Image Source: Wiki Commons
Sacajawea, the Shoshoni guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition, was born in present-day Idaho in 1784 or 1787 (reports vary). At the age of ten, she was kidnapped during a raid by the Hidatsa Indians and taken to their village near present-day Mandan, North Dakota. In 1804, Sacajawea and another Native American girl were sold to the French fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau. Charbonneau wed both of the young Native Americans.
When Charbonneau was hired by Lewis and Clark in the winter of 1804-05, he insisted that Sacajawea be allowed to accompany the expedition for the remainder of their trip west. The young Shoshoni woman would serve as an interpreter for the band of explorers. She spoke to the Native Americans the expedition encountered. She translated it into Hidatsa and sent it to Charbonneau, who would translate it into English for the rest of the party. When she was unable to understand the language of the tribe, she would use sign language to make known their desires. On the journey, she carried her young infant, Jean Baptiste, who was called Pomp or Pompey by expedition leader William Clark.
In August 1805, when the expedition reached the navigable limits of the Missouri, Merriweather Lewis set out to contact a Shoshoni band from whom he hoped to obtain horses for the trip across the mountains. Sacajawea discovered the band was led by her older brother Cameahwait, who had become chief after their father’s death. From Cameahwait, Sacajawea obtained food, horses, and an elderly Shoshoni guide to help the explorers continue their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
Sacajawea served as an interpreter and revealed critical passageways through the wilderness to Lewis and Clark. She provided the group with valuable information about edible plants, and her mere presence, along with her infant son, indicated to the Native Americans they met that the expedition was peaceful. She was also responsible for housekeeping and food preparation.
Sacajawea could have stayed with the Shoshoni but chose to accompany the “Corp of Discovery” to the Pacific Ocean and then back to Hidatsa village in Upper Missouri. Historians do not have a definitive picture of history from this point on. It is thought that she may have died in 1812 of an epidemic of “putrid fever.” However, other accounts claim she rejoined her Shoshoni tribe and died 1884 on the Wind River Reservation in Montana.
Of the many memorials to Sacajawea, the most famous is a statue in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon. In 2000, the U.S. Mint issued a new gold dollar coin with the image of this resourceful, excellent Native American guide.
Check out more Noteworthy Natives at: https://nativepartnership.org/noteworthy-natives/
