by Ray T. Matheny, Museum of Peoples and Cultures Occasional Papers No. 9, Brigham Young University, Provo.

Eaton, William M.

1999    Odyssey of the Pueblo Indians, Turner Publishing Co., Paducah, KY.

Miller, Dorcas S.

1997    Stars of the First People, Pruett Publishing Co., Boulder, CO.

 

 

 

 

 

ANASAZI WALL PAINTING: NOGALES CLIFF HOUSE, NEW MEXICO – A REALLY NEAT SITE:

 

Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.

Back in 1993, our friends Bill and Jeannie took a group of people from the Denver Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society on a Rock Art and Ruins field trip in northern New Mexico. One of the great sites we visited was Nogales Cliff House, in Rio Arriba County. The basic ruin took a little scrambling to reach, and we did not even try to climb to the upper portion for fear of damaging walls by climbing on them, but the lower portion was quite wonderful in its own right.

 

 

Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.

The Nogales Cliff house was built into and against an alcove in a sandstone cliff. The well-preserved section is actually within the alcove, and remains of some additional 30 – 50 rooms have been reported at the base in front of it. This site is attributed to the Gallina Phase that dated between A.D. 1000 and 1300 in this area. The Gallina Phase exhibited enough unique traits that they are usually considered a separate culture and not part of the general Ancestral Puebloan culture of the area. ( http://www.cubanm.org/ ) It is now assumed that access to the upper portions of the ruin was originally from the roofs of upper levels of the missing room block below.

 

 

Flying birds and human.

Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.

My favorite feature was the painted panel of three birds flying over a watching human. Perhaps a record of fall or spring migration of geese or sandhill cranes, or a hunter's illustrated record, or just naturalistic decoration for the parlor wall?

 

 

Black and white painted wall.

Nogales Cliff House, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.

 

An additional painted feature is the wall with white and black patterning showing traces of geometric patterning, but it is in such bad condition that we could not tell what had been painted on it originally.

 

Good friends, a nice hike, a great ruin, and fascinating art; what more could one ask for?

REFERENCES:

http://www.cubanm.org/nogaleshousetrip.html

HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS – KIT CARSON:

 

 Kit Carson, 1840, inscription. Photo by Dell Crandall.

 

In southeastern Colorado there are a couple of inscriptions on rock displaying the name of Kit Carson. Both of these are on private property and are jealously protected by the land owners. My photos in this posting were both taken by Dell Crandall and provided by him.

Kit Carson inscription. Photo by Dell Crandall.

 

“Christopher Houston “Kit” Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married into the Arapahoe and Cheyenne tribes. He was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide, and led ‘the Pathfinder’ through much of California, Oregon, and the Great Basin area. He achieved national fame through Fremont’s accounts of his expeditions.” (Wikipedia)

 

Portrait of Kit Carson.

 

 “Carson was a courier and scout during the Mexican-American war from 1846 to 1848, celebrated for his rescue mission after the Battle of San Pasqual and his coast-to-coast journey from California to deliver news of the war to the U.S. government in Washington D. C.. In the 1850s, he was Agent to the Ute and Jicarilla Apaches. In the Civil War he led a regiment of mostly Hispanic volunteers on the side of the Union at the Vattle of Valverde in 1862. He led armies to pacify the Navajo, Mescalaro, Apache, and the Kiowa an Comanche Indians. He is vilified for his conquest of the Navajo and their forced transfer to Bosque Redondo where many of them died. Breveted a general, he is probably the only American to reach such a high military rank without being able to read or write, although he could sign his name.” (Wikipedia)
 

 Carson home in Boggsville, CO.
 

"When the Civil War ended, and the Indian Wars campaigns were in a lull, Carson was breveted a General and appointed commandant of Ft. Garland, Colorado, in the heart of Ute country. Carson had many Ute friends in the area and assisted in government relations. After being mustered out of the Army, Carson took up ranching, settling at Boggsville in Bent County. In 1868, at the urging of Washington and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Carson journeyed to Washington D.C. where he escorted several Ute Chiefs to meet with the President of the United States to plead for assistance to their tribe. Soon after his return, his wife Josefa died from complications after giving birth to their eighth child. Her death was a crushing blow to Carson. He died a month later at age 58 on May 23, 1868, in the presence of Dr. Tilton and his friend Thomas Boggs. His last words were "Goodbye, friends. Adios, compadres". Carson died from an abdominal aortic aneurysm in the surgeon's quarters of Fort Lyon, Colorado." (Wikipedia) Kit and Josefa were originally buried at Boggsville, just a little south of Fort Lyons in Bent County, Colorado, but were later moved to their current resting place at Taos, New Mexico.

 The original grave of Kit and Josefa

at Boggsville, CO. Photo Peter Faris.
 

 There is a fascinating story about another Kit Carson inscription. Supposedly there was a Kit Carson inscription on Morro Rock in New Mexico that had been carved there during Carson’s Canyon de Chelley expedition. In the 1950s the park supervisor there sent out Navajo work crews with powered hand grinders to remove a lot of the inscriptions and markings that he felt were irrelevant to the history and artistic value of the monument. This represents government sponsored vandalism on a truly staggering scale, and the strange, smoothed patches remaining still mar the rock face in many locations and testify to this destruction. According to this story one of the Navajo crew members took the opportunity to also get even with Kit Carson by grinding his name off of the rock at that time.

Now we come to the question – are the Carson inscriptions genuine? Although he was functionally illiterate he did learn to write his name because he had to sign reports when he was in the military. The truth is, however, he is not known to have ever personally used the nickname “Kit” when signing his name. If these inscriptions date back to the time of his life they were made by someone else, perhaps one of the men under his command. The ranch which one of the signatures is found on has been in the same family for a number of generations and they are convinced that it has been there all that time. I think that the answer has to be yes, they are genuine as to that time and place, but were probably not carved by Carson himself. They do, however, provide a portal to a fascinating period in the history of the Western United States and Colorado.

 

REFERENCE:

Wikipedia