Sacagawea (/səˌkɑːɡəˈwiːə/) is the most widely used spelling of her name, pronounced with a hard “g” sound, rather than a soft “g” or “j” sound. Lewis and Clark’s original journals mention Sacagawea by name seventeen times, spelled eight different ways, each time with a “g”.

In Hidatsa, Sacagawea (pronounced with a hard g) translates into “Bird Woman.” Alternatively, Sacajawea means “Boat Launcher” in Shoshone. The Lewis and Clark journals generally support the Hidatsa derivation.

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.

Sacagawea was born circa 1788 in what is now the state of Idaho. When she was approximately 12 years old, Sacagawea was captured by an enemy tribe, the Hidatsa, and taken from her Lemhi Shoshone people to the Hidatsa villages near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota.

But here’s the controversy part: Members of Sacagawea’s original tribe maintain that her name should be pronounced as they pronounce it. And that is – you guessed it – SAK-a-ja-wee-ah.

The spelling “Sacagawea”is endorsed by the US Geographical Board and authorized for its use by Federal Agencies. As with the date of her death, the spelling of her name is a long running controversy and still a matter of debate among scholars. Over the years it has been spelled Sacagawea, Sakakawea or Sacajawea.

In 1809, it is believed that she and her husband — or just her husband, according to some accounts — 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.

She became an American icon. Such was not always the case. No picture exists of Sacagawea, and none appeared in the school readers published before 1900–hardly a surprise, considering the short shrift usually given the Lewis and Clark Expedition in nineteenth-century histories.

Sacagawea is one of the most depicted Native American women in history, with more statues than any other American woman. Sacagawea’s image is in books, movies, paintings, stamps and currency. But not all images of Sacagawea look the same since there weren’t any photographs of her.

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau

The Spirit of Sacajawea (2007)

Sacagawea’s journey came to an end with her family’s return to the Hidatsa-Mandan settlement in August 1806. The sum of $500.33 paid to Charbonneau was for both his and wife’s efforts, though Clark soon wrote that she deserved “a greater reward for her attention and services than we had in our power to give her.”

Sacagawea is a hero because throughout her life and the Lewis and Clark expedition, she has shown exceptional bravery and selflessness. Her bravery is what lead her through these rings of fire and made her the person she was. This Native-American women had strong roots, her bravery being built up her whole life.

16 Sacagawea statues

In April of 1805 the expedition headed out. Sacagawea had given birth to a son that winter named Jean Baptiste. She brought him along, carrying him in a cradleboard tied to her back. He was only two months old.

Sacagawea was a young girl, just 16 or 17 years old and pregnant, when Lewis and Clark arrived at the Mandan villages in what is now central North Dakota. But she wasn’t Mandan, or even from the neighboring Hidatsa tribe.

Expedition members nicknamed him “Pomp” from a Shoshone word meaning “leader”. Sacagawea is shown in artwork holding her baby in a cradleboard and in a blanket. She probably used both methods to carry him. The Hidatsa method of carrying babies is facing forward in a blanket wrapped around the mother’s back.

Sacagawea, the Shoshone interpreter and guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition, gives birth to her first child, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. That winter, Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter for their projected expedition to the Pacific and back, provided he agreed to bring along his young wife.

Sacagawea was pregnant for the first time and was married to Charbonneau. Charbonneau was hired because of his wife who spoke Shoshone because Lewis and Clark knew they would need help from these tribes. She was given the nickname of Janey by Clark and delivered her son, Jean Baptiste on 2/11/1805.

Sacagawea was only sixteen when she made one of the most remarkable journeys in American history, traveling 4500 miles by foot, canoe, and horse-all while carrying a baby on her back! Without her, the Lewis and Clark expedition might have failed.

Dennis B Fradin

Toussaint Charbonneaum. 1804–1812

Toussaint Charbonneau

In the interview he mentioned he had two Shoshone wives, aware of the importance of creating a good relationship with the Shoshone people Lewis and Clark nevertheless hired Charbonneau. Their intention was for him to take one of his Shoshone wives as a Shoshone-Hidatsa interpreter.

She was instrumental in the Lewis & Clark Expedition as a guide as they explored the western lands of the United States. Her presence as a woman helped dispel notions to the Native tribes that they were coming to conquer and confirmed the peacefulness of their mission.

Seaman, a Newfoundland dog, became famous for being a member of the first American overland expedition from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast and back. Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery ate over 200 dogs while traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail, but Seaman was spared.

Lewis and Clark also discovered or carefully described for the first time at least seven Great Plains species of mammals, including the pronghorn, grizzly bear, swift fox, black-tailed prairie dog, white-tailed jackrabbit, bushy-tailed woodrat, and mule deer.

Lewis identified 178 plants new to science, including bitterroot, prairie sagebrush, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine, as well as 122 animals, such as grizzly bear, prairie dog, and pronghorn antelope.

Definitions of Sacagawea. noun. the Shoshone guide and interpreter who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition part of the way. synonyms: Sacajawea.

Sheppard counts herself among the hundreds of Sacagawea descendants on the Fort Berthold Reservation, homeland of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Sacagawea’s Hidatsa descendants’ voices, however, have mostly been unheard, unpublished.

Charbonneau spoke French and Hidatsa; Sacagawea spoke Hidatsa and Shoshone (two very different languages).

A statue erected in honor of Sacajawea is located in a park that bears her name. The statue is called “Coming Home” and it is built in the area where Sacajawea was abducted as a young girl and taken to Mandan lands. The sculptor is Mary Michael.

Portland

Sacajawea Cemetery, Fort Washakie, Wyoming, United States

So why is Sacagawea an important American to know? She was instrumental in the Lewis & Clark Expedition as a guide as they explored the western lands of the United States. Her presence as a woman helped dispel notions to the Native tribes that they were coming to conquer and confirmed the peacefulness of their mission.

All Sacagawea coins, while gold in color, have absolutely no precious metals value. They are made of copper, manganese, brass, zinc, and nickel. Despite their limited collector value, Sacagaweas are still a fun coin with a lot of history.

The boat carried important scientific information gathered in journals as well as medicine and tools. Charbonneau, who did not know how to swim, panicked instead of collecting the goods while Sacagawea reached for them. Her level headed behavior saved documents and tools that would have been lost forever.

What did sacagawea want to do before returning home to the Knife River Villages? Sacagawea helped Lewis and Slark explore the route to the pacific ocean.

The impressive 34-foot tall copper statue of Sacajawea, the Lemhi Shoshone guide who helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition during its exploration of America’s western territories, was intentionally symbolic: it memorialised an individual woman, was funded by women, sculpted by a woman artist, and conceived to promote …

Captain Clark wanted Sacajawea to travel with the group because she spoke the Shoshone language and could ask the Shoshone Indians for horses to travel west. Sacajawea gathered up the supplies that were about to be lost in the river. Captain Clark was so grateful that he gave her a belt of blue beads.

Sacagawea belonged to the Shoshone tribe. In 1800, when she was 12 years old, Hidatsa warriors raided her tribe and captured many young people, including Sacagawea. When explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through what is now North Dakota in 1805, Charbonneau and Sacagawea joined their expedition.