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Introduction | Transcript | Credits | Feedback
Chapter 1: (3:05)
Introduction
Chapter 2: (12:30)
A young Kit Carson heads West to Taos, in the Mexican frontier. He becomes a beaver trapper, learns Native languages, and takes an Arapaho wife.
Chapter 3: (8:00)
With Carson as his guide, John C. Fremont embarks on an expedition to map and survey the West.
Chapter 4: (13:25)
Carson becomes a literary hero after Fremont publishes accounts of the expedition.
Chapter 5: (13:00)
Carson accepts a government appointment as an Indian agent. He attempts to mediate the mounting conflict between whites and native peoples.
Chapter 6: (11:38)
The U.S. army wages war on the tribes of New Mexico Territory. Carson and his troops are brutally effective, destroying crops, orchards and livestock.
Chapter 7: (8:47)
Thousands of Navajo men, women and children are forced on a 3,000-mile death march.
Chapter 8: (8:52)
Carson leaves the Army and heads home to Taos. He will become an advocate for native peoples.
Chapter 9: (2:32)
Credits
More About the Program Kit Carson
Portrait of Kit Carson. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
His exploits on the American frontier inspired dozens of dime novels. But the stories told in these wildly popular books belie the complexities of the real Kit Carson, whose life embodies the contradictions in the story of the American West.
An illiterate mountain man, he was fluent in Spanish and five Indian languages; he twice married Native American women, yet led a brutal war against the Navajo. When the West was a mystery to most Americans, Carson mastered it, and his expertise made him not only famous, but also sought after. Eventually, by helping to spur a migration that would change the West forever, he unwittingly became an agent in the destruction of the life he loved.
Combining rich archival materials of the period with original recreations this American Experience production brings the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier to vivid life, and provides a lens on a pivotal but little-understood era in American history.
Introduction
A summary description of the program.
Transcript
The program transcript.
Acknowledgements
Program interviewees and consultants.
Credits
Television and Web production teams.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is closed captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers by The Caption Center at WGBH.
A special narration track is added to the series by Descriptive Video Service® (DVS®), a service of WGBH to provide access to people who are blind or visually impaired. The DVS narration is available on the SAP channel of stereo TVs and VCRs.
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