Sacagawea
Sacagawea (/ˌsækədʒəˈwiːə/ SAK-ə-jə-WEE-ə or /səˌkɒɡəˈweɪə/ sə-KOG-ə-WAY-ə;[1] also spelled Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May c. 1788 – December 20, 1812, or April 9, 1884)[2][3][4] was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with Native American people and contributing to the expedition's knowledge of natural history in different regions.
This article is about the Native American woman. For the Hewlett-Packard processor, see HP Sacajawea. For the coin, see Sacagawea dollar.
Sacagawea
May 1788
December 20, 1812 (aged 24)
Sakakawea, Sacajawea
Accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition
2, including Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century adopted Sacagawea as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to recount her accomplishments.[5]
Early life
Reliable historical information about Sacagawea is very limited. She was born c. 1788 into the Agaidika ('Salmon Eater', aka Lemhi Shoshone) tribe near present-day Salmon, Idaho. This is near the continental divide at the present-day Idaho-Montana border.[6]
In 1800, when she was about 12 years old, Sacagawea and several other children were taken captive by a group of Hidatsa in a raid that resulted in the deaths of several Shoshone: four men, four women, and several boys. She was held captive at a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.[7]
At about age 13, she was sold into a non-consensual marriage to Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebecois trapper. He had also bought another young Shoshone girl, known as Otter Woman, for a wife. Charbonneau was variously reported to have purchased both girls from the Hidatsa, or to have won Sacagawea while gambling.[7]
Later life and death
Children
Following the expedition, Charbonneau and Sacagawea spent three years among the Hidatsa before accepting William Clark's invitation to settle in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1809. They entrusted Jean-Baptiste's education to Clark, who enrolled the young man in the Saint Louis Academy boarding school.[17][18] Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette Charbonneau, about 1812.[18] Lizette was identified as a year-old girl in adoption papers in 1813 recognizing William Clark, who also adopted her older brother that year.[19] Because Clark's papers make no later mention of Lizette, it is believed that she died in childhood.
Death
According to Bonnie "Spirit Wind-Walker" Butterfield, historical documents suggest that Sacagawea died in 1812 of an unknown sickness.[18] For instance, a journal entry from 1811 by Henry Brackenridge, a fur trader at Fort Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, wrote that Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living at the fort.[18] Brackenridge recorded that Sacagawea "had become sickly and longed to revisit her native country."[20] John Luttig, a Fort Lisa clerk, recorded in his journal on December 20, 1812, that "the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw [i.e. Shoshone], died of putrid fever."[20] He said that she was "aged about 25 years. She left a fine infant girl."[18] Documents held by Clark show that Charbonneau had already entrusted their son Baptiste to Clark's care for a boarding school education, at Clark's insistence (Jackson, 1962).[18]