Charles worked for the Missouri Fur Company. The Bent brothers’ personal lives were After involvement in fur trading and a stint in the interwoven into the fabric of their entrepreneurial military, he and William took goods from St. Louis endeavors. Charles married Maria Ignacia Jaramillo to Santa Fe, creating mercantile contacts, starting in Taos. Maria’s younger sister, Josefa, later married a series of trading trips over the Santa Fe Trail, and Kit Carson. Appointed as the first civilian governor partnering with another trader. They established of New Mexico Territory, Charles met a grisly death. a store in Taos, New Mexico, as well as a series of In 1847, Pueblo warriors scalped and killed him fortified trading posts in order to trade with the during the Taos Revolt. Plains Indians. In the 1830s or 1840s, William and In 1835, William Bent married Mistanta (Mis- Charles established Bent’s Fort, which was a fort like stan-stur, ca. 1810-1847) in a traditional Cheyenne no other. ceremony at Bent’s Fort. A Southern Cheyenne, William Bent and his brother were highly William Bent married Mistanta in a traditional William Bent's brother Charles married Maria instrumental in opening up the western Cheyenne ceremony at Bent's Fort. A Ignacia Jaramillo. Maria's younger sister, Josefa, frontier. Their massive endeavors included Southern Cheyenne, she was also known married Kit Carson, William Bent's good cultivating the Santa Fe Trail and building as Owl Woman. friend. Carson was a frontiersman, trapper, Bent's Fort. guide, and Indian agent. William Bent possessed a myriad of talents, she was also known as Owl Woman. William and abilities, and skill sets. His trading endeavors Owl Woman were Harvey Pratt’s great-great- included interacting with fur trappers, Mexicans, grandparents. She was the daughter of White Native Americans, the military, and an assortment Thunder, the most powerful Southern Cheyenne of Anglo Americans moving along the frontier. He chief and a medicine man. Following Cheyenne was accepted into the Cheyenne tribe, becoming custom, after Owl Woman’s death, William took a sub chief. William was an interpreter, and he also her sisters Yellow Woman and Island as wives. served as a mediator among the Cheyenne and White Thunder, Harvey Pratt’s great-great- other Native American nations, and negotiated great-grandfather, held the sacred and prominent peace among various tribes. As well, he negotiated position of “Keeper of the Arrows.” Consisting of between Native American groups and the U.S. four arrows, he kept the bundle, which included two government. William also served as a military scout. arrows for defense and two for hunting, all of which 17 35