Sacagawea
Bird Woman
Early LIfe
Her date of birth is unknown, however, we do know Sacagawea was born around 1788. She was the daughter of the Shoshone chief.
Around the age of 12,
Sacagawea was captured by Hidatsa Indians, an enemy of the Shoshones. She was then sold to a French-Canadian trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau who made her one of his wives.
In November 1804,
an expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark entered the area. The expedition planned to explore newly acquired western lands and find a route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark met Charbonneau and quickly hired him to serve as interpreter.
The group built Fort Mandan,
and elected to stay there for the winter. Even though she was pregnant with her first child, Sacagawea was chosen to accompany them on their mission. Lewis and Clark believed that her knowledge of the Shoshone language would help them later in their journey.
The Expedition
Sacagawea was proven an important member, as she could do many things her co-travelers couldn't do themselves.
- She was great on finding edible plants
- When a boat capsized, she was able to save some of it's items
- She served as a symbol of peace, as a group with a woman were treated with much less suspicion
In 1805, the middle of the expedition, Sacagawea gave birth to her son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. He was born with the help of Clark.
And After...
In 1809, it is believed that she and her husband (Just her husband...or so say some sources.) traveled with their son to St. Louis to see Clark. Pomp was left in Clark's care. Sacagawea gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Lisette, three years later. Only a few months after her daughter's birth, she died at Fort Manuel in what is now South Dakota in 1812. There are stories that it was another wife of Charbonneau who died at Fort Manuel, but historians don't believe this. After Sacagawea's death, Clark looked after her two children, and took custody of them both.