Sacagawea: Assisted the Lewis and Clark Expedition

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White added that before the expedition left its winter camp, the men became aware of the great love this young braided Indian girl had for them, and as she [Sacagawea] told her story many years later she would say…as she held her hand over her heart…’I knew that first day…when I first saw Lewis and Clark…that I would die at any time to save their lives…and I knew that their lives were in danger right there in Dakota.’

The Corps of Discovery hadn’t been back on the Missouri River for very long when Sacagawea demonstrated her commitment to the expedition. The boat in which she was traveling with several of the men almost capsized in a gale. And it was she, according to the 1951 book Makers of the Americas (by Marion Lansing, W. Linwood Chase and Allan Nevins), who caught and saved many of the valuable supplies and surveying instruments as they were washed overboard. Rhea Porter White also wrote about the boating episode, saying that Sacagawea (or Sacajawea, as White wrote it) sat calmly in the stern and rescued most of the equipment as it floated past on the foaming water. Then, the frail Indian girl of only 110 pounds…dove into the water and brought up the few remaining pieces of vital equipment and instruments. Sacajawea’s legendary strength, wisdom and love for the white leaders was beginning to unfold.

White, who died in 1995 at age 93, was constantly searching for more information about Sacagawea, according to her son Dale Porter White. He added that she wrote Things That I Appreciate–about two-thirds of which is devoted to Sacagawea’s story–mainly for her children and friends and had no interest in getting the manuscript published. While some historians might question the accuracy of some of her information, White certainly captured the very real mutual admiration society that Sacagawea had with the two captains. Clark called her Janey, and he would name a prominent rock formation (in present-day eastern Montana) Pompey’s Pillar after her baby boy.

Sacagawea became sick in the spring of 1805 after the group left Fort Mandan, and Lewis expressed concern for her in his journal. He also was concerned about the expedition, since she was our only dependence for a friendly negotiation with the Snake [Shoshone] Indians on whom we depend for horses to assist us in our portage from the Missouri to the Columbia River. In July, after Sacagawea recovered and began recognizing some landmarks, Lewis and Clark felt better about things.

The Corps of Discovery reached Three Forks, where three rivers join to form the Missouri proper, on July 27. Sacagawea assured Lewis and Clark that the Shoshones, who had never seen Europeans before, were somewhere nearby. Indeed Lewis came across a Shoshone warrior in early August, but the Indian bolted when the captain tried to say something in Shoshone that Sacagawea had been teaching him. In Lewis’ journal entry of August 13, 1805, he writes about coming across three terrified Shoshone women who eventually led him toward the Shoshone camp after he had given them trinkets and calmed them down. Chief Cameahwait and a band of 60 warriors came out to meet them. Soon, according to Lewis, bothe parties now advanced and we wer all carresed and besmeared with their grease and paint till I was heartily tired of the national hug. It turned out, amazingly enough, that Cameahwait was Sacagawea’s older brother and that he had inherited their father’s place as chief of the band. After much hugging and explaining, White wrote, the Shoshones agreed to make available the horses and guides the white men needed.

Sacagawea had proved her value again, this time as an interpreter and mediator. By the end of August, she had bid farewell to her brother and was continuing westward with her husband and the explorers. In September, the group crossed the rugged Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains, using an Indian route known as the Lolo Trail. Although it was still technically summer, the travelers faced snow, cold and near starvation before they finally reached a Nez Perce village on the other side of the mountains (in present-day Idaho).

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Tags: Expeditions, Historical Discoveries, Historical Figures, Wild West, Women's History

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