I wanted Sacagawea because she made great American history and we all still remember her as a regular Shoshone girl who guided Lewis and Clark to the Pacific coast while nursing a baby. Without her the Lewis and Clark expedition would have been a complete failure.

  Sacagawea is one of my favorite people in history. She walked from her village to the Pacific with a baby on her back! In which I thought was amazing!

For more information see Website

Listen to an INTERVIEW WITH SACAJAWEA 

Sacagawea

By: Lauren Pinney

            Sacagawea played a huge part in American history. She led two explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with their crew, to the Pacific coast while carrying a baby on her back. It was called the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Sacagawea was born around 1789. She was a Shoshone (Shoshoni) Indian; they were also called Snake Indians because they lived near the Snake River. Sacagawea had many names. Some people called her Bird Woman because Sacagawea means Bird Woman.

            When she was around 12 the Minnetaree Indians raided her village and kidnapped her. They traded her to a Canadian fur trader. The trader’s name was Charbonneau, who made her one of his wives. They lived in the Minnetaree village with the other Indians and her new husband. At the age of 15 she was expecting a baby.  

            Lewis and Clark sailed in. They needed help on their journey to find land and reach the Pacific coast. They needed someone who could speak Shoshone. For their journey they would need horses and the Shoshone Indians were one of the best horse breeders. Charbonneau brought his wife (whom was 7 months pregnant) to meet the explorers. Even though she was expecting a baby, Lewis and Clark chose her to guide them to the west.

            On February 11, 1805 during the journey Sacagawea had her baby. She took a type of powder to speed up the birth. That day she was given a beautiful, healthy boy. She named him Jean Baptiste. They made it to Fort Mandan. They traded with the Mandan Indians. The Mandan Indians taught Lewis and Clark how to make blue glass beads and they ate with the Indians. Food was hard to find. Sacagawea’s most prized possession was a blue glass bead belt.

            Now they were on the Missouri River on canoes headed toward the Shoshone village, Sacagawea’s real home. Clark grew very fond of Sacagawea and her baby. Clark nicknamed him Pomp. They were the best of friends.

            One foggy day Lewis and Clark were walking along the shore while Charbonneau and Sacagawea were rowing in a canoe. The canoe started to flood. Charbonneau freaked out and screamed, “I can’t swim!” Every document, journal and letter was in a crate on that small curved boat. If Sacagawea hadn’t jumped out and swam to retrieve the crate, all the important papers the explorers and crew needed would have been soaked and unusable. The whole journey would have gone bad. They would have had to go back to St. Louis and start over.

            The crew was getting sick, a bad sign. On June 1^st Bird Woman got sick. She didn’t feel better until around June 24^th. Then, they finally reached Bird Woman’s village on August 13^th, 1805. She found some of her family and her best friend. Most of her family members were dead. Even though most of her family was dead, her long lost brother was still alive and now chief of the Shoshone tribe. Not forgetting to ask for some horses Sacagawea’s brother allowed them to borrow some supplies and horses for the journey. While Sacagawea was reuniting with her tribe she overheard her brother (the chief) say that they were going back on their word and weren’t going to give Lewis and Clark the supplies and horses they needed. Sacagawea explained her husband about the fact. He told Lewis and Clark who confronted the chief. Now the chief had to give the explorers the items they needed. Again, the journey was saved because of Sacagawea.

            Sacagawea and the explorers, started for the Bitterroots. There was barely any food; in fact sometimes they had to kill their horses just to eat. They were so hungry they named a creek Hungry Creek. That’s when they met up with the Nez Perce Indians.  Finally, they had food to eat. The explorers asked the Nez Perce if they could watch over there horses until they needed them again. The natives agreed.

            When they reached Idaho they built canoes, which they rowed toward the Pacific using them. This part of the journey was one of the worst. They, again, ran out of food and had to buy 2 dozen (24) dogs from other Indians nearby just so they could eat them. As they paddled on they ran into more Indians. These Indians were going to attack but as soon as they saw Sacagawea they put down their guns and welcomed the unexpected explorers and their crew. When they were back on the canoes, rain pelted them everywhere! If you turned around all you would see was rain and you were never dry! It became very itchy. The canoes started to flood. People got fleas and their clothes rotted.

            On November 7, 1805 they reached the Pacific coast. They spent most of their time on the Columbia River trying to find shelter and dry wood to keep warm. They traded all their beads and Lewis was going to sell his blankets for a cape but the Indian trader wanting nothing to do with the blankets. The only person who had blue beads to sell or trade with was Sacagawea. She had a strung blue bead belt, which was her prized possession. The Indian saw Sacagawea’s belt and wanted it as much as Lewis wanted the cape. After making a deal with the trader, Lewis forcibly made Bird Woman give up her belt so he could get his cape.

            Everyone was working on figuring out where they would stay. Lewis and Clark decided to let everyone vote. Sacagawea wanted to go on the other side of the Columbia River. Most of the crew wanted to go across the river, too. All of December, they were busy building what they called Fort Clatsop, that was where they would live for now. They picked a very good spot to stay, too. There were a lot of animals and it didn’t flood (they built there little house on a hill). Everyday they made 300 moccasins because every pair only lasted a few days. After a while they decided it was time to go home. This time the explorers were smart. This time they traded with Clatsop Indians for food, and to preserve meat they used salt from the ocean. To make the salt they took the ocean water and boiled it over a roasting fire.

    Around New Years a whale washed up on the shore and all the men went to look at it. They left Sacagawea back at their temporary home. When Clark was about to leave to see what the big deal was he saw Sacagawea. To him, she looked sad and he felt he needed to help. Sacagawea explained to him that she, also, dreamed of seeing a whale because she had never seen a whale before. Clark felt bad and took her with him to go see the beastly creature. The men decided the whale would make good food and ate it.

            It was February 11, 1806, Jean’s birthday. He could speak a few words and walked. Clark adored him so much he thought of him as a son. Clark would sing to him, play with him, and teach him. After they finished loading all their belongings in a canoe they gave the fort to the Clatsop and boarded the canoe. Off they went.

            The journey back wasn’t as bad. Still some people did get sick at times or go hungry. Bird Woman’s plant finding skills was needed a lot now. They again found the Nez Perce Indians on their way back to retrieve their horses. Pomp (Clark’s nickname for Jean) got sick. After being rubbed by Sacagawea and Clark with onions and bee wax, he felt better. The captains split up into two separate groups. Sacagawea went with Clark and his group. She knew this land well and guided them around. Clark encountered a huge boulder and named it after Pomp. He climbed the over-sized rock and engraved, ‘July 25, 1806. William Clark.’ He decided to also name a river after Pomp.

            On August 12^th, Lewis’s group met up with Clark’s group on the border of Montana and North Dakota. Together they all traveled down the Mississippi River in canoes. That’s when they found the village where they first chose Sacagawea to go on this long journey. Charbonneau was thanked by the explorers and given $500.33 as pay. They must all say good-bye now. When Lewis and Clark got back to St. Louis, most people just assumed they were dead because the trip was so long. They celebrated.

            Sacagawea lived in the village with her small family of three. Clark and her sent letters to each other. Clark begged for her to send Pomp to him so Pomp could get a good education. But what he really wanted was to take custody of him. Eventually, they did let Pomp go to live with Clark. While on a fur trading trip they passed Pomp to Clark and his wife around 1812. That same year on December 20^th, Sacagawea caught putrid fever and died giving birth to her new baby girl, Lisette. Clark also took Lisette with him to be raised. Pomp became a guide, and then a mayor of Spanish Town California. What happened to Lisette is unknown.

            Sacagawea contributed to American history by helping two explorers find a chunk of America that people today might not have had. Because she found the west we now have more farm land and we also had the gold rush, which was a bunch of gold found in the west that everybody in the east was dying to get. And, even though she was uprooted from her home and forced to marry a man she didn’t love, she was very giving.

          She was a great person and did great things for America’s history. She was one of the nicer people in history and that’s why I chose her. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fradin, Dennis. Who Was Sacagawea? New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 2002.

Fradin, Dennis. Sacagawea. Parsippany, New Jersey: Silver Press, 1998.

“Sacagawea Biography.”  4/1/09. http://www.biography.com.

“Sacagawea.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Gale. 4/28/09. http://go.galegroup.com.