Sacagawea

Born in 1786, probably near present-day Lemhi, Idaho, U.S.
Died Dec. 20, 1812?, Fort Manuel, on the Missouri River, Dakota Territory.

Also spelled Sacajawea

Shoshone Indian woman who, carrying her infant son on her back, traveled thousands of wilderness miles with the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06) to the Pacific Northwest.

Historians have been hard put to separate the facts from the body of folklore that have made this brave and much-honoured woman a popular heroine. Dates of her birth range from 1780 to 1790 in various sources, her birth place also appearing variously as western Montana or eastern Idaho. She was a member of the Lemhi band of Shoshone Indians, and it is believed that her Shoshone name was Boinaiv, meaning “grass maiden.” About 1800 she was captured by a party of Hidatsa (Minitari) Indians and taken to their village in the region of the upper Missouri River in present-day North Dakota. The Hidatsa people may have given her the name Sacagawea (pronounced with a hard “g”), derived from the Hidatsa words for “bird” and “woman.” Some authorities believe that later misunderstandings and attempts at standardization resulted in the commonly found spelling Sacajawea (pronounced with a “j”), which means “boat launcher” in Shoshone.

Sacagawea and another Shoshone girl were later sold to a French Canadian trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau, who had been living among the Indians. Following local customs, Charbonneau married both girls about 1804. That fall the expedition commanded by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark arrived among the Mandan Indians near what is now Bismarck, North Dakota, to spend the winter. Lewis and Clark engaged Charbonneau as an interpreter and guide to travel with them when they continued their journey of exploration to the Pacific Coast, and it was agreed that Sacagawea would accompany the party. On February 11, 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to a baby boy, Jean-Baptiste, whom she carried on her back when the expedition set out again on April 7.

Sacagawea proved to be a significant asset. She identified plants for the explorers and searched for edible fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet. When a boat was tipped over, she rescued the journals, medicines, and other valuables that had washed overboard. In return, Lewis and Clark named a river Sah-ca-ger-we-ah (Sah-cah-gar-we-ah, Sah-ca-gah-we-ah; “Bird Woman's River”) in her honour. Her fortitude in the face of hazards and deprivations later became legendary.

On August 17 near present-day Armsted, Montana, the expedition encountered a band of Shoshone led by Sacagawea's brother Cameahwait. The emotional climate created by their reunion had a salutary effect on negotiations for the horses and guides without which the expedition might well have ended almost on the spot. As the journey continued, the suspicions of other Indian tribes were allayed by the presence of a woman and child. Clark reported that “a woman with a party of men is a token of peace.” Charbonneau and Sacagawea stayed with the expedition to the coast and between them enabled the explorers to communicate with the various peoples of the Plains and the Northwest. On the return journey Sacagawea and Charbonneau remained with the Mandan Indians in present-day North Dakota while the rest of the group continued to St. Louis, Missouri.

There is evidence that Sacagawea and Charbonneau traveled to St. Louis in 1809 to leave their son to be educated by Clark, who had fondly called the boy Pomp, or Pompey, on the expedition and had named Pompey's (or Pomp's) Tower (now Pompey's Pillar) on the Yellowstone River for him. A woman identified as Charbonneau's wife and believed to be Sacagawea died shortly thereafter, according to contemporary sources, in 1812 at Fort Manuel, in what is now South Dakota. Some biographers speculate, however, that the woman who died at Fort Manuel was Charbonneau's other wife and that Sacagawea eventually rejoined the Shoshone people at the Wind River reservation in Wyoming and died there in 1884. Memorials have been raised near both sites, as well as at numerous other locations associated with Sacagawea.

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