Kit Carson
The Carson family was always in danger of Native American attacks in Missouri and so had to be alert. Cabins were "forted:" they had tall fences built around them, called stockades, to make the people inside Them safe from attack. During the day, men worked in the fields near the cabins. Some men had weapons to protect the workers and were ready to kill any Native American who attacked. Carson wrote in his Memoirs: "For two or three years after our arrival, we had to remain forted and it was necessary to have men stationed at the extremities of the fields for the protection of those that were laboring."