Sacagawea ( or ; also spelled Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May 1788 – December 20, 1812)"Sacagawea ." National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. 2017."Sacagawea / Sacajawea / Sakakawea | Women of the Hall ." National Women's Hall of Fame. 2003. Seneca Falls, NY. was a Lemhi Shoshone or Hidatsa woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with Native American people and contributing to the expedition's knowledge of natural history in different regions.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century adopted Sacagawea as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to recount her accomplishments.
Early life Reliable historical information about Sacagawea is very limited.
According to Toussaint Charbonneau, her husband, she was born into the Agaidika ('Salmon Eater', aka Lemhi Shoshone) tribe near present-day Salmon, Idaho. This is near the continental divide at the present-day Idaho-Montana border.Buckley, Jay H. "Sacagawea ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2020. In 1800, when she was about 12 years old, Sacagawea and several other children were taken captive by a group of Hidatsa in a raid that resulted in the deaths of several Shoshone: four men, four women, and several boys. She was held captive at a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.Anderson, Irving W. 1999. "Sacagawea | Inside the Corps " (film website). Lewis & Clark. DC: PBS.org. She disclosed to Lewis and other expedition members that four Shoshone men and some boys were killed in the battle, and she was taken captive with other women and boys. Her captors were "Gos Vauntos Indians," which some historians attribute to the Hidatsa.
According to an alternative theory presented in the Sacagawea Project Board's 2021 book Our Story of Eagle Woman, Sacagawea was born as a member of the Hidatsa tribe, and was possibly abducted by the Shoshone (rather than the reverse, as in Charbonneau's telling) before returning to her tribe. The authors cite a 1923 oral history told by a man who claimed to be her grandson, Bulls Eye, that was supported by contemporary elders in the tribe. The Sacagawea Project Board conducted DNA testing that they say shows a genetic link between Hidatsa descended from Cedar Woman, who was said to be Sacagawea's daughter (born after her supposed death in 1812), and French Canadians with the name Charbonneau.
At about age 13, she was granted into what was then a Native American custom at the time, a non-consensual marriage to Charbonneau, a Quebecois trapper. He had also been associated with another young Shoshone girl, known as Otter Woman, for a wife. Charbonneau was variously reported to have purchased both girls from the Hidatsa, or to have won Sacagawea while gambling.
Lewis and Clark Expedition In 1804, the Corps of Discovery reached a Mandan village, where Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark built Fort Mandan for wintering over in 1804–05. They interviewed several trappers who might be able to interpret or guide the expedition up the Missouri River in the springtime. Knowing they would need to communicate with the tribal nations who lived at the headwaters of the Missouri River, they agreed to hire Toussaint Charbonneau in early winter of 1804, who claimed to speak several Native languages, and one of his wives, who spoke Shoshone. Sacagawea was pregnant with her first child at the time.
On November 4, 1804, Clark recorded in his journal:Clark, William. 2004. "November 4, 1804 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
Charbonneau and Sacagawea moved into the expedition's fort a week later. Clark later nicknamed her "Janey." Lewis observed her activities as part of his ethnographic report on Native people. She and her family traveled mostly in the co-captains' company, ate near or with them, and shared the same tent. Lewis recorded the birth of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on February 11, 1805, noting that another of the party's interpreters administered crushed rattlesnake rattles in water to speed the delivery, which helped with the painful delivery. Clark and other members of the Corps nicknamed the boy "Pomp" or "Pompy."
In April 1805, the expedition left Fort Mandan and headed up the Missouri River in pirogues and Sacagawea carried young Jean Baptiste on her back in an Indian cradleboard. While heading up the Missouri River, they had to be poled against the current and sometimes pulled by crew along the riverbanks. On May 14, 1805, Sacagawea rescued items that had fallen out of a capsized boat, including the journals and records of Lewis and Clark. The corps commanders, who praised her quick action, named the Sacagawea River in her honor on May 20, 1805. By August 1805, the corps had located a Shoshone tribe and was attempting to trade for horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. They used Sacagawea to interpret and discovered that the tribe's leader, Cameahwait, was her brother, though in the Shoshoni language cousin and brother are the same word.
Lewis recorded their reunion in his journal:Lewis, Meriwether. 2004. "August 17, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
And Clark in his:Clark, William. 2004. "August 17, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
The Shoshone agreed to barter horses and to provide guides to lead the expedition over the Rocky Mountains. The mountain crossing took longer than expected, and the expedition's food supplies dwindled. When they descended into more temperate regions, Sacagawea helped to find and cook camas roots to help the party members regain their strength.
As the expedition approached the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Coast, Sacagawea gave up her beaded belt to enable the captains to trade for a fur robe they wished to bring back to give to President Thomas Jefferson.
Clark's journal entry for November 20, 1805, reads:Clark, William. 2004. "November 20, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and University of Nebraska Press. Archived from the original 2 February 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
When the corps reached the Pacific Ocean, all members of the expedition—including Sacagawea and Clark's enslaved servant York—voted on November 24 on the location for building their winter fort. In January, when a whale's carcass washed up onto the beach south of Fort Clatsop, Sacagawea insisted on her right to go see this "monstrous fish."
On the return trip, they approached the Rocky Mountains in July 1806. On July 6, Clark recorded:The Indian woman informed me that she had been in this plain frequently and knew it well. ... She said we would discover a gap in the mountains in our direction [i.e., present-day Gibbons Pass]. A week later, on July 13, 1806 Sacagawea advised Clark to cross into the Yellowstone River basin at what is now known as Bozeman Pass. Later, this was chosen as the optimal route for the Northern Pacific Railway to cross the continental divide:
While Sacagawea has been depicted as a guide for the expedition, she is recorded as providing direction in only a few instances, primarily in present-day Montana. Her work as a guide revolved around her geographical insight and as an interpreter. Her work as an interpreter helped the party to negotiate with the Shoshone. But, she also had significant value to the mission simply by her presence on the journey, as having a woman and infant accompany them demonstrated the peaceful intent of the expedition. While traveling through what is now Franklin County, Washington, in October 1805, Clark noted that "the wife of Shabono [Charbonneau] our interpreter, we find reconciles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of peace."Clark, William. 2004. "October 13, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 May 2020. Further he wrote that she "confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter".Clark, William. 2004. "October 19, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
As Clark traveled downriver from Fort Mandan at the end of the journey, on board the pirogue near the Ricara Village, he wrote to Charbonneau:Kastor, Peter J., ed. 2003. "Sacagawea in primary sources." American Indian Women. St. Louis: American Cultural Studies, Washington University. Archived from the original on 11 February 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
Sacagawea was mentioned 108 times in the combined Lewis and Clark journals, often in passing as "the wife of our interpreter," "our squaw," or "the Snake woman."
Later life and death
Children Following the expedition, Charbonneau and Sacagawea spent three years among the Hidatsa before accepting William Clark's invitation to settle in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1809. They entrusted Jean-Baptiste's education to Clark, who enrolled the young man in the Saint Louis Academy boarding school.Jackson, Donald, ed. 1962. Letters of the Lewis & Clark Expedition With Related Documents: 1783–1854. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette Charbonneau, about 1812. Lizette was identified as a year-old girl in adoption papers in 1813 recognizing William Clark, who also adopted her older brother that year."Original Adoption Documents." St. Louis, Missouri: Orphans Court Records. 11 August 1813. Because Clark's papers make no later mention of Lizette, it is believed that she died in childhood.
Death According to Bonnie "Spirit Wind-Walker" Butterfield, historical documents suggest that Sacagawea died in 1812 of an unknown sickness. For instance, a journal entry from 1811 by Henry Brackenridge, a fur trader at Fort Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, wrote that Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living at the fort. Brackenridge recorded that Sacagawea "had become sickly and longed to revisit her native country."Drumm, Stella M., ed. 1920. Journal of a Fur-trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri: John Luttig, 1812–1813. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society. John Luttig, a Fort Lisa clerk, recorded in his journal on December 20, 1812, that "the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw [i.e. Shoshone], died of putrid fever." He said that she was "aged about 25 years. She left a fine infant girl." Documents held by Clark show that Charbonneau had already entrusted their son Baptiste to Clark's care for a boarding school education, at Clark's insistence.