Black Beaver
| Black Beaver | |
|---|---|
| Suck-tum-mah-kway | |
 |
|
| Delaware leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1806 Belleville, Illinois |
| Died | 1880 Anadarko, Oklahoma |
| Resting place | Fort Sill, Oklahoma |
| Spouse(s) | Three or four wives |
| Children | Four daughters |
| Education | tribal |
| Known for | Establishing the California and Chisholm trails; rancher and wealthiest Lenape in America |
| Religion | Baptist, after 1876 |
Black Beaver or Suck-tum-mah-kway (1806—1880, Delaware) was a Native American trapper for the American Fur Company, a scout and guide, and interpreter who was fluent in English, and several European and Native American languages. After working as a scout, he settled among his people in the village of Beaverstown in Indian Territory, where they had been removed. He is credited with establishing the California and Chisholm trails.
At the beginning of the American Civil War, he guided hundreds of Union troops and their long wagon train from Fort Arbuckle to Kansas to escape much larger Confederate forces; they had to travel more than 500 miles through Indian Territory to reach safety. None of the party or their animals or wagons was lost. Confederates destroyed his ranch, but Black Beaver eventually resettled in Indian Territory after the war, becoming a wealthy rancher in present-day Anadarko, Oklahoma. His former ranch site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
He was born in 1806 in present-day Belleville, western Illinois, to the east of St. Louis and across the Mississippi River. Many Lenape had migrated here after the American Revolutionary War from their traditional territory along the Delaware River and coast in the mid-Atlantic states. Black Beaver began trapping and trading beaver pelts as a teenager for the American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor.
Known to his own people as Suck-tum-mah-kway, the young man became fluent in English, French, and Spanish, in addition to his native Lenape and about eight other American Indian languages; he used sign language to communicate with tribes whose language he did not know. His skills were invaluable to the many white settlers and military expeditions that were traveling west. He served the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition of 1834 and, during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), led a unit of Indian volunteers as a captain in the U.S. Army.
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