Sacagawea
Lemhi Shoshone or Hidatsa woman who aided the Lewis and Clark Expedition as interpreter and guide.
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Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone or Hidatsa woman who helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in their teens.[1] She is widely known for her role as an interpreter and for her presence signaling the expedition's peaceful intent.[2] The National American Woman Suffrage Association adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence in the early 20th century.[3]
Life and work
At about age 12, she was taken captive by a group of Hidatsa in a raid that killed several Shoshone.[4] 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.[5] Based on what her husband Toussaint Charbonneau reported, Sacagawea's birth occurred around 1788 within the Agaidika tribe, also called the Lemhi Shoshone, near what is now Salmon, Idaho.[4] When she was roughly 13 years old, she entered a forced marriage, a customary practice at the time, with the Quebecois trapper Charbonneau.[6]
Items from a boat that capsized on May 14, 1805, including the expedition's journals and records, were retrieved by Sacagawea.[7] The leaders of the corps gave the name Sacagawea River to a waterway on May 20, 1805, as an honor to her.[7] By August 1805, the corps utilized Sacagawea as an interpreter and found that the Shoshone leader Cameahwait was her brother.[7]
What the cited sources add
Clark's journal entry for October 13, 1805, describes navigating rapids and seeing old camps where natives fish in the spring.[8] Clark's journal entry for October 19, 1805, records giving a medal and wampum to a great chief named Yel-lep-pet.[9] The same entry notes that natives brought pounded salmon and that a crew member played the violin, which pleased the natives.[9] The Hidatsa people maintain a detailed oral tradition that Sacagawea was a member of their tribe who lived until 1869.[10]
On Memorial Day in 1923, a man named Bulls Eye, who identified himself as Sacagawea's grandson, provided testimony at Dead Grass Hall in Shell Creek Village on the Fort Berthold reservation.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Hall of Great Westerners", National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum; "Sacagawea ." National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. 2017.; "Sacagawea / Sacajawea / Sakakawea | Women of the Hall ." National Women's Hall of Fame. 2003. Seneca Falls, NY.; Cox, "What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong?", The New York Times, 2025-07-23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clark, William. [1805] 2004. "October 13, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for; Clark, William. [1805] 2004. "October 19, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lewis & Clark: Legacies, Memories, and New Perspectives", University of California Press, 2004 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Buckley, Jay H. "Sacagawea ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2020. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jackson, Donald, ed. 1962. Letters of the Lewis & Clark Expedition With Related Documents: 1783–1854. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.; Butterfield, "Sacagawea's Death", Native Americans: The True Story of Sacagawea and Her People, 2010; Butterfield, "Sacagawea's Death", Native Americans: The True Story of Sacagawea and Her People, 2010; "Original Adoption Documents." St. Louis, Missouri: Orphans Court Records. 11 August 1813. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Anderson, Irving W. 1999. "Sacagawea | Inside the Corps " (film website). Lewis & Clark. DC: PBS.org. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Arrington, Leonard J., "History of Idaho, Vol. 2", University of Idaho Press, 1994, p. 515 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Clark, William. [1805] 2004. "October 13, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for. facts only, no text reused. lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu
- Clark, William. [1805] 2004. "October 19, 1805 ." The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online, edited by G. E. Moulton, et al. Lincoln, NE: Center for. facts only, no text reused. lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu
- Wikipedia, "Sacagawea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cox, "What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong?", The New York Times Magazine, July 23, 2025; Sacagawea Project Board, "Our Story of Eagle Woman: Sacagawea: They Got It Wrong", Paragon Agency, 2021, p. 125–145 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Sacagawea (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Sacagawea (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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