Sacagawea (1788?-1884?)
Sacagawea (1788?-1884?)
Interpreter
An Opportune Encounter . Fortunately for the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, their expedition through the Louisiana Purchase brought them into contact with the Shoshone woman Sacagawea. Her skills as an interpreter and guide were instrumental to the expedition’s success; it is difficult to imagine such an outcome without her language skills and help.
An Invaluable Guide . As a girl of about fourteen, Sacagawea was captured by a rival tribe (probably Crow) and won in a gambling match by the French fur trader Toissant Charbonneau. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau in 1805 to guide them to the Pacific after meeting him in the Mandan villages at the big bend of the Missouri River in Dakota country. Sacagawea and her infant son Jean Baptiste (or “Pomp”) accompanied the expedition west up the Missouri. The Shoshone woman quickly demonstrated that she was far more indispensable as a guide and interpreter than her rather useless husband.
The Return Trip . The first band of Indians the expedition encountered west of the Mandan villages was headed by a chief named Cameahwait, who turned out to be Sacagawea’s brother. Instead of a tense first meeting, Lewis and Clark were able to trade for horses and supplies necessary to cross the Rockies. The expedition reached the Pacific in November 1805 and spent the winter on the coast of what is now Oregon. After retracing their steps the following spring, Sacagawea remained at the Mandan villages with her family until 1809. That year they visited Clark in St. Louis, and according to one historian, they left their son behind to be educated. There are conflicting accounts as to what happened to Sacagawea after this visit. One version states that, in 1812, Charbonneau’s wife died of fever. However, since Charbonneau had at least three wives, Clark reportedly never believed Sacagawea to be dead. Another more probable version suggests that Sacagawea remained in St. Louis for a time, then went to live with the Commanche tribe. Eventually she rejoined her relatives on the Wind River Reservation of Wyoming, where she died of natural causes in April 1884.
Sources
Ella E. Clark, Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979);
Harold P. Howard, Sacajawea (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971).