Summary
Sacajawea, a Shoshoni Native American, was born sometime
in the late 18th century, probably around 1788 or 1789. When she
was twelve years old, a Hidatsa raiding party captured her and
took her away from her tribe. She was then sold or gambled into
the possession of a French-Canadian fur-trader and trapper named
Toussaint Charbonneau, who made her his wife. At the time, Charbonneau had
another wife named Otter Woman, also a Native American.
In the winter of 1804-1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition
wintered at Fort Mandan. The Expedition was searching for a hypothesized
Northwest Passage-- a water-route linking the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans--and needed an interpreter of Indian languages in the Great
Plains and Rocky Mountain regions they would be traveling. Thus
they hired Charbonneau, and he brought Sacajawea along. While
at Fort Mandan, Sacajawea (then around 16) gave birth to a boy named
Jean Baptiste and nicknamed "Pomp" (Shoshoni for "First-Born").
Sacajawea would carry the infant with her for 8,000 miles over
the course of the expedition, all the way to the Pacific and back.
Soon everyone on the expedition grew to love the little boy.
Charbonneau, who at 46 was the oldest man on the expedition, was
always causing problems, while his young Shoshoni wife was constantly
solving them. Since the expedition had officially hired Charbonneau,
and not Sacajawea, Sacajawea never received pay for her help.
Nevertheless, she saved the expedition considerable trouble time
and again. When Charbonneau's poor boatmanship in a storm nearly
flipped one of Lewis and Clark's boats, causing many supplies to
fall into the water, it was Sacajawea's quick thinking that saved
the items, including scientific instruments, books, and journals.
When it came time to barter with a group of Shoshoni for horses,
not only could Sacajawea translate, but it turned out that the
chief of the tribe was her long lost brother Cameahwait. As a
result of Sacajawea's connections, the expedition received a generous
number of horses. On the way back from the Pacific, Sacajawea
led the explorers through the Bozeman Pass in the Rocky Mountains.
Throughout the expedition, Sacajawea collected numerous roots
and berries, helping to feed the men through difficult times.
Perhaps most importantly, the presence of a Native American woman
with a baby served as a sign to various Indian groups, especially
the Nez Perce, that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was not a war
party, and hence should not be attacked.
Despite the hardships she faced along the way, Sacajawea
never complained throughout the grueling journey. At the end of
the expedition, she was not paid, since she had never been formally hired.
However, William Clark felt he owed her something and offered
to raise and educate her son Jean Baptiste. Sacajawea and Charbonneau
considered the offer and decided to turn their boy over to Clark;
Jean Baptiste eventually went to Europe and learned four languages
before returning to the United States to become a celebrated frontiersman.
According to traditional accounts, Sacajawea died in 1812
of a fever at Fort Manuel in South Dakota. The evidence that she
died then is not perfect, however, and some historians claim that
she actually left Charbonneau and returned to live with the Shoshoni, dying
only in 1884.
