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Sacajawea
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Important Terms, People, and Events
Terms
Blackfeet -
· Name given to three similar Algonkian-speaking Indian
tribes in Alberta (Canada) and Montana.
Columbia River -
· The largest North American river flowing into the Pacific.
It starts in the Canadian Rockies and flows through Washington and
Oregon.
Fort Clatsop -
· The location in Oregon where the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent
the winter of 1806.
Hidatsa -
· Native Americans of the Upper Missouri River. Related
to the Sioux. It was a Hidatsa group that kidnapped Sacajawea
from the Shoshoni.
Louisiana Territory -
· Western half of the Mississippi Basin, purchased from Napoleon in
1803 in the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the United
States.
Mandan -
· Native Americans of the Great Plains, who lived along
the Missouri River. The Mandan language derives from Sioux.
Marias River -
· A river that flows through Montana into the Missouri
River
Missouri River -
· The greatest of the Mississippi River's tributaries.
The Missouri flows through Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, among
other states.
Nez Perce -
· A Native American tribe from central Idaho, Oregon,
and Washington
Portage -
· "Portage" refers to the act of carrying boats across
land, from one body of water to another.
Shoshoni -
· The Native American tribe into which Sacajawea was
born. In the early 19th century and before, the Shoshoni spread
through parts of what are today California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho
and Wyoming.
Sioux -
· The Sioux constituted an important confederacy of seven
Native American tribes in the American plains. (The Sioux normally refer
to themselves as Lakota or Dakota, meaning "allies.")
Walla Wallas -
· A tribe of Native Americans living in Oregon in the
19th century
Yellowstone River -
· A river that starts in Wyoming, flows through what
is today Yellowstone National Park, and passes through Montana
and North Dakota before joining the Missouri River.
People
Toussaint Charbonneau -
Sacajawea's husband, a French-Canadian trapper and
trader. The Lewis and Clark Expedition hired him as an interpreter
of Indian languages. Charbonneau--who, at 46, was by far the oldest
man on the expedition--amazingly survived the rigorous journey,
and lived to age 80. He was constantly causing problems and getting
into accidents on the expedition, however. Charbonneau acquired Sacajawea
from the Hidatsas, who had captured her, and made her one of his
several Native American wives.
William Clark -
Along with Lewis, one of the captains of the Lewis and
Clark Expedition, which between 1804 and 1806 explored the Louisiana
Territory. Clark went on to help develop Missouri.
Jean Baptiste -
Sacajawea and Charbonneau's son. Also called "Pomp"
(First-Born in Shoshoni), the infant Jean Baptiste rode on his
mother's back throughout the Lewis and Clark Expedition's 8,000-mile
journey. Clark offered to finance the boy's education, and paid for
Jean Baptiste to go to Europe with Prince Paul of Wurtemburg; he
came back speaking four languages. He later served as a well-known
guide in the Great Plains and Rockies during the first half of
the 19th century.
Events
Lewis and Clark Expedition -
An 1804-1806 expedition sent by US President Thomas Jefferson
to explore the land called the Louisiana Territory, acquired in
the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France, and to search for the Northwest
Passage, an hypothesized water-route linking the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. Although they never found such a passage (none exists),
the explorers uncovered a wealth of knowledge about America's native
peoples, as well as its geography, flora, and fauna. The expedition's
captains were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who shared dual command
over about 30 well-trained outdoorsmen. At Fort Mandan, the expedition
hired Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter, and the French-Canadian
trapper brought along his wife, Sacajawea, and their child, Jean
Baptiste. Sacajawea proved far more useful to the expedition than
her husband.
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