Sacagawea |
Sacagawea was born around 1790 to a Shoshone chief. She was kidnapped by the Hidatsa tribe when she was about ten years old and took her to their village in their upper Missouri. She was eventually purchased and wed to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper. In 1804, Lewis and Clark, sent by President Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Territory, hired Charbonneau as an interpreter. Sacagawea accompanied them as a sign of piece to the Indians as well as an interpreter and guide. Eight weeks after the expedition departed from Missouri, Sacagawea gave birth to a son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Clark fondly called him Pompey. Throughout the exploration, Sacagawea carried her child on a cradleboard. Four months later, Lewis and Clark reached the end of the navigable part of the Missouri River. They wanted to ask a Shoshone band for horses for their journey across the mountains so Sacagawea served as translator. By sheer luck, the leader of the band was Sacagawea’s brother, Cameahwait, who became chief after their father’s death. However, instead of staying on with her brother, Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark obtain the supplies they needed and continued on with the expedition. On the return trip, Charbonneau and Sacagawea separated from Lewis and Clark at the Hidatsa village in upper Missouri. But Charbonneau did visit Clark in St. Louis and left his son with Clark to work for the American Fur Company. Historians are unsure whether Sacagawea was with Charbonneau in St. Louis. Some evidence says she did accompany him and died in 1812 when she returned to Missouri. Another sources say that she rejoined the Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation and died there in 1884. |
|
