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In the early 1800s, Sacajawea accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their historical expedition from St. Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean. Sacajawea is responsible in large part for the success of the expedition, due to her navigational, diplomatic, and translating skills.
Sacajawea was an interpreter and guide for and the only woman member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806. She was born somewhere between 1784 and 1788 into the Lehmi band of the Shoshone Indians who lived in the eastern part of the Salmon River area of present-day central Idaho. Her father was chief of her village. Sacajawea's Shoshone name was Boinaiv, which means "Grass Maiden." The primary documentation of Sacajawea's life is contained in the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, a lawyer and a clerk of a fur trading company who led an expedition authorized by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 to explore the recently purchased Louisiana Territory. In addition, the Shoshone Indians have many stories in their oral tradition about Sacajawea, and many living Shoshone trace their ancestry to her. Nevertheless, there is much controversy surrounding the life of this intrepid woman.
Captured by Hidatsa War Party
In 1800, when the Shoshone girl, Boinaiv, was about 12 years old, her band was camped at the Three Forks of the Missouri River in Montana when they encountered some Hidatsa warriors. The warriors killed four men, four women and a number of boys. Several girls and boys, including Boinaiv, were captured and taken back to the Hidatsa village. At the Hidatsa camp, Boinaiv was given the name Sacagawea by her captors, which means "Bird Woman." There is more than a little argument over the derivation and spelling of Sacajawea's name. Sacajawea is a name meaning "Boat Launcher" in Shoshone. The Original Journals of Lewis and Clark support a Hidatsa origin. On May 20, 1805, Lewis wrote of "Sah-ca-ger-we-ah or Bird Woman's River" as a name for what is now Crooked Creek in north-central Montana. Sometime between 1800 and 1804, Sacajawea and another girl were sold to (or won in a gambling match by) trader Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian who was residing among the Hidatsa. He eventually married both girls.
Joins the "Corps of Discovery"
In 1803, Jefferson and the U. S. Congress authorized a "Voyage of Discovery" by which a group of men would explore the territory between the Mississippi and Columbia Rivers and attempt to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson's secretary and confidante, Lewis, and Lewis's friend Clark were assigned to lead the corps of explorers. The expedition of some 45 men left St. Louis, Missouri, on May 14, 1804. They arrived at the Mandan and Hidatsa villages near the mouth of the Knife River in North Dakota on October 26, 1804. There, they built cabins in a clearing below the villages and settled in for the winter.
On November 4, 1804, Clark wrote in his journal: "a Mr. Chaubonie [Charbonneau] interpreter from the Gross Ventre nation came to see us … this man wished to hire as an interpreter." Clark's field notes for the same day state that both Charbonneau and Sacajawea were hired: "a french man by name Chabonah who speaks the Big Belley language visited us, he wished to hire and informed us his 2 Squaws were Snake [Shoshone] Indians, we engaged him to go on with us and take one of his wives to interpret the Snake language." Lewis and Clark realized that they would need someone to help interpret and help secure supplies from the Shoshone when they passed through their territory. As it later turned out, the process of interpretation was a cumbersome matter. Sacajawea conversed with her husband in Gros Ventre. Charbonneau then passed on Sacajawea's words in French to another individual in the party who spoke French and English; that individual then relayed the information along to Lewis and Clark in English. Sacajawea also made extensive use of sign language, which many in the party could interpret.
At the time the party had come to the Mandan villages, Sacajawea was pregnant. Lewis duly noted in his journal the birth on February 11, 1805, of a "fine boy," although Sacajawea's "labor was tedious and the pain violent." The boy was named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Even with an infant, Sacajawea and her husband were hired as interpreters. On April 7, 1805, Sacajawea - carrying her infant in a cradleboard - accompanied the expedition out of the Mandan villages for the trek west. Clark listed among the 32 members of the party "my servant, York; George Drewyer, who acts as hunter and interpreter; Sharbonah and his Indian squaw to act as Interpreter and interpretess for the Snake Indians … and Shabonah's infant."
Sacajawea quickly demonstrated her knowledge of edible plants along the course. Lewis wrote on April 9 that when the expedition stopped for dinner Sacajawea "busied herself in search for the wild artichokes… . This operation she performed by penetrating the earth with a sharp stick about some collection of driftwood. Her labors soon proved successful and she procured a good quantity of these roots." At many other points in the trip, Sacajawea gathered, stored, and prepared wild edibles for the party, especially a plentiful root called Year-pah by the Shoshones.
On May 14, the party encountered heavy winds near the Yellowstone River. Charbonneau was at the helm of the pirogue, or canoe, which held some supplies and valuables gathered during the expedition. Lewis noted that "it happened unfortunately for us this evening that Charbono was at the helm of this perogue … ; Charbono cannot swim and is perhaps the most timid waterman in the world." Both Lewis and Clark were on shore and could only watch in horror at what occurred next. Clark wrote: "We proceeded on very well until about 6 o'clock. A squall of wind struck our sail broadside and turned the perogue nearly over, and in this situation the perogue remained until the sail was cut down in which time she nearly filled with water. The articles which floated out were nearly all caught by the squaw who was in the rear. This accident had like to have cost us dearly; for in this perogue were embarked our papers, instruments, books, medicine, a great proportion of our merchandise." Lewis noted in his journal: "The Indian woman, to whom I ascribe equal fortitude and resolution with any person on board at the time of the accident, caught and preserved most of the light articles which were washed overboard." About a week later, Lewis recorded that a recently discovered river was named in Sacajawea's honor, no doubt in recognition of her important service to the party. According to Lewis: "About five miles above the mouth of Shell river, a handsome river of about fifty yards in width discharged itself into the Shell river on the starboard or upper side. This stream we called Sah-ca-ger-we-ah or 'Bird Woman's river,' after our interpreter, the Snake woman."
On June 10, Sacajawea became ill and remained so for the next several days. This event is discussed at length in the journals of both Lewis and Clark, who were extremely concerned for her welfare. Both took turns tending to her. On June 16, Clark wrote that Sacajawea was "very bad and will take no medicine whatever until her husband, finding her out of her senses, easily prevailed upon her to take medicine. If she dies it will be the fault of her husband." Lewis wrote that Sacajawea's illness "gave me some concern as well for the poor object herself, then with a young child in her arms, as from the consideration of her being our only dependence for a friendly negotiation with the Snake [Shoshone] Indians on whom we depend for horses to assist us in our portage from the Missouri to the Columbia River." Sacajawea recovered from this illness, but a few days later, on June 29, she, her infant son, Charbonneau, and the servant York nearly drowned in a flash flood. Fortunately, Clark hurried the group to safer ground and all were spared.
Reunion with the Shoshones
On July 30, 1805, the party passed the spot on the Three Forks of the Missouri where Sacajawea was taken from her people some five years previously. A little over one week later, at Beaverhead Rock, Sacajawea recognized her homeland and notified the expedition that the Shoshones had to be near. On August 13, Lewis took an advance party on ahead to find and meet the Shoshone while Clark remained behind with Sacajawea and the rest of the group. The next day, Charbonneau was observed by Clark on two occasions to strike his wife, for which Clark severely reprimanded him.
On August 17, Clark, Sacajawea, and the rest of the party came upon Lewis who had met the Lehmi-Shoshone chief Cameahwait. Clark described what happened: "I saw at a distance several Indians on horseback coming towards me. The interpreter and squaw, who were before me at some distance, danced for the joyful sight, and she made signs to me that they were her nation." The Biddle edition of the journals of Lewis and Clark notes that Sacajawea was sent for to interpret between Lewis and Clark and Cameahwait: "She came into the tent, sat down, and was beginning to interpret, when in the person of Cameahwait she recognized her brother; she instantly jumped up and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her blanket and weeping profusely … ; after some conversation between them she resumed her seat, and attempted to interpret for us, but her new situation seemed to overpower her, and she was frequently interrupted by tears." Sacajawea learned that her only surviving family were two brothers and a son of her eldest sister, whom she immediately adopted. She also met the Shoshone man to whom she had been promised as a child; however, he was no longer interested in her because she had borne a child with another man. While among her people, Sacajawea helped to secure horses, supplies, and Shoshone guides to assist in the expedition's trip across the Rocky Mountains.
Leaving her adopted son in the care of her brother Cameahwait, Sacajawea and the rest of the party traveled on, eventually following the Snake River to its junction with the Columbia, and on toward the Pacific Ocean. On October 13, 1805, Clark again commented on the value of having Sacajawea as a member of the expedition: "The wife of Shabono 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." In November 1805, a lead party from the expedition reached the ocean. Having heard that this group had discovered a beached whale, Sacajawea insisted that Lewis and Clark take her to see the ocean. Lewis wrote on January 6, 1805: "The Indian woman was very importunate to be permitted to go, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very bad she could not be permitted to see either."
When the party separated on the return trip in order to explore various routes, Sacajawea joined Clark, directing him through the territory of her people, pointing out edible berries and roots, and suggesting that Clark take the Bozeman Pass to rejoin the other members at the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. Clark noted on July 13, 1806, that "The Indian woman, who has been of great service to me as a pilot through this country, recommends a gap in the mountains more south which I shall cross."
Two days after the parties were rejoined, on August 14, 1806, the expedition arrived back at the Mandan villages. Here Charbonneau and Sacajawea decided to remain. Clark offered to adopt their son Jean Baptiste, whom he had affectionately called "Pomp" on the trip. They accepted Clark's offer for a later time after the infant was weaned. On the return trip to St. Louis, Clark wrote a letter to Charbonneau, inviting him to come live and work in St. Louis and commenting: "your woman, who accompanied you that long dangerous and fatiguing route to the Pacific Ocean and back, deserved a greater reward for her attention and services on that route than we had in our power to give her at the Mandans." While Charbonneau was paid for his services, Sacajawea, as his wife, received no financial remuneration separate from her husband.
Controversy Remains over Sacagawea's Later Years
There is strong evidence to indicate that Sacajawea lived for only a few short years after parting ways with the Lewis and Clark expedition. It may be that Charbonneau accepted Clark's invitation to come to Missouri and farm land. On April 2, 1811, a lawyer and traveler named Henry Brackenridge was on a boat from St. Louis to the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa villages of North and South Dakota. He noted in his journal for that day (cited in Ella E. Clark's and Margot Edmonds's Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition): "We have on board a Frenchman named Charbonet, with his wife, an Indian woman of the Snake nation, both of whom had accompanied Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, and were of great service. The woman, a good creature, of a mild and gentle disposition, was greatly attached to the whites, whose manners and dress she tried to imitate; but she had become sickly, and longed to revisit her native country; her husband, also, who had spent many years amongst the Indians, was become weary of a civilized life."
It is believed by many scholars that Charbonneau and Sacajawea, having left their son Jean Baptiste with Clark to raise in St. Louis (Jean Baptiste later became a respected interpreter and mountain man) took their infant daughter named Lizette, and traveled to the Missouri Fur Company of Manuel Lisa in South Dakota. An employee of the fur company, John C. Luttig, recorded in his journal on December 20, 1812: "this Evening the Wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw died of a putrid fever she was a good and the best Woman in the fort aged abt 25 years she left a fine infant girl." Sacajawea was buried in the grounds of the fort. In addition, William Clark published an account book for the period of 1825-1828, in which he listed the members of the expedition and whether they were then either living or dead. He recorded Sacajawea as deceased.
Another theory of Sacajawea's life, supported among others by an early biographer, Dr. Grace Hebard of the University of Wyoming, relates that Sacajawea actually left her husband, took her son Jean Baptiste and adopted son - named Bazil - and went to live with the Comanches. There she married a man named Jerk Meat and bore five more children. Later, Sacajawea returned to her homeland to live with her Shoshone people at what was now the Wind River Agency. She was called Porivo ("Chief") at Wind River and became an active tribal leader. She was reported by some Shoshones, Indian agents, and missionaries to have died at the age of about 100 in 1884 and to have been buried at Fort Washakie. Opponents of this theory argue that the woman who called herself Sacajawea was actually another Shoshone woman.
The Shoshones of Fort Washakie have started a project to document the descendants of Sacajawea. As of mid-1993, more than 400 Shoshones who can trace their ancestry to Sacajawea have been counted. Many among them believe that she indeed lived a long and full life.
From the time of her marriage, Sacajawea's life became inextricably bound to a group of Anglo explorers and their quest for westward expansion. In spite of separation from her people, illness, physical abuse from her spouse, and an infant to care for, Sacajawea made key contributions to the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Her skills as an interpreter and as liaison between the Shoshone and the expedition, her knowledge of the flora and fauna and of the terrain along much of the route, and her common sense and good humor were key elements that contributed to the successful resolution of the journey.
Sacajawea has become one of the most memorialized women in American history. A bronze statue of her was exhibited during the centennial observance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in St. Louis in 1904. Another statue was commissioned by a women's suffrage group in Oregon, with the unveiling set to coincide with the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland in 1905. Statues also reside in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Virginia. In addition to the river in Montana named for Sacajawea by Lewis and Clark, other memorials include three mountains, two lakes, and numerous markers, paintings, musical compositions, schools, and a museum.
Further Reading
Biographical Dictionary of Indians of the Americas, Newport Beach, CA, American Indian Publishers, Inc., 1991, Vol. II; 642-647.
Clark, Ella E., and Margot Edmonds, Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979.
Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Dumas Malone, New York, Scribner's, 1935, Vol. XVI; 278.
Dockstader, Frederick J., Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977; 248-249.
Dye, Eva Emery, The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark, Chicago, A. C. McClurg, 1902.
Hebard, Grace Raymond, Sacajawea: A Guide and Interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with an Account of the Travels of Toussaint Charbonneau, and of Jean Baptiste, the Expedition Papoose, Glendale, CA, Arthur H. Clark Company, 1933.
Howard, Harold P., Sacajawea, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.
Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, with Related Documents, 1783-1854, edited by Donald Jackson, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1962.
Lewis, Meriwether, and William Clark, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806, 8 vols., edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, New York, Dodd, Mead, 1904-1905.
Lewis, Meriwether, William Clark, and Nicholas Biddle, History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, Performed During the Years 1804-5-6, by Order of the Government of the United States, 3 vols., New York, A. S. Barnes, 1904.
Liberty's Women, edited by Robert McHenry, Springfield, MA, Merriam, 1980; 362-363.
Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Gretchen M. Bataille, New York, Garland, 1993; 219-222.
Native North American Almanac, edited by Duane Champagne, Detroit, MI, Gale Research Inc., 1994; 1151.
Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, edited by Edward T. James, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1971, Vol. III; 218-219.
Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West, edited by Howard R. Lamar, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977; 1055.
Reid, Russell, Sakakawea: The Bird Woman, Bismark, ND, State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1986.
Remley, David, "Sacajawea of Myth and History," in Women and Western American Literature, edited by Helen Winter Stauffer and Susan J. Rosowski, Troy, NY, 1982; 70-89.
Ronda, James P., Lewis and Clark among the Indians, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Waldman, Carl, Who Was Who in Native American History, New York, Facts on File, 1990; 309-310.
Weatherford, Doris, American Women's History, New York, Prentice Hall, 1994; 303-304.
Anderson, Irving, "Probing the Riddle of the Bird Woman," Montana, the Magazine of Western History, 23, October 1973; 2-17.
Chuinard, E. G., "The Bird Woman: Purposeful Member of the Corps or Casual 'Tag-Along'?" Montana, the Magazine of Western History 26, July 1976; 18-29.
Dawson, Jan C. "Sacagawea: Pilot or Pioneer Mother?", Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 83, January 1992; 22-28.
Morrison, Joan, "Sacajawea's Legacy Traced," Wind River News 16, June 22, 1993; 4.
Schroer, Blanche, "Boat-Pusher or Bird Woman? Sacagawea or Sacajawea?" Annals of Wyoming 52, Spring 1980; 46-54.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Sacajawea |
Bibliography
See biography by H. P. Howard (1971).
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: History:
Sacajawea |
A young Native American woman who guided Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition to explore territory gained through the Louisiana Purchase. (See Lewis and Clark expedition.)
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Sacagawea |
| Sacagawea | |
|---|---|
"Sacagawea" (1910), North Dakota State Capitol, Leonard Crunelle, sculptor. |
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| Born | c. 1788 Lemhi River Valley (near present-day Salmon, Idaho) |
| Died | December 20, 1812 (aged 24) Fort Lisa, present-day North Dakota (probable) |
| Other names | Sakakawea, Sacajawea, Sakagawea |
| Ethnicity | American Native (Shoshone) |
| Known for | Accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition |
| Spouse | Toussaint Charbonneau |
| Children | Jean Baptiste Charbonneau Lizette Charbonneau |
Sacagawea (also Sakakawea, Sacajawea; English pronunciation: /ˌsækədʒəˈwiːə/ see below); (c. 1788 – December 20, 1812; see below for other theories about her death) was a Lemhi Shoshone woman, who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition, acting as an interpreter and guide, in their exploration of the Western United States. She traveled thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean between 1804 and 1806.
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She has become an important part of the Lewis and Clark legend in the American public imagination. The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early twentieth century adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to spread the story of her accomplishments.[1]
In 2000, the United States Mint issued the Sacagawea dollar coin in her honor, depicting Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. The face on the coin was modeled on a modern Shoshone-Bannock woman named Randy'L He-dow Teton. No contemporary image of Sacagawea exists.
In 2001, she was given the title of Honorary Sergeant, Regular Army, by then-president Bill Clinton.[2]
Reliable historical information about Sacagawea is very limited. She was born into an Agaidika (Salmon Eater) tribe of Lemhi Shoshone between Kenney Creek and Agency Creek about twenty minutes away from present-day Salmon in Lemhi County, Idaho.[citation needed] In 1800, when she was about twelve, she and several other girls were kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa (also known as Minnetarees) in a battle that resulted in death among the Shoshone of four men, four women and several boys. She was taken as a captive to a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.[citation needed]
At about thirteen years of age, Sacagawea was taken as a wife by Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebecer trapper living in the village. He had also taken another young Shoshone named Otter Woman as a wife. Charbonneau was reported to have purchased both wives from the Hidatsa, or won Sacagawea while gambling.
Sacagawea was pregnant with her first child when the Corps of Discovery arrived near the Hidatsa villages to spend the winter of 1804–05. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark built Fort Mandan. They interviewed several trappers who might be able to interpret or guide the expedition up the Missouri River in the springtime. They agreed to hire Charbonneau as an interpreter when they discovered his wife spoke Shoshone, as they knew they would need the help of Shoshone tribes at the headwaters of the Missouri.
Lewis recorded in his journal on November 4, 1804:
Charbonneau and Sacagawea moved into the expedition's fort a week later. Clark nicknamed her Janey.[3] Lewis recorded the birth of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on February 11, 1805, noting that another of the party's interpreters administered crushed rattlesnake rattles to speed the delivery. Clark and other European Americans nicknamed the boy "Little Pomp" or "Pompy".
In April, the expedition left Fort Mandan and headed up the Missouri River in pirogues. They had to be poled against the current and sometimes pulled from 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.
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 chief was her brother Cameahwait.
Lewis recorded their reunion in his journal:
"Shortly after Capt. Clark arrived with the Interpreter Charbono, and the Indian woman, who proved to be a sister of the Chief Cameahwait. The meeting of those people was really affecting, particularly between Sah cah-gar-we-ah and an Indian woman, who had been taken prisoner at the same time with her, and who had afterwards escaped from the Minnetares and rejoined her nation."[4] [sic]
And Clark in his:
The Shoshone agreed to barter horses to the group, and to provide guides to lead them over the cold and barren Rocky Mountains. The trip was so hard that they were reduced to eating tallow candles to survive. When they descended into the more temperate regions on the other side, Sacagawea helped to find and cook camas roots to help them 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 give to President Thomas Jefferson.
Clark's journal entry for November 20, 1805 reads:
"one of the Indians had on a roab made of 2 Sea Otter Skins the fur of them were more butifull than any fur I had ever Seen both Capt. Lewis & my Self endeavored to purchase the roab with different articles at length we precured it for a belt of blue beeds which the Squar—wife of our interpreter Shabono wore around her waste...."[5] [sic]
When the corps reached the Pacific Ocean, all members of the expedition—including Sacagawea and Clark's black manservant 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..." which is now Gibbons Pass. A week later, on July 13, Sacagawea advised Clark to cross into the Yellowstone River basin at what is now known as Bozeman Pass. This was later 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. Her work as an interpreter certainly helped the party to negotiate with the Shoshone. However, her greatest value to the mission may have been simply her presence during the arduous journey, which showed their peaceful intent. While traveling through what is now Franklin County, Washington, Clark noted, "The Indian woman confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter," and, "the wife of Shabono our interpeter we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of peace."[6]
As he traveled downriver from Fort Mandan at the end of the journey, Clark wrote to Charbonneau:
"You have been a long time with me and conducted your Self in Such a manner as to gain my friendship, your woman who accompanied you that long dangerous and fatigueing rout to the Pacific Ocian and back diserved a greater reward for her attention and services on that rout than we had in our power to give her at the Mandans. As to your little Son (my boy Pomp) you well know my fondness of him and my anxiety to take him and raise him as my own child...If you are desposed to accept either of my offers to you and will bring down you Son your famn [femme, woman] Janey had best come along with you to take care of the boy untill I get him....Wishing you and your family great success & with anxious expectations of seeing my little danceing boy Baptiest I shall remain your Friend, William Clark"[7] [sic]
After 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.
Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette, sometime after 1810. According to Bonnie "Spirit Wind-Walker" Butterfield, historical documents suggest Sacagawea died in 1812 of an unknown sickness:
A few months later, fifteen men were killed in an Indian attack on Fort Lisa, then located at the mouth of the Bighorn River.[8] John Luttig and Sacagawea's young daughter were among the survivors. Toussaint Charbonneau was mistakenly thought to have been killed at this time, but he apparently lived to at least eighty. He had signed over formal custody of his son to Clark in 1813.
As further proof that Sacagawea died in 1812, Butterfield writes: "An adoption document made in the Orphans Court Records in St. Louis, Missouri states, 'On August 11, 1813, William Clark became the guardian of 'Tousant Charbonneau, a boy about ten years, and Lizette Charbonneau, a girl about one year old.' For a Missouri State Court at the time, to designate a child as orphaned and to allow an adoption, both parents had to be confirmed dead in court papers."
The last recorded document citing Sacagawea's existence appears in William Clark's original notes written between 1825–1826. He lists the names of each of the expedition members and their last known whereabouts. For Sacagawea he writes: "Se car ja we au- Dead." (Jackson, 1962)."[9]
There is no later record of Lizette among Clark's papers. It is believed that she died in childhood.
Sacagawea's son Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau continued a restless and adventurous life. He carried lifelong celebrity status as the infant who went with the explorers to the Pacific Ocean and back. When he was 18, he was befriended by a German Prince, who took him to Europe. There, Jean-Baptiste spent 6 years living among royalty while learning 4 languages and fathering a child in Germany named Anton Fries.[10]
After his infant son died, Jean-Baptiste came back from Europe in 1829 to live the life of a Western frontiersmen. He became a gold miner, hotel clerk, and in 1846, he led a group of Mormons to California. While in California he became a magistrate for the San Luis Rey Mission. He did not like the way Indians were treated in the Missions and left to become a hotel clerk in Auburn, California, once the center of gold rush activity.[11]
After working 6 years in Auburn, the restless son of Sacagawea left in search of riches in the gold mines of Montana. He was 61 years old, and the trip was too much for him. He became ill with pneumonia and died in a remote area near Danner, Oregon on May 16, 1866.[11]
Some American Indian oral traditions relate that rather than dying in 1812, Sacagawea left her husband Charbonneau, crossed the Great Plains and married into a Comanche tribe. She was said to have returned to the Shoshone in Wyoming, where she died in 1884.
The question of Sacagawea's final resting place caught the attention of national suffragists seeking voting rights for women, according to author Raymond Wilson.[12] Wilson argues that Sacagawea became a role model whom suffragettes pointed to "with pride." Wilson goes on to note:
In 1925, Dr. Charles Eastman, a Dakota Sioux physician, was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to locate Sacagawea's remains. Eastman visited many different Native American tribes to interview elderly individuals who might have known or heard of Sacagawea, and learned of a Shoshone woman at the Wind River Reservation with the Comanche name Porivo (chief woman). Some of the people he interviewed said that she spoke of a long journey where she had helped white men, and that she had a silver Jefferson peace medal of the type carried by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He found a Comanche woman called Tacutine who said that Porivo was her grandmother. She had married into a Comanche tribe and had a number of children, including Tacutine's father Ticannaf. Porivo left the tribe after her husband Jerk-Meat was killed.[13]
According to these narratives, Porivo lived for some time at Fort Bridger in Wyoming with her sons Bazil and Baptiste, who each knew several languages, including English and French. Eventually she found her way back to the Lemhi Shoshone at the Wind River Indian Reservation, where she was recorded as "Bazil's mother".[13] This woman died on April 9, 1884, and a Reverend John Roberts officiated at her funeral.
It was Eastman's conclusion that Porivo was Sacagawea.[14] In 1963 a monument to "Sacajawea of the Shoshonis" was erected at Fort Washakie on the Wind River reservation near Lander, Wyoming on the basis of this claim.[15]
The belief that Sacagawea lived to old age and died in Wyoming was widely disseminated in the United States in the 1933 biography Sacajawea by University of Wyoming professor and historian Grace Raymond Hebard. Hebard's 30 years of research which led to the biography of the Shoshone woman is called into question by critics.[16] Hebard presents a stout-hearted woman in her portrayal of Sacajawea that is "undeniably long on romance and short on hard evidence, suffering from a sentimentalization of Indian culture".[17]
In her novel Sacajawea (1984), Anna Lee Waldo explored the story of Sacajawea's returning to Wyoming 50 years after her departure. The author was well aware of the historical research supporting an 1812 death, but she chose to explore the oral tradition.
A long-running controversy has surrounded the correct spelling, pronunciation, and etymology of the woman's name. However, linguists working on Hidatsa since the 1870s have always considered the name's Hidatsa etymology essentially indisputable. The name is a compound of two common Hidatsa nouns, cagáàga [tsaɡáàɡa] 'bird' and míà [míà] 'woman'. The compound is written as Cagáàgawia 'Bird Woman' in modern Hidatsa orthography, and pronounced [tsaɡáàɡawia] (/m/ is pronounced [w] between vowels in Hidatsa). The double /aa/ in the name indicates a long vowel and the diacritics a falling pitch pattern. Hidatsa is a pitch-accent language that does not have stress, therefore in the Hidatsa pronunciation all syllables in [tsaɡáàɡawia] are pronounced with roughly the same relative emphasis. However, most English speakers perceive the accented syllable (the long /aa/) as stressed. In faithful rendering of the name Cagáàgawia to other languages, it is advisable to emphasize the second, long syllable, not the last, as is common in English.[18]
The name has several spelling traditions in English. The origin of each tradition is described in the following sections.
Sacagawea (English pronunciation: /səˌkɑːɡəˈwiːə/) is the most widely used spelling of her name, and is pronounced with a hard "g" sound, rather than a soft "g" or "j" sound. Lewis and Clark's original journals mention Sacagawea by name seventeen times, spelled eight different ways, each time with a "g". Clark used Sahkahgarwea, Sahcahgagwea, Sarcargahwea and Sahcahgahweah, while Lewis used Sahcahgahwea, Sahcahgarweah, Sahcargarweah and Sahcahgar Wea.
The spelling Sacagawea was established in 1910 as the proper usage in government documents by the United States Bureau of American Ethnology, and is the spelling adopted by the United States Mint for use with the dollar coin, as well as the United States Board on Geographic Names and the U.S. National Park Service. The spelling is used by a large number of historical scholars.[19]
Sakakawea /səˌkɑːkəˈwiːə/ is the next most widely adopted spelling, and the most often accepted among specialists.[20] Proponents say the name comes from the Hidatsa language tsakáka wía, "bird woman".[21][22] Charbonneau told expedition members that his wife's name meant "Bird Woman", and in May 1805 Lewis used the Hidatsa meaning in his journal:
Sakakawea is the official spelling of her name according to the Three Affiliated Tribes, which include the Hidatsa, and is widely used throughout North Dakota (where she is considered a state heroine), notably in the naming of Lake Sakakawea, the extensive reservoir of Garrison Dam on the Missouri River.
The North Dakota State Historical Society quotes Russell Reid's book Sakakawea: The Bird Woman:
However, Irving W. Anderson, president of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, argued:
The name Sacajawea or Sacajewea /ˌsækədʒəˈwiːə/, in contrast to the Hidatsa etymology, is said to be derived from Shoshone Saca-tzaw-meah, meaning "boat puller" or "boat launcher".[24] It is the preferred spelling used by the Lemhi Shoshone people, some of whom claim that her Hidatsa captors merely reinterpreted her existing Shoshone name in their own language, and pronounced it in their own dialect[25] – they heard a name that approximated "tsakaka" and "wia", and interpreted it as "bird woman", substituting the hard "g/k" pronunciation for the softer "tz/j" sound that did not exist in the Hidatsa language.
The usage of this spelling almost certainly originated from the use of the "j" spelling by Nicholas Biddle, who annotated the Lewis and Clark Expedition's journals for publication in 1814. This usage became more widespread with the publication of the 1902 novel, The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark, written by Eva Emery Dye. It is likely Dye used Biddle's secondary source for the spelling, and her highly popular book made it ubiquitous throughout the United States (previously most non-scholars had never even heard of Sacagawea).[26]
Rozina George, great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Cameahwait, says the Agaidika tribe of Lemhi Shoshone do not recognize the spelling or pronunciation Sacagawea, and schools and other memorials erected in the area surrounding her birthplace use the spelling Sacajawea.
Idaho native John Rees explored the "boat launcher" etymology in a long letter to the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs written in the 1920s; it was republished in 1970 by The Lemhi County Historical Society as a pamphlet titled "Madame Charbonneau" and contains many of the arguments in favor of the Shoshone derivation of the name.[25][24]
The spelling Sacajawea, though widely taught until the late 20th century, is generally considered incorrect in modern academia. Linguistics professor Dr. Sven Liljeblad from the Idaho State University in Pocatello has concluded that "it is unlikely that Sacajawea is a Shoshoni word.... The term for 'boat' in Shoshoni is saiki, but the rest of the alleged compound would be incomprehensible to a native speaker of Shoshoni."[24] The spelling has subsided from general use, although the corresponding "soft j" pronunciation persists in American culture.
Two early 20th-century novels shaped much of the public perception of Sacagawea. The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark, was written by American suffragist Eva Emery Dye and published in 1902 in anticipation of the expedition's centennial. The National American Woman Suffrage Association embraced her as a female hero, and numerous stories and essays about her appeared in ladies' journals. A few decades later, Sacagawea (1933) by Grace Hebard was published to even greater success.
Sacagawea has since become a popular figure in historical and young adult novels, including the long 1984 novel Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo.
Some fictional accounts of the expedition speculate that Sacagawea was romantically involved with Lewis or Clark during their expedition. While the journals show that she was friendly with Clark and would often do favors for him, the idea of a romantic liaison was created by novelists who wrote about the expedition much later. This fiction was perpetuated in the 1955 Western film The Far Horizons.
Several movies, both documentaries and fiction, have been made about Sacagawea.[28]
Sacagewea is referenced in the Stevie Wonder song "Black Man", from the album Songs in the Key of Life. In the "Piano Concerto No. 2 after Lewis & Clark", by Philip Glass, the second movement is titled "Sacagawea".
Sacagawea was mentioned in the Schoolhouse Rock song Elbow Room as the guide for Lewis and Clark.[29]
The Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Educational Center is a 71-acre (290,000 m2) park located in Salmon, Idaho by the rivers and mountains of Sacajawea’s homeland. It is "owned and operated by the City of Salmon, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Governor's Lewis & Clark Trail Committee, Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho Department of Fish & Game, and numerous non-profit and volunteer organizations".[30]
Media related to Sacagawea at Wikimedia Commons
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