Biography sacajawea
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Who Was Sacagawea?
Possibly the most memorialized woman in the United States, with dozens of statues and monuments, Sacagawea lived a short but legendarily eventful life in the American West. Born in 1788 or 1789, a member of the Lemhi band of the Native American Shoshone tribe, Sacagawea grew up surrounded by the Rocky Mountains in the Salmon River region of what is now Idaho.
The Shoshone were enemies of the gun-possessing Hidatsa tribe, who kidnapped Sacagawea during a buffalo hunt in 1800. The name we know her by is in fact Hidatsa, from the Hidatsa words for bird (“sacaga”) and woman (“wea”).
Did you know? Sacagawea was a highly skilled food gatherer. She used sharp sticks to dig up wild licorice, prairie turnips (tubers the explorers called “white apples”) and wild artichokes that mice had buried for the winter.
Today, however, many Shoshone, among others, argue that in their language “Sacajawea” means boat-pusher and is her true name. (And in North Dakota the officia
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Sacagawea
Native American explorer (c.1788 – 1812)
This article is about the Native American woman. For the Hewlett-Packard processor, see HP Sacajawea. For the coin, see Sacagawea dollar.
Sacagawea | |
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Sacagawea (right) with Lewis and Clark at the Three Forks, mural at Montana House of Representatives | |
| Born | May 1788 Lemhi River Valley, near present-day Salmon, Idaho, US |
| Died | December 20, 1812 (aged 24) Kenel, South Dakota, or Wyoming |
| Nationality | Lemhi Shoshone |
| Other names | Sakakawea, Sacajawea |
| Known for | Accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition |
| Spouse | Toussaint Charbonneau |
| Children | 2, including Jean Baptiste Charbonneau |
Sacagawea (SAK-ə-jə-WEE-ə or sə-KOG-ə-WAY-ə;[1] also spelled Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May c. 1788 – December 20, 1812)[2][3][4] was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectiv
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Sacagawea is one of the most recognizable names in American history.
But who was she?
Sacagawea spoke both Shoshone and Hidatsa. We know that she grew up with Shoshone people nära what fryst vatten now the Montana/Idaho border, and that, at the age of twelve, she was captured by Hidatsa people. There is some debate over whether she was originally born in a Hidatsa or Shoshone village, but we do not know for sure.
From age twelve to sixteen, she lived along the Knife River in a Hidatsa by called Awatixa.
She was married by age sixteen, and we do not know how much choice she had in the matter. Her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, was thirty years older than her and had another wife, named Otter Woman. Sacagawea had a baby at age sixteen, and her son had a French name, like his father.
We know she was happy to reunite with her Shoshone family and friends. She served as a translator and diplomat for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a liaison between cultures.
But there is so much