Most of the land Lewis and Clark surveyed was already occupied by Native Americans. In fact, the Corps encountered around 50 Native American tribes including the Shoshone, the Mandan, the Minitari, the Blackfeet, the Chinook and the Sioux.

The bilingual Shoshone woman Sacagawea (c. 1788 – 1812) accompanied the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition in 1805-06 from the northern plains through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and back.

Sacagawea

Toussaint Charbonneau

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.

The Song of Sacajawea This is the true story of a young Native American woman who fearlessly guides explorers Lewis and Clark across the treacherous Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The film is narrated by Laura Dern, with renowned string instrumentalist David Lindley providing a rich and moving score.

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.

Kenel, South Dakota

25 years she left a fine infant girl.”[ Sacagawea was living in Fort Manuel when she died on December 20, 1812. The cause of her death was putrid fever or typhus, a parasite bacterium spread by fleas. This disease is deadly unless treated with antibiotics.

The death of Sacagawea is as controversial as the spelling of her name. The most accepted and the one that most historians support is 1812 as the date of her death. Others, relying on American Indian oral tradition believe that she died in 1884 in Shoshone lands.

Some biographers and oral traditions contend that it was another of Charbonneau’s wives who died in 1812 and that Sacagawea went to live among the Comanches, started another family, rejoined the Shoshones, and died on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation on April 9, 1884.

Sacagawea, the daughter of a Shoshone chief, was born circa 1788 in Lemhi County, Idaho. At around age 12, she was captured by an enemy tribe and sold to a French-Canadian trapper who made her his wife. In November 1804, she was invited to join the Lewis and Clark expedition as a Shoshone interpreter.

As the expedition approached the place where the Columbia River emptied into the Pacific Ocean, Sacagawea gave up her beaded belt to enable the captains to trade for a fur robe they wanted to give to President Thomas Jefferson.

Sacagawea, the daughter of a Shoshone chief, was captured by an enemy tribe and sold to a French Canadian trapper who made her his wife around age 12. In November 1804, she was invited to join the Lewis and Clark expedition as a Shoshone interpreter.

Sacagawea was the only female among 32 male members of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She was part of the main party from April 7, 1805 until August 14, 1806. Sacagawea on the other hand was paid nothing. She fulfilled many roles as the expedition progressed and proved to be an asset for the Corps of Discovery.

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’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.”

Janey

Matoaka

But when the first European settlers arrived on Powhatan land to begin the colony of Jamestown, Pocahontas became embroiled in a series of events with Captain John Smith and John Rolfe that permanently linked her to America’s colonial heritage.

Minko’ imoshitiik

Born around 1596, Pocahontas was the daughter of Wahunsenaca (also known as Powhatan), the powerful chief of the Powhatans, a Native American group that inhabited the Chesapeake Bay region.