Somewhere in and around the upper reaches of the Lemhi River in the heart of Central Idaho and not far from Salmon City on the banks of the main Salmon River in and around 1788 there was born an Indian baby who was destined to play an extremely important part in the history of the United States. This Indian baby was, of course, Sacajawea. She later became the teenage Shoshone Indian guide for Lewis and Clark and their corpse of discovery.

There are numerous ways of spelling the name, and a variety of meanings to the various spellings. But the spelling and meaning of the treatment of her name in this discussion is the only correct one as testified by numerous official learned and recognized historical scholars.

Sacajawea is a pure Shoshone Indian word, and as such, its true meaning is “Boat Launcher.”

Sakakawea in the Hidatsa (Plains Indian) language means “Bird Woman.”

There is no excuse for calling her by her Shoshone name of “Sacajawea,” and then giving to it the Hidatsa meaning of “Bird Woman.”

Sacajawea does not appear in the pages of history until November 4, 1804, when she is mentioned in the journals of Lewis and Clark as the slave of Toussaint Charbonneau, a Frenchman engaged by Meriwether Lewis as an interpreter to go with him on their westward journey.

While the explorers were in winter quarters the Mandan Indian village in North Dakota, Sacajawea gave birth to a son, and shortly after the birthing, Captain Clark forced Charbonneau, who was the acknowledged father, to marry the woman.

The most probable reason for this marriage union was that Sacajawea was a member of the Shoshone Tribe to the far west of the Mandan village, whom the expedition was expected to contact. Therefore, she was to be taken along as an interpreter. Lewis and Clark believed as a legitimate wife she would have more influence than a mere slave of a fur trapper. The newborn baby boy was given the name of “Baptiste.”

The Corpse of Discovery began it’s journey up the Missouri River during it’s flood stage in the spring of 1804. They were bound for the true headwaters of this great river. Captain Lewis recorded in his journal on April 30, Sacajawea personally performed an extremely valuable service to the expedition. One of the smaller boats, called a pirogue, was overturned. Many essentials for the entire trip were in this boat. At great imminent danger to herself, Sacajawea rescued most of the supplies and later dried them out with very little loss. Shortly thereafter on May 20, Captain Clark records that in recognition of the great service of Sacajawea, a handsome river approximately 50 yards wide was named in her honor.

Upon reaching the great falls of the Missouri River, Sacajawea became violently ill and it was thought that she may well not make it any further in life. Thankfully the waters from a local mineral spring, which later became noted for its curative powers, brought the sick woman back to good health and strength.

Shortly after her recovery, a torrential cloud burst, for which that section of current day Montana is noted, brought Sacajawea, her baby, Charbonneau, Captain Clark, and the negro slave, York, to almost certain death. It seems that when the storm clouds began forming, all of the party with the exception of York, gathered in a deep ravine for shelter. In a short time, a wall of raging water rushed down upon them and before all of them had been safely rescued, the torrent of water assumed a depth of 15 feet! Fortunately for the entire party, Captain Clark saw the peril in time to drag Charbonneau, Sacajawea, and the baby to safety. York was on the plain above, and so escaped the fury of the deluge.

At the Three Forks of the Missouri, which is now recognized as the beginning of the river which bears that name, Sacajawea pointed out to the leaders of the expedition that it was near here as a child, about five years before, that she had been captured by the dreaded “Pahkees,” and taken captive to the Mandan village in present day North Dakota, where the whites had first contacted her. The Plains Indians who captured Sacajawea are also known as Minnetarees, Hidatsas, or Big Bellies. This latter name was given to them by the French in recognition of their inclination to have very large stomachs. These Indians lived to the westward of the Mandans, in peace and close confederation with them. It was at one of the Hidatsa villages that Charbonneau purchased this captured Shoshone girl as his slave.

The story Sacajawea gave of her capture was as follows: Her people had come north over the mountain divide from the Lemhi River in Idaho on their annual buffalo hunt. The hunt had been a great success and much meat secured. Suddenly a large war party of Indians descended upon her people, killed her chieftain father and many other braves, while the balance of her people made a wild rush for safety. Sacajawea had a horse and could easily have eluded capture, but as she started for safety she noted her brother was on foot. She quickly scrambled down from her mount and gave it to him. This episode in her life was afterwards a big factor in inducing this same brother, Cameahwait, who had by then become chief of the Shoshone tribe, to lend assistance to the Lewis & Clark Expedition when it had reached the head of navigation and needed horses to continue the journey to a point where navigable waters would be found flowing towards the Pacific Ocean.

Sacajawea was wading across the Jefferson River, one of the three major branches of the Missouri, when an Indian rode beside her, lifted the frightened girl up onto a horse in front of him, and carried her to captivity. Two other girls shared her captivity for a time, but later one of them escaped, returned to her people safely and met Sacajawea when she returned with the explorers.

From the Three Forks, pointing to the east, Sacajawea told the explorers it was through a low pass in that direction she had been taken as a captive to a large stream, down which her abductors had gone when returning home. This pass was what is now known as the Bozeman Pass, and the stream spoken of was the Yellowstone River.

When the explorers returned from the Pacific coast, it was through this Bozeman Pass that Sacajawea led Captain Clark, and showed him the way to the Yellowstone, down which he went to its mouth, there to later be joined by Captain Lewis, who had retraced his steps almost in the same paths they used during the making the westward trip.

Many times on the upper Missouri the explorers were in doubt as to which way to go, but with a seemingly infallible instinct, Sacajawea always pointed out the right direction. This was especially true at Three Forks. Her memory was correct, but Captain Clark was in doubt, and with several of his men, ascended the river in advance of the main body. He there decided Sacajawea was right, encamped at the mouth of the Big Hole River and sent one of his men, Drewyer, back to guide the others to the spot. Arriving and all reunited, Lewis records in his journal that Sacajawea informed him, “we are getting close to the home of my people.”

Leaving Clark with the boats and most of the personnel of the expedition to follow, Captain Lewis took three men, Drewyer, Shields, and Mc Neal, with him and started out with the determination of contacting the Shoshone Indians and getting assistance from them for the overland journey, which he sensed was near. His quest was successful, and he returned with almost the entire band of Indians. Meanwhile, Clark and his men had toiled up the small stream to its junction of Red Rock and Horse Prairie Creeks, near where Armstead, Montana now stands. It was here that Sacajawea was reunited with her people.

With the assistance of the Indian horses, the supplies of the expedition were transported to the Indian encampment in Idaho, at a spot on the Lemhi River 17 miles up that stream from where Salmon City is now located. It was at this site that a very dramatic episode occurred. The leaders of both the whites and the Indians were in council, and Sacajawea was brought in as the interpreter. Scarcely had she begun, when looking up she noted that the Indian chieftain was that same brother to whom she had furnished a horse which had enabled him to escape five years previously at the battle where she was taken captive.

Sacajawea had great influence with her brother and she succeeded in wiping away lingering doubts as to the friendliness of the whites.

Clark had descended the Lemhi to its confluence with the Salmon River and then down that same stream some sixty miles on a scouting expedition. He returned with the information that the stream was not navigable. Now it was that the services of Sacajawea became invaluable. She persuaded her brother and other members of the tribe to supply Lewis & Clark with horses in sufficient numbers to meet their demands, and talked other tribesmen into the notion of acting as guides over the mountains.

When everything was in readiness the cavalcade set forth, accompanied by the Shoshone chieftain and all of the encampment.

A great epoch occurred at this point in time to the Lewis & Clark Expedition–an event which helped shape the future destinies of the United States and make Sacajawea stand out as the one woman– be she white, red, yellow, or black–who did the most outstanding thing to change the whole future of the peoples of the North American Continent. The members of the Shoshone tribes were impatient at the delay occasioned by the outfitting of Lewis & Clark. They should have been well on their way eastward to the buffalo hunting grounds. They were in almost open rebellion, and had persuaded the chieftain, Cameahwait, just as soon as Lewis & Clark were well on their way to leave the explorers to their fate, abandon them and head for the buffalo range. Sacajawea learned of this scheme in time, upbraided her brother for his proposed treachery, and finally got his promise that he would not desert the explorers until he had made it possible for the expedition to continue with only the guides and horses they had bought.

Old timers, mountain men, fur trappers, miners, hunters, and settlers all agree that if…Cameahwait and his people had deserted Lewis & Clark at the time Sacajawea pleaded for the continuation of assistance, the Lewis & Clark Expedition would never have crossed the mountains and lived to tell the tale.

Had they failed, the entire map and history of the United States would have been vastly different from what it is today.

A thorough search of all the American histories that you can find will uncover no record of achievement by a woman which has had such a profound bearing on the destinies of the nation.

When Sacajawea arrived at the village of her people, she was informed that all of her family were dead with the exception of the brother, Cameahwait and a small boy, the son of her sister. This boy, whose name was Basil, was adopted by Sacajawea as her own. After leaving her people for the trip over the mountains and down to the sea, the journals of Lewis & Clark record that she was very useful to them on many occasions, especially as an interpreter when she found, among the Indians to the west, members of her own tribe who were captives and slaves.

Returning from the Pacific coast, after passing the mountains, the expedition took a different route for the return to the east, and Sacajawea never saw her home or people after that time. When the expedition returned to the Mandan village in North Dakota, Charbonneau was paid off and discharged from his duties. All the personnel reluctantly bade farewell to the Indian woman and her 19 month-old son, who had endeared themselves to all.

About a year later Captain Clark offered Charbonneau to educate his son, Baptiste, if he could be sent to St. Louis. Sacajawea, Charbonneau, and Baptiste journeyed to St. Louis, but things didn’t work out and the family then moved to Oklahoma where they lived for three years. Returning to St. Louis, Charbonneau went west again up the Missouri River, leaving in the care of Captain Clark, Sacajawea and Baptiste. Captain Clark educated his friend’s son, and also provided a home for Sacajawea.

It is a singular fact that, while the journals of Lewis & Clark teem with incidents of where Indian women all the way from Mandan to the Pacific used their every art to induce the members of the expedition to cohabit with them, not one word is said of any misconduct on the part of the Shoshone women.

Sacajawea had several sojourns in the midwestern sections of present day United States. She drifted to the lands of the Comanches, where she again married, living with her second husband for 25 years, having five more children, three of whom died in childhood. Here she was known as Porivo. After her second husband died, she immediately left the Commanche country of the southwest and travelled back to St. Louis. From there she went back up the Missouri again to the Minnetaree country where she married another Frenchman. Husband number three was later killed at the mouth of the Yellowstone River in the northeastern corner of present day Montana. She wandered through Montana to the Three Forks of the Missouri and from there on to Fort Bridger Wyoming in 1871. Later that same fall, she removed herself to Fort Washakie on the Shoshone reservation where she lived until 1884.

The chief of this reservation was a Shoshone named Washakie. He had been born near where Sacajawea had first seen the light of day. Washakie and Sacajawea were related through their mothers.

Sacajawea died on the Shoshone reservation in 1884 and is buried there.

 

Peace And Love to All of You…………………….Poppa Bear