Sacagawea

Sacagawea (Sakakawea, Sacajawea) (1787 - 20 December 1812) was a Native American woman who accompanied Meriwether Lewis and the Corps of discovery of William Clark. Most of the stories in his life obtained from the records that are incomplete and therefore spiked with many legends and rumors.

 

She was born of the Shoshone tribe in the area near what is now the city of Three Forks, Montana, and engaged at an early age with a man much older. However, in 1800, he was kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa, and taken to their village near Washburn, North Dakota. Consequently, he grew cultures affiliated with this tribe, its name taken from the Hidatsa phrase for "Bird Woman."

At the age of about sixteen years old she married with French trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau, who also married another woman from the tribe of Shoshone (Charbonneau buy both from the Hidatsa as slaves).

Sacagawea gave birth to a son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February 11, 1805 when he stayed with the troupe at Fort Mandan. She brought her baby along the way to the Pacific Ocean and back. It has a very good effect for the group, because the native tribes who saw the expedition knew that war party generally will not travel with the mother and child, therefore they welcomed it with a friendly group. No doubt this eliminates quite a bit of conflict with people they meet along the way.
Contrary to the common view, Sacagawea did not act as "guides" on the main part of the journey; knowledge of the land owned by Sacagawea limited to areas where She grew up. As the group passed through the old residential areas Shoshone, Sacagawea knowledge of land no bigger than the other group members. But Sacagawea works well as a "pilot" in North Dakota / Montana area, for example, Sacagawea could help the group on his way home by showing the Bozeman Pass.

Sacagawea is the main task as a translator, but the work is not an effective way of Sacagawea. For example, with the Shoshone tribe, Sacagawea would translate into Hidatsa to her husband Charbonneau, who would then translate into French (Charbonneau know some English, but few others in the group can speak French). Shoshone interpreter Sacagawea value as proven when they reached her old village, and Sacagawea met again with his brother, Cameahwait, which at that time become a tribal leader. This paved the way in negotiations to obtain horses from the Shoshone required.

As noted in the expedition journal dated May 14, 1805, Sacagawea proved crucial to the success of the project when the boat overturned in the river Charbonneau. Because they can not swim, Charbonneau panicked; Sacagawea calmly collect items that have been lost to the river: the equipment, goods trade and, perhaps most important, at least for future generations is the wet pages of journal notes that the journey itself.

After they returned to Fort Mandan, the expedition members parted ways with Sacagawea in August 1805 they offered to bring the family to St. Louis Charbonneau, offered to provide land for families to agriculture and education for Jean Baptiste. This bid has been rejected at the time, but in 1809 the family moved to St. Louis Charbonneau. Charbonneau left the farm after several months, and the Sacagawea returned to Fort Manuel (near North Dakota right now / South Dakota border) and leaving Jean Baptiste in the care of William Clark.

Note Fort Manuel show that Charbonneau then left Sacagawea when she was traveling more, and that Sacagawea died in December 1812 due to "rotten fever" (currently called diphteria). She died at the age of about 25 years old at the time.

Sacagawea depicted on U.S. postage stamps in 1994, and he and his son Jean Baptiste described the United States dollar coin.