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Sacagawea was the Shoshone Indian who assisted the historic Lewis and Clark expedition.
Between 1804-1806, while still a teenager, she guided the adventurers from the Northern
Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean and back. Her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, and their
son who was born during the trip, Jean Baptiste, also accompanied the group.
Route of Lewis and Clark's exploratory expedition (1804-1806) from
St. Louis to the Pacific.
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The history of Sacagawea's life is shrouded in mystery and myth. Much of what we know
has been passed down through oral history by the Hidatsa, Shoshone and Comanche Indian
tribes. Not a great deal is known about her as a young woman and even less is known about
her later life. But what we do know is remarkable.
At about the age of 11, Sacagawea was captured by a Hidatsa raiding party and taken from
her Shoshone tribe. She was later sold into slavery with the Missouri River Mandans. They
then sold her (or gave her away in a bet) to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur
trader, who made her his wife.
Charbonneau was hired by Captains Lewis and Clark primarily because of the skills his wife,
Sacagawea, possessed. Sacagawea was only 15 years old at the time and already six months
pregnant. Despite these possible limitations for such an arduous journey she knew several
Indian languages, and being Shoshone, could help Lewis and Clark make contact with her
people and acquire horses that were crucial to the success of the mission.
In fact, Sacagawea did help Lewis and Clark find the Shoshone and trade for the horses they
needed. But her contribution far exceeded anything Lewis and Clark had expected. She provided
crucial knowledge of the topography of some of the most rugged country of North America and
taught the explorers how to find edible roots and plants previously unknown to
European-Americans. With her infant son bound to her back, she single-handedly rescued
Captain Clark's journals from the Missouri whitewater when their boat capsized. If she
had not, much of the record of the first year of the expedition would have been lost to history.
Most crucially, however, Sacagawea and her infant served as a "white flag" of peace for the
expedition, which was as much a military expedition as a scientific one. They entered
potentially hostile territory well armed but undermanned compared to the Native American
tribes they met. Because no war party was ever accompanied by a woman and infant, the
response of the Native Americans was curiosity, not aggression. They talked first, and
Sacagawea often served as the translator. Not a single member of the party was lost to
hostile action.
It is not surprising that after their trip ended, the adventurers felt a lifelong debt to
Sacagawea. In fact, Clark wrote to Charbonneau that Sacagawea deserved a greater reward
than what the expedition gave her. His sense of indebtedness to Sacagawea is reflected a
few years later when Clark accepted responsibility for educating Sacagawea's son and, after
Sacagawea's death at the age of 25, for a daughter as well. Sacagawea's grave is in
Lander, WY.
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