|
She taught Lewis and Clark how to survive the West
In 1804, 16-year-old Sacagawea (c. 1786-1812?), her husband, fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, and their infant son joined adventurers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their epic voyage to explore the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, recently obtained by the United States. Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian, spent a year and a half with the expedition, serving as a guide and an interpreter with the Indians. The only woman on the expedition, she was at first considered to be merely the wife of Charbonneau, who was hired as a translator with the Indians. But she quickly became one of the most valuable members of the expedition, leading them through Indian territory and helping them to communicate and interact peacefully with the many tribes they encountered along the way. Last year, Sacagawea was honored by the U.S. government with the issue of a gold Sacagawea dollar coin.
Travel log: After joining the expedition near present-day Washburn, North Dakota, Sacagawea led the team westward along the Missouri River through present-day Montana, her tribe's traditional food-gathering region, where she showed the team how to survive off the land. Next they crossed the Continental Divide and continued westward through Nez Perce, Idaho, eventually meeting up with the Columbia River. In November 1805, the team reached its goal, the sands of the Pacific Ocean.
Early adventures: Born in what is now known as the Lemhi Valley of Idaho, Sacagawea was originally named Bionaiv, or "grass maiden." A member of a hunting-and-gathering tribe, she probably spent her youth foraging for food in the mountains of Montana and Idaho. When she was 11 years old, she was captured in a raid by the Hidatsa Indians, who took her back to their homeland along the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota. They renamed her Sacagawea, which means "bird woman," and later sold her, along with another Shoshone captive, to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trapper who lived and traded with the Indians of the region and who was looking for two Indian wives.
For the history books: Sacagawea knew several Indian languages, and Lewis and Clark figured she could help them acquire badly needed horses from her native Shoshone people. Six months pregnant and only 16 years old, Sacagawea joined the expedition as it headed westward and soon gave birth to a baby boy, Jean-Baptiste (fondly called "Pomp" by Clark). But even while she cared for her new baby, she proved to be a hearty traveler and guide--and did much more than serve as a symbol of peace and friendship on the expedition. She not only got the white men their horses, but she also taught the men to forage for roots and plants when supplies ran low, and to navigate the extremely rugged terrain of the Rockies. Thanks to her, no expedition member was lost to hostile Indian attacks. And when a boat carrying vital supplies was rocked by a squall on the Missouri River, it was Sacagawea, her baby still tied to her back, who plucked Clark's detailed expedition journals from the water, saving them for the annals of history.
Nobody knows for sure what happened to Sacagawea in the years after the expedition. It is believed that she died shortly after childbirth in 1812 at age 25.
Words to live by: Clark praised Sacagawea--albeit understatedly--in his writings that were later published as the The Journals of Lewis and Clark: "As soon as they [Indians] saw the Squar wife of the interperter [sic] they pointed to her...and they immediately all came out and appeared to assume new life...the sight of This Indian woman, wife to one of our interprs. confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter."
|
