In my many public lectures about American Indians in various public venues, I would at times ask the audience to name the historic Indian women of whom they had heard. In general, only two or three names would come up, all of whom were Indian women whose historical events were associated with well-known non-Indians. Frequently people would mention Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean in the early nineteenth century.
Sacagawea (also spelled Sacajawea and Sakakawea) has an almost mythical presence in American history. In his short biographical sketch in The Red Man’s West, historian Bernard De Voto writes:
“It is an astonishing and delightful fact that Sacajawea, not a word of whom we know at first hand, has impressed herself on the minds of Americans as no other Indian woman has ever done.”
In the preface to his biography Sacajawea, Harold Howard writes:
“More memorials honor Sacajawea than any other American woman. Monuments, markers, and shafts have been erected in her honor, and parks, lakes, and mountain peaks have been named after her.”
Bernard De Voto calls many of the histories of Sacagawea “romantic fiction” in which the creative imagination describes a woman who never existed. In his book Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, historian James Ronda writes:
“Over the past century a powerful mythology has grown up, making extravagant claims for Sacagawea as expedition guide and American heroine.”
James Ronda goes on to say:
“When evidence runs thin, many writers have been all too willing to pass off fabrication for fact.”
Sacagawea was born between 1784 and 1787 among the Lemhi Shoshone in Idaho. She was captured by the Hidatsa as a teenager (some accounts indicate that she was 12 years old) and taken back to their villages on the upper Missouri River in North Dakota. In 1804, she was acquired by Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trader who worked with the North West Company. The historical accounts of how Charbonneau acquired her are rather fuzzy: she was either purchased or won in a gambling match.
History books generally describe Sacagawea as one of Charboneau’s many Indian wives. In reality, however, she was his slave. Captured Indian women were often the slaves of non-Indian men, a practice that continued into the twentieth century.
With regard to her name: some sources state that her Shoshone name was Agaidika, a name meaning “one who assumes a burden” while other sources cite it as Boinaiv meaning “Grass Maiden.” Frequently Sacajawea has been the name used in many historical accounts while Sacagawea is the name currently used by most modern historians. Sacagawea is her Hidatsa name meaning “bird woman” and some sources indicate that Sacajawea is a Shoshone name meaning “Boat Launcher” or “Boat Pusher.” Harold Howard reports:
“The phonetic rendering of the name in Hidatsa is Tsi-ki-ka-wi-as, which has apparently become Sakakawea.”
In her biographical sketch of Sacagawea in Notable Native Americans, Christina Carter writes:
“There is more than a little argument over the derivation and spelling of her name.”
James Ronda writes:
“The name of the Indian woman—its meaning and proper spelling—continues to spark considerable debate. Sacajawea, Sacagawea, and Sakakawea have all had their partisans. The concern about spelling is not just a quibble over orthography.”
Is the name Shoshone or is it Hidatsa? In addition, it should be noted that Indian people—both men and women—often changed names at different points in their lives.
Sacagawea enters into American history and, more importantly, into the mythology of America, as a part of the United States Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Commonly called the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Corps spent the winter of 1804-1805 in a Mandan village in North Dakota. Here they hired Charbonneau as a guide and interpreter. Charbonneau insisted that his wife/slave Sacagawea come with him as an unpaid member of the expedition.
On February 11 or 12, 1805, shortly before the expedition left, Sacagawea gave birth to a boy who was christened Jean Baptiste and called Pomp, meaning “first-born” in Shoshone.
Sacajawea’s role in the expedition is described by Carl Waldman, in his book Who Was Who in Native American History: Indians and Non-Indians From Early Contacts Through 1900:
“The only female member of the expedition, cradleboard strapped to her back, she not only showed the explorers the way through the wilderness, but also acted as a diplomat to hostile Indians, who viewed the presence of an Indian woman as a token of peace. Moreover, Sacajawea could communicate with the various tribes through sign language.”
It should be pointed out that women were often warriors among the Indian nations of the Great Plains and the Columbia Plateau. The women who rode with the war parties were warriors, but the Americans and other Europeans refused to see them as warriors, instead assuming that they were wives (some women warriors did ride into battle with their husbands), concubines, or camp followers. In American mythology, the presence of a woman meant peace, but this was not necessarily the case for all American Indians. The presence of the infant was more an indication of peaceful intent than just the presence of a woman.
The Corps of Discovery left the Mandan villages and traveled up the Missouri River to the Three Forks of the Missouri in present-day Montana. In 1805, this was Shoshone territory. At this point, they had to abandon their boats and travel by foot, or by horse, across the Rocky Mountains. It was here that the Americans encountered a small Shoshone band under the leadership of Cameahwait.
According to the history books, Cameahwait was Sacagawea’s brother. It should be noted, however, that the kinship term brother in American terminology implies that the two shared at least one parent, that is, they had the same father and/or mother. However, in the kinship terminology of many Indian cultures, the terms brother and sister generally include people who would be designated as cousins in the American kinship system.
Cameahwait offered the strangers a pipe and asked them to explain their presence in Shoshone territory. Sacagawea translated Cameahwait’s words from Shoshone into Hidatsa for Charbonneau who then translated them into French for one of the Americans who then translated them into English.
Cameahwait wanted to establish reciprocal relations with the Americans so that his people could obtain European trade goods, particularly firearms. According to John Heaton, in his book The Shoshone-Bannocks: Culture and Commerce at Fort Hall, 1870-1940:
“At the moment of their first contact, then, the Shoshones found themselves predisposed to dependence on American trade.”
The Shoshones at this time had already had contact with the Spanish to the south (whom they called to-yah ti-vo) and the French to the east (whom they called tab-be-bo). They had heard about the American traders on the Pacific coast. James Ronda writes:
“Good relations between the explorers and Cameahwait depended far more on promises of guns and trade than on any intercessions made by Sacagawea.”
With regard to the Corps of Discovery at Three Forks prior to their encounter with the Shoshones, historian Ned Blackhawk, in an article in Journal of the West, writes:
“Before finding Cameahwait’s band, they were lost, anxious, and horseless. Afterward, they got provisions and became confident and expectant.”
From the Shoshones, the Americans obtain some horses, information about the Lolo Trail, and a Shoshone guide, a man whom they called Old Toby. The Americans were able to cross the Rocky Mountains with some difficulty and then follow the Columbia River drainage to the Pacific Ocean. Here they established Fort Clatsop.
In 1806, the Corps of Discovery began its trek home. When they reached Nez Perce country, they found that snow still closed the Lolo Pass across the mountains. They camped for a while among the Nez Perce. Historian Alvin Josephy in his book Nez Perce Country, reports:
“The explorers distributed trade medals and American flags to the chiefs, and with the help of their Eastern Shoshoni traveling companion, Sacajawea, and a Western Shoshoni, who had been captured by the Nez Perce and spoke the Nez Perce language, described the powerful American nation in the east which they represented and the expedition’s purposes.”
When the Corps reached the Hidatsa village at the mouth of the Knife River in North Dakota, Sacagawea and Charbonneau left the expedition and Sacagawea vanishes from written history. Christina Carter reports:
“While Charbonneau was paid for his services, Sacagawea, as his wife, received no financial remuneration separate from her husband.”
With regard to Sacagawea’s contribution to the Corps of Discovery, Christina Carter writes:
“Her skills as an interpreter and as liaison between the Shoshone and the expedition, her knowledge of the flora and fauna and 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.”
While the mythology of the Lewis and Clark expedition sometimes describes or portrays Sacagawea as a guide, she did very little actual guiding. Bernard De Voto describes her role this way.
“She was able to direct the expedition to edible roots which they didn’t know about; she sewed deerskin shirts and made moccasins, etc.”
According to some historians, Sacagawea died of disease in 1812. This is based on a report from the Hidatsa villages that one of Charbonneau’s Shoshone wives had died. Since Charbonneau had more than one Shoshone wife, and Sacagawea’s name was not mentioned in the report, we cannot be sure that she actually died at this time.
In other accounts, mostly from Shoshone oral tradition, Sacagawea lived for a time with the Comanche (a people related to the Shoshone), where she married a man named Jerk Meat and had five more children. After Jerk Meat was killed in battle, she then returned to the Shoshone, living with Washakie’s band on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Christina Carter reports:
“She was called Porivo (‘Chief’) at Wind River and became an active tribal leader.”
It is reported that she then lived to be more than 100 years old.
Hidatsa?
While nearly all of the histories in which Sacagawea is mentioned describe her as Shoshone, meaning that she was born into the Lemhi Shoshone, there are oral histories which tell a very different story. Hidatsa elder Bullseye, the grandson of Sakakawea (that is, his mother’s mother was Sakakawea), told a different story to Major Welch in council.
In the story told by Bullseye, Sakakawea was the daughter of Smoked Lodge who gave her to a non-Indian who he called Sharbonish. Sharbonish and Sakakawea had travelled far to the west, past the Three Forks of the Missouri and had spent time among people who had travelled to the ocean. Lewis and Clark selected Sharbonish and Sekakawea to guide them to the west because they had been there the year before and knew the land.
According to Bullseye:
“They say she was a Shoshoni among us. She was not Shoshoni. Everybody knew them. They knew her father and mother, too.”
According to Bullseye, his grandmother, Sakakawea, was killed when their camp near Havre, Montana, was attacked by Yanktonai or Assiniboine warriors. This would have taken place about 1869.
In another oral tradition, Sakakawea was born among the Awatxia Hidatsa. As a child, her village was attacked by Shoshone warriors who took both Sakakawea and her brother captive. She was then raised as Shoshone. Later, as a teenager, she yearned for her Hidatsa home. With the help of four wolves, she left the Shoshone and returned to the village of her people.
In his chapter on Sakakawea in Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes, Hidatsa-Mandan writer Gerald Baker says:
“There are many stories and many claims as to who Sakakawea was. I personally believe that we will never know, but what is important is that, whoever she was and whichever tribe she belonged to, she was very well respected by Lewis and Clark and she did play a very important role in the voyage to the West and back.”
Images
There are, of course, no photographs of Sacagawea, nor are there any drawings or paintings of her made by artists who had actually seen her. However, images of her made by imaginative artists abound. Shown below are some of these images.
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Indians 101: The Mysterious William Weatherford, Creek War Leader
Indians 101: Neolin, the Delaware Prophet