Sacagawea

Sacagawea was kidnapped from her village in 1800 by her enemies (the Shoshones). Later she was sold as a slave to a man named Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader. He claimed Sacagawea along with many other women to be his wife. Then in 1804 the corps of discovery came and built a fort nearby the Mandan village. Lewis and Clark thought it might be important for Sacagawea to come along to help trade horses to cross the Bitterroot Mountains. As she did not speak English she spoke Shoshone and Hidasta, and Charbonneau spoke Hidasta and French, and then Labiche would make the final translation from French to English. It was a strenuous process but it got them through.

Sacagawea was the only women of the entire expedition. On August 12, 1805 Lewis and Clark had gone ahead of the corps 75 miles later to find they were in Shoshone territory as they proved they were Sacagawea’s band they found out it was Sacagawea’s homeland she was kidnapped from. She was reunited with her family after 5 years of separation. They were also able to purchase the horses it needed.

They then made their way to the Pacific Ocean and back to St.Louis. Clark came to find that Sacagawea was definitely an important part of the route for she was their interpreter and saved them from war many times as the Indians knew a war party would never bring a women and a child along.

She later died at the age of 25. Sacagawea is my hero because if it wasn’t for her we might have never discovered this land and never been able to live in this beautiful place.