Why do we love Sacagawea?

Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian woman known for her travels with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was born about 1790 in what is now Idaho. When she was about 5 years old, she was stolen in a raid by the rival Hidatsa and taken to live with them at their village near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. When she first met Merriweather Lewis and William Clark, she was heavily pregnant, barely 16, and married to French Canadian fur trapper and trader, Toussaint Charbonneau. Some time prior, Charbonneau had purchased Sacagawea and her companion, Otter Woman, taking both as wives. When the expedition reached Fort Mandan in 1805, Charbonneau was ostensibly hired as an interpreter, though it was generally agreed that he was a man of bad character. Lewis and Clark's true motive for hiring him was to use Sacagawea's services as a guide and translator, though she was never officially a member of the expedition.

Just before the expedition left Fort Mandan in 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to her son Jean-Baptiste. The fact that the expedition had women and a child traveling with them was of pivotal importance. Indians generally believed the presence of women and children to be a sign of the peaceful intentions of the company. Sacagawea proved her value immediately, pointing out the medicinal and dietary uses of native plants to supplement their bland diet. With her baby strapped into his cradleboard on her back, she rescued supplies that had been thrown into the Missouri River when one of their boats capsized in a storm. Her quick thinking and action saved the expedition from certain doom.

As the expedition approached her birthplace, she began to recognize landmarks. In August of 1805, they met their first group of Lehmi Shoshone. At first, the sixty Indians believed the expedition to be hostile, and sent warning of the intruders throughout the area. Upon seeing the women and children, the warriors relaxed and offered the company safe passage. In an odd coincidence, Sacagawea learned that the group that had been bent on attacking them and driving them from the valley was actually led by her brother Camehwaite, who was now chief. A joyous reunion followed, and Sacagawea acquired horses and a guide for the expedition as they made their way through Lost Trail Pass.

Continuing their trek westward, Sacagawea was able to converse in Shoshone with members of other tribes. As they neared the coast, Sacagawea insisted on being taken to see the "monstrous fish" (whales) that had beached itself near the mouth of the Columbia River. Being familiar since childhood with various routes her people had used for hunting buffalo, she was able to suggest easier and shorter routes to the Plains on the return trip.

Sacagawea, Charbonneau, and their child sailed down to St. Louis to meet with Clark at the conclusion of the expedition in 1806. Clark asked that he be allowed to pay for Jean-Baptiste's education, so they settled near town. Succumbing to wanderlust, in 1811, Charbonneau sold his land back to Clark and returned to fur trading. He took Sacagawea with him but left his son in the care of Clark, who was the Indian Agent for the Louisiana Purchase by that time. They traveled as far as Fort Manuel on the present-day border between North and South Dakota. Sacagawea became ill with a "putrid fever" and, according to a Mr. Luttig, the fort clerk, died in 1812. Since Charbonneau was apparently not to be found, Luttig took Jean-Baptiste and a female infant back to St. Louis and adopted them. However, the adoption papers show Luttig's name crossed out and replaced with that of Clark. Shoshone oral tradition insists that Sacagawea did not die in 1812, but lived to be a tribal elder, counseling the Shoshone to adopt white ways and take up farming. The Shoshone believe that the woman who died in 1812 was Charbonneau's other wife, Otter Woman.

During her lifetime, Sacagawea never had an inkling of how her actions would reverberate through American history and affect the future of both her people and the whites who would settle the western US. More schools and monuments are named in her honor than for any other American woman. In 1997, the US Mint began producing a new dollar gold coin, with Sacagawea's likeness on the obverse, depicting her carrying Jean-Baptiste on her back.

Biography:

Born - About 1789 or 1790
in what is now Lemhi County, Idaho
Died - One account says Dec. 20, 1812 *
* Shoshone tradition says April 9, 1884, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
(This date accepted by the DAR for their statue on her burial site, erected in 1963.)