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Schoolchildren learn of this brave Native American teen-ager who traipsed across the continent with 32 men, caring for her baby Pomp while providing critical assistance to the Corps of Discovery. Without her — acting as a guide, helping with chores, seeking out roots and vegetables, saving precious journal pages from the river and, more importantly, convincing other Native Americans that the Corps was on a peaceful mission — they may have failed.
Stories and legends of Sacagawea abound. She earned a place in the hearts and minds of many Americans, as evidenced by the many statues, mountains, paintings and lakes named in her honor. Immortalized on the gold-colored dollar coin, Sacagawea was chosen over countless other suggestions, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks and the Statue of Liberty.
Her story begins around 1800, near present-day Three Forks, Mont. Kidnapped by raiding Hidatsa, Sacagawea was taken from her Shoshones homeland in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains to the Great Plains of North Dakota. Hidatsas later sold her to French trader Toussaint Charbonneau who claimed her and several other women as his wives.
During that long, bitterly-cold winter at Fort Mandan, Charbonneau offered to interpret for Lewis and Clark as they ventured West. The two men agreed, thinking Charbonneau’s Shoshone wife could help negotiate with her people for much-needed horses along their journey over the mountains.
That winter, in Feb., the 16-year-old girl gave birth to her firstborn, named Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau. He became the Corps’ youngest member and by journey’s end was affectionately called Pomp.
It was Sacagawea’s calmness in the face of possible disaster that first caused Lewis and Clark to begin treating her as a valuable member of the team. In early May, shortly after leaving Fort Mandan for the winter, water threatened to tip Charbonneau’s boat, which was loaded with journals and documents. The two captains — trapped on the river’s bank — frantically waved and shot their guns, trying desperately to communicate. As things fell overboard, Sacagawea carefully fished out of the water many documents, with Pomp tied to her back. Lewis writes of it in his journal:
"The Indian woman, to whom I ascribe equal fortitude and resolution with any person on board at the time of the accident, caught and preserved most of the light articles washed overboard."
She became a respected member of the Corps, taking care of little Pomp, digging for roots and berries, mending moccasins and helping each night setup camp. As the Corps ventured through her homeland, she described campsites and the land. And, to the men’s luck and surprise, Sacagawea’s brother had become chief in her absence. He offered much-needed horses and guidance. Mostly, Sacagawea opened doors for the men, proving to Native Americans that the group was on a mission of peace not war.
At journey’s end, Charbonneau, Sacagawea and Pomp remained in present-day North Dakota, near the site of the Corps’ Fort Mandan, despite Clark’s offers to adopt Pomp. Several years later, the couple moved to St. Louis and allowed Clark to educate Pomp, then known as Baptiste.
Little is known about her life after the journey. The couple eventually moved back to the Dakotas, where Sacagawea is thought to have died at the young age of 25 at a fur trading outpost. One legend, however, says she traveled the west, living with different tribes in her later years.
Their son, enticed perhaps by his first historic adventure, remained on the road his entire life.
You can read Sacagawea’s story, as told by the Shoshones, at www.lemhishoshone.com. | 
