Sacagawea's People: After the Expedition

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The Corps of Discovery was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark. Sacagawea and her husband, French trapper Charbonneau was selected to join the
Expedition as interpreters, because they knew the language of the Native Americans that Lewis and
Clark had decided were important when the explorers reached what was later called the Lemhi
Valley in Northern Idaho.

When explorers reached the Salmon River in October of 1805, they asked Sacagawea to persuade her
people to provide horses for the Expedition, which was badly needed in order to continue to the
Pacific Ocean.

The Chief of the Lemhi Indians at the time happened to be Sacagawea‘s brother, Cameahwait. The
Lemhi agreed to provide vital aid needed by the Corps of Discovery, however, by helping the Unites
States explore Shoshone lands, they hastened the day when their tribal culture would nearly disappear.

Fur traders followed, with a group of persistent fur trappers from Canada and Britain called the Snake
River Brigade. They roamed the country trading guns and kettles for pelts from the Lemhi
Shoshone. When the beavers became scarce from over-trapping, the fur trappers moved on, leaving the
Lemhi without the suppliers that had become necessary items in their already
altered way of life.

Another opportunity came for the struggling Lemhi Indians when Major John Owen established a post in

the Bitterroot Valley in the mid-century, which became a center of trading activity. Owens’s journal

records the condition of the Lemhi during the transition period, after the Corps of Discovery and

invasion by trappers and traders. The condition of poverty followed the Lemhi Shoshone through the rest

of the century.

Owens wrote about the severe poverty of Sacagawea’s people and how they were trying to survive
day to day. His journal entry of January 20, 1860 describes more Snake Indian Shoshone “begging
on the streets and destitute.” He continued, “How in Heaven's Name they pass the cold dreary
Nights is a Mystery."

The story of Sacagawea’s important
participation in the exploration of the
Pacific Northwest, often leaves out
the effect it had on her own tribe, the
Lemhi Shoshone who lived in the upper
Salmon River area.

This is why our website and research

study of Sacagawea begins with the

profound effect the

exploration of the

Northwestern United States had on

Sacagawea’s birth tribe.

On the other pages, we provide you
with the fascinating story of
Sacagawea’s experiences on the
expedition and her life that followed.

What Happened to Sacagawea's People?

Shoshone Perform the Sun Dance in Early 1900

Photos Courtesy of the Denver Public Archives

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An attempt by Mormon missionaries to establish Fort Lemhi (1855-1858) brought new contact with
whites, but this ended when Indians drove the Mormons from the area. However, the Mormon name,
Lemhi from the Book of Mormon, became the name for the river and for Sacagawea’s people.

Gold was discovered in the Snake River. This was the beginning of the end of the Lemhi as a separate

tribal entity with an ancestral homeland. Miners and the supply stores, saloons and bawdy women
quickly followed.

Photo taken in early 1900 of Shoshone Indians standing in a street in Salmon, Idaho

Shoshone Indians Standing in
the Street in Salmon Idaho,
Early 1900.

Shoshone in front of their Tipi, Late 1800.

Conflicts arose over the miner’s intrusion into the hard-won
hunting and fishing rights of the Lemhi Shoshone. Tendoy, the
current Lemhi chief was able to obtain a 100-mile reservation for
the Lemhi, which stretched along the Lemhi River.

The reservation was actually too small to support the 1200 Lemhi
still living in the area because much of the terrain was rough and
did not produce enough fish and game for the Lemhi to live on. U.S.
Indian agents tried to encourage the Lemhi to farm and grow crops
on this small reservation, but the government delayed sending
them the promised tools and farmed equipment to properly work
the land.

By 1906, the Lemhi Shoshone gave up and moved to live at Fort Hall, which is apparently what the
government had been trying to do. This was the way to assimilate the Lemhi to white society, and cause
their doom. Many of the remaining Lemhi abandoned their culture and language forever, the few who
were true to their traditions scattered across the area and became lost to history.