Sacajawea lived and died in Wyoming's Wind River Country
by the Wind River Visitors Council
She was a teenager with an infant strapped on her back when she embarked on the 3,000-mile journey that was to make her famous. Acting as an interpreter, a negotiator, a provider, and a symbol of peace to the Indian tribes the expedition encountered, this young woman known as Sacajawea was the only female to accompany Lewis and Clark's Corp of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean and back. Details about her are scant and controversy surrounds both her death and the spelling of her name, but what is clear is that her presence was instrumental in the success of the expedition and made her into an American icon. Today you can explore Sacajawea's story in Wind River Country, Wyoming where she lies buried among her people, the Eastern Shoshone Indians, on the Wind River Reservation.
Sacajawea was born in Lemhi country near the present day town of Salmon, Idaho. She was captured by raiding Hidatsa Indians when she was a young girl of about 10, and taken to the Dakotas where she was later sold to the French-Canadian fur trader, Toussaint Charbonneau to become his wife. The couple, with Sacajawea expecting her first child, was living in Fort Mandan on the banks of the Missouri River in the winter of 1804-05. It was here that they made their fateful acquaintance with Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
Before Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery settled down to winter over in Fort Mandan, it had become clear to the leaders that maintaining good relations with the tribes they encountered on their journey would be integral to their success. They needed the natives to help them with everything from procuring food and horses to finding their way through the mountains down to the sea. Since no one on the expedition could speak any indigenous languages, the two men recognized that they would need interpreters to secure this help. Charbonneau was hired with specific orders to bring along his young wife Sacajawea. Together the two formed an interpreting team. Sacajawea could speak Shoshone and Hidatsa and Charbonneau could speak Hidatsa and French. Francois Labiche, a member of the expedition who spoke French and English, completed the circle by translating the couple's dialogue into English so the captains could understand.
These interpreting skills were invaluable, but Sacajawea's mere presence was almost more important. As Clark wrote: "We find (that she) reconciles all the Indians as to our friendly intentions-a woman with a party of men is a token of peace." Particularly a woman with a baby. Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau was born February 11, 1805, just a month or so before the expedition left the relative comfort of Fort Mandan for a two-year journey that would entail arduous travel, debilitating illness, blinding blizzards, driving rain, unpredictable grizzly bears, nagging uncertainty, and constant hunger. All accounts indicate that Sacajawea endured these hardships with fortitude. Clark writes how one day a sudden squall threatened to overturn the boat Sacajawea, Jean-Baptiste, and Charbonneau were traveling in. Clark said that although she could not swim, Sacajawea maintained her composure and even had the presence of mind to rescue many valuable documents before they floated away from the half-submerged vessel.
Such composure, coupled with the contributions she made to the well-being of the men made Sacajawea a valued member of the expedition. She helped round out the company's diet by gathering wild plants and roots. When someone became ill, she collected herbs to make salves, medicines and teas. She recognized mountain passes thereby saving the expedition days, if not weeks, of travel time; and her brother, a Shoshone chief whom the Corps encountered by mere chance, provided the group with much-needed horses and safe passage through his territory.
In recognition of her place on the team, Sacajawea was given an equal vote with the men in deciding where the Corps would spend the winter of 1805-1806. To keep her happy, the captains agreed to her request to accompany the men to visit the Pacific and see a beached whale. She and her family slept in the lodge with the captains to keep her apart from the rest of the men. These details indicate that she was practical, strong, intelligent and opinionated, but other information about her personality has been lost over time.
What has also been lost are the specifics about what happened to Sacajawea when she returned to Fort Mandan at the end of the two-year expedition. An account in Clark's journal indicates that one of Charbonneau's two wives died of "putrid fever" in Fort Manual, South Dakota in 1812. Many people assume that Clark was writing about Sacajawea, although he does not refer to the woman by name. Shoshone tribal lore differs. They believe that the true Sacajawea left the abusive Charbonneau and traveled to what was then Okalahoma Territory. Eventually, they say, she made her way back to Shoshone country ultimately settling around Fort Washakie, Wyo., in the "Valley of the Warm Wind" where her relative, Chief Washakie, was helping establish a reservation for his people.
Back among the Shoshone, Sacajawea was known as Porivo. An elderly woman at the time she settled in Fort Washakie, Porivo still wore a Jeffersonian medal like the ones Lewis and Clark gave out on their journey. She told stories about how in her youth she'd seen a huge fish the size of a house as well as the 'Big Water' of the Pacific Ocean, but she was reticent about discussing other details of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Zelda Tillman, who works at the Shoshone Tribal Cultural Center in Fort Washakie, says that she thinks Sacajawea's silence stemmed from the fact that while her contributions to the Lewis and Clark Expedition were admirable, the expedition itself was not extremely popular among the Shoshone because it marked the beginning of the invasion of whites into Indian country.
Porivo died on April 9, 1884 and was buried by the Reverend John Roberts of the Episcopal Church in Fort Washakie. Roberts testified that Porivo was Sacajawea at the time of her death. Years later, the Bureau of Indian Affairs hired Dr. Charles Eastman to locate Sacajawea's remains. Eastman supported the Shoshone version of history and stated that Sacajawea's body was buried in the cemetery at Fort Washakie on the Wind River Indian Reservation. A monument was erected at Porivo's graveside in honor of her contributions. Today visitors can see the monument and read a plaque detailing Sacajawea's life. In addition, the Shoshone Tribal Cultural Center in Fort Washakie can arrange for tours of the community and the cemetery, and provide details about the controversy surrounding Sacajawea's later years.
In
2000, nearly 200 years after Sacajawea made history, a $1 coin was minted bearing her image.
According to the U.S. Mint, "The decision to create a design inspired by Sacajawea reflects a long tradition of placing symbolic and allegorical images of women and Native Americans on U.S. coinage as a means of communicating our nation's history and values."
Sacajawea's portrait is particularly allegorical as no photographs of her are known to exist. Artist Glenna Goodacre used a 22-year-old Shoshone woman named Randy 'L hee-dow Teton as the model for the young Sacajawea. The image Goodacre created portrays Sacajawea with her son Jean-Baptiste asleep on her back.
The spelling of Sacajawea's name, like the facts about her death, is controversial. In the journals of both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, her name is spelled at least 14 different ways. Modern historians note that throughout these variations both men consistently used a 'g', hence among scholars, spelling the name 'Sacagawea' is considered correct. Linguists believe that the name Sacagawea is actually derived from two Hidatsa words: sacaga, meaning bird, and wea, meaning woman. The Shoshone believe differently, however. They say her name is Sacajawea, or Boat Launcher. Given the problems of translation for Lewis and Clark, the Shoshone contend that the spelling in the captains' journals can hardly be considered authoritative. However, if in fact Sacagawea was a Hidatsa name, perhaps that explains why she went by Porivo when she returned to live among the Shoshone at the end of her life.
|
WELCOME TO WYOMING, GENEALOGY TRAILS HISTORY GROUP. Dedicated to the pursuit of free genealogy.
We would like to help you find, preserve and remember your ancestors and record the role they played in creating Wyoming.. My name is Jo Ann Boyd Scott. *Note: Unless otherwise stated, ALL DATA and INFO are donated, transcribed and submitted by JoAnn Boyd Scott and the "Friends of Free Genealogy" I keep a folder in the computer which has all "Friends of Free Genealogy" which includes names, date, email and copy of the data sent. Maps are from Wikipedia, pictures are personal family photographers.Here at Genealogy Trails, we will always give contributors the credit they deserve when they contribute data to our sites. We will ALWAYS abide by a researcher's request to remove their contributed data if ever asked to do so. THIS APPLIES TO ALL COUNTIES AS WELL.
Because we are a new web site, we are looking for county hosts. If you would be interested in volunteering, please visit our Volunteer Information Page and get in touch with Kim. Enough html knowledge to build a basic web page is required, along with a desire to transcribe data. I will help you get started or help me as a co-host on any county.
I gratefully accept any data, bios, land deeds, obits, etc. All data belongs to the original submitter and is copyrighted here. E-MAILme. I would like to thank the many volunteers that have sent data. Thank for the continual help and support.
[WYOMING] [Abut WY.] [WY prison] [Reservations] [Sheep Eaters] [Battles] [BigHoleBattle] [Phil Kearny] [Treaties] [Natural Resources] [tribe list census1900] [Biographies] [Famous people] [Stage Coaches] [Railroads] [Rodeo 2008]
