Background
You probably have heard of me, my name is Sacajawea. No one knows the year I was born into the Lemhi-Shoshone tribe, whose territory was in present-day Idaho and Southwestern Montana, but it was probably around 1789. When I was around 10 or 11 years old, I was captured by the Minnetaree tribe and was made to work as a slave. After about 4 years, I became the wife of Toussaint Charbonneau a French-Canadian fur trapper.
Why am I famous?
The only reason you know my name today is that in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisana Purchase from France, which doubled the size of the United States. He asked his friend, Meriweather Lewis to explore the new territory. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to help lead a group of men on the journey. On November 11, 1804, I met Lewis and Clark for the first time at Fort Mandan in what is today North Dakota along the Missouri River. They and their men, the Corps of Discovery, had set out from St. Louis to follow the Missouri River to its beginning, in the hope they would find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark learned that my husband spoke French and Hidatsa and had a wife who could speak Shoshone and so they hired him to guide them on their journey and he was to bring me to help him. Shortly before we left Fort Mandan, I had a baby boy, which my husband named Jean-Baptiste, but who I called Pomp.
In April of 1805, we left Fort Mandan and began what would be a two-thousand mile journey. There were many adventures and dangerous things that happened, but we made it safely to the Pacific Ocean and back without losing any members of the Corps of Discovery. Along the way, we met some of my Shoshone tribe, including my brother, Cahmeahwait, who was the chief and who gave Lewis and Clark the horses they needed to cross the mountains.
The Corps reached the "Big Water," or the Pacific Ocean on November 18, 1805 and built a fort called Fort Clatsop. On January 8, I saw the Pacific Ocean myself for the first time.
In March of 1806, we left our fort behind to return on our return journey.
On July 25, 1806, we came to a tall rock above the Yellowstone River. It was covered in carvings and markings. Clark carved his name and the date into the rock. He named it Pompey's Pillar, after my son. Today, it is the only physical trace of Lewis and Clark's great journey.
When we returned to Fort Mandan, Charbonneau was paid $500 for his services. I was paid nothing, but Lewis and Clark wrote that I deserved a greater reward for my services than they had in their power to give. In 1810, we traveled to St. Louis, to deliver our son and daughter to Clark to educate.
In April of 1805, we left Fort Mandan and began what would be a two-thousand mile journey. There were many adventures and dangerous things that happened, but we made it safely to the Pacific Ocean and back without losing any members of the Corps of Discovery. Along the way, we met some of my Shoshone tribe, including my brother, Cahmeahwait, who was the chief and who gave Lewis and Clark the horses they needed to cross the mountains.
The Corps reached the "Big Water," or the Pacific Ocean on November 18, 1805 and built a fort called Fort Clatsop. On January 8, I saw the Pacific Ocean myself for the first time.
In March of 1806, we left our fort behind to return on our return journey.
On July 25, 1806, we came to a tall rock above the Yellowstone River. It was covered in carvings and markings. Clark carved his name and the date into the rock. He named it Pompey's Pillar, after my son. Today, it is the only physical trace of Lewis and Clark's great journey.
When we returned to Fort Mandan, Charbonneau was paid $500 for his services. I was paid nothing, but Lewis and Clark wrote that I deserved a greater reward for my services than they had in their power to give. In 1810, we traveled to St. Louis, to deliver our son and daughter to Clark to educate.
Where am I now?
Depends on who you ask. In William Clark's journal in 1812, he wrote that I died of a putrid fever at the age of 25. However, my birth tribe, the Shoshone, have an oral legend that says I returned to the land of my birth, lived to be nearly 100 years old and am buried in present-day Wyoming.