Sacajawea

Sacajawea



Sacajawea was born in Idaho around 1790 to the [|Shoshone] tribe. As a young girl, she was stolen by the Hidasta tribe and brought to their village. From there, she, along with her friend, Otter woman, was bought by Toussaint Charbonneau, a French fur-trader and her future husband.

Sacajawea is known as the Indian-woman who accompanied and aided [|Merriwether Lewis and William Clark] on their expedition through the Louisiana Purchase towards the Pacific Ocean. However, she was not part of the original crew; her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, was hired as a translator and brought her, pregnant with their child, along for the voyage. She was allowed to come because they thought that having an Indian with them would help with interactions with tribes they might come across along the way, like the Shoshone, her native tribe. Contrary to popular belief, she was not leading the crew, but she did provide helpful advice, such as where her tribe hunted and guiding the expedition to where they could buy horses.

While on the journey, Sacajawea was reunited with her native tribe, the Shoshone, and she saw her family again. All but two of her brothers had died.

After the expedition, Sacajawea and her husband lived in St. Louis. Two conflicting stories exist of the rest of her life. One is that she died of a fever in 1813. The other, the Shoshone oral legend, tells that she returned to the Wind River Reservation and became an influential member of the tribe before passing away.



Source: [] []