They found that the Shoshone males enjoyed a privileged status, while Shoshone females were given a life of drudgery, as indicated by Meriwether Lewis in his log for August 19, 1805: "They seldom correct their children particularly the boys who soon become masters of their own acts" (Lewis, 1969).

Lewis continued, "They give as a reason that it cows and breaks the spirit of the boy to whip him, and that he never recovers his independence of mind after he is grown. They treat their women but with little rispect [respect], and compel them to perform every species of drudgery" (Lewis, 1969).

19th CENTURY SHOSHONE WOMEN WERE HELD IN LOW ESTEEM

Lewis continued, "They collect the wild fruits and roots, attend to the horses or assist in that duty, cook, dress the skins and make all the apparel, collect wood and make their fires, arrange and form their lodges [brush teepees], and when they travel, pack the horses and take charge of all the baggage; in short the man dose [does] little else except attend his horses hunt and fish" (Lewis, 1969).

SHOSHONE MEN WERE HUNTERS 1884(Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Western History Archive)

Obviously incensed, Lewis continued to write, "The man considers himself degraded if compelled to walk any distance; and leavs the woman or women [they usually have many wives because they are needed to do the work]to transport the baggage and children…and to walk if the horse is unable to carry additional weight. The chastity of their women is not held in high estimation, and the husband will for a trifle barter the companion of his bead [bed] for a night or longer if he conceives the reward adiquate[adequate]" (Lewis, 1969).

A "SQUAWS" HARD LIFE

In other words the Shoshone prostituted his own wives, even calling them "Squaw," an Algonquian Indian term meaning prostitute. Lewis stated further:

"I was anxious to learn whether these people had venerial [sexually transmitted diseases], and later made the enquiry through the interpreter and his wife; the information was that they sometimes had it but I could not learn their remedy; they most usually die with it's effects" (Lewis, 1969).  Is it little wonder that Sacagawea did not choose to stay with the tribe of her birth once she had been reunited with them?

The explorers would soon learn that the LEMHI-Shoshone Indians whom they would depend upon for the success of the Expedition were in a terrible state of poverty.

PROUD BUT POOR

FOR YEARS THEY HAD BEEN ON THE RUN FROM NEIGHBORING ENEMY TRIBES

The LEMHI-Shoshones had been continually raided and robbed by the Minitaree Sioux and Blackfeet, who were armed with rifles supplied by white traders. In nearly every conflict with other tribes, the Shoshones would lose all their possessions and many Tribal members to enslavement or death, because they fought only with bows and arrows.

Shoshone Warrior 1884 (Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Western History Archive)

This is how 16 year old Sacagawea ended up hundreds of miles from her Shoshone home in a fur trading fort in North Dakota where Lewis and Clark first met her. She now belonged to an abusive, French-Canadian trapper who had won her in a gambling contest with the Mandans. She was merely one of Toussaint Charbonneau's many Indian wives.

Lewis and Clark had set up a winter camp at the Fort Mandan Trading Post. They had hired Charbonneau to join the Expedition as an Indian interpreter, because he knew Sioux and French, which enabled him to communicate with many different tribes. Like the Mandan, he was a polygamist who had already taken two other Indian wives (Lewis, 1969).

MANDAN SIOUX

While conversing with Charbonneau, they learned that Sacagawea knew the Shoshone language of her birth tribe. They asked Charbonneau to bring her on the Expedition even though she would have a newborn child to care for. They knew that when they reached the source of the Missouri River, they would need to buy horses from a Shoshone Tribe known to be in the area. Without horses they would not be able to continue the Expedition across land to reach the Pacific Ocean (Lewis, 1969).

Within the first few months of the Expedition, Lewis and Clark would come to value Sacagawea's strength, intelligence, and bravery in the face of the many unexpected hardships during the exploration consigned to them by President Jefferson.

By order of the President, Lewis and Clark were assigned with the job of discovering a water passage through the unexplored Northwest that would be a direct route to the Pacific Ocean. To successfully complete the trek through unexplored territory, and map the Northwest Passage to the Western Coast, the White men would need the help of the Shoshone Indians whose land they would claim for their own. Little did they know that this tribe was composed of Sacagawea's people. Her brother was their Chief (Lewis, 1969).

NO WHITE MAN HAD EVER ENTERED THE SHOSHONE LANDS

THIS BELONGED TO THE INDIANS

They would have to travel by canoe up to the beginning of the Missouri River, and venture through rugged terrain by horse, which they would have to purchase from the Shoshone.

It had been a dream of civilized European and American Governments for several hundred years to find a direct route through the land of Sacagawea's birth.

The Expedition would be in for a shock when they reached the source of the Missouri River and hiked over the first mountain. The wilderness before them was vast. Instead of a few miles, they would have to trek for many months. Horses were an absolute necessity. They desperately needed Sacagawea's Shoshone Indians who inhabited the mountains. The Shoshone had heard about the White man but they had never seen one.

NATURE HELD THE ONLY MYSTERY FOR PLAINS INDIANS

EXPEDITION PREPARES TO ENTER THE NATIVE AMERICAN WILDERNESS

Lewis and Clark prepared for the rugged Expedition in Fort Mandan, which was located in a very cold area in North Dakota. When the ice thawed in the Spring of 1805, they would set out on the Expedition, taking Sacagawea and Charbonneau along as Indian Interpreters. However, Sacagawea went into labor 2 months before they were to set out on the Expedition the following Spring (Lewis, 1969).

She had experienced a difficult delivery under primitive, unsanitary conditions when Jean-Baptiste (called Pomp by Sacagawea) was born. Shortly after his birth, he was strapped to her back in a cradle board as the Expedition set out on its rugged trip. Sixteen year old Sacagawea was expected to be a fully contributing member of the expedition, and she was (Lewis, 1969).

Photo Of A Shoshone Woman (Not Sacagawea), With Her Baby On A Cradle Board, Taken In 1884 (Photo Owned By The Denver Public Library Archives)

For the first few months of the expedition, Lewis and Clark did not fully appreciate Sacagawea, even in the face of her saving actions. On May 14, 1805 Clark recorded in his log that a sudden gust of wind had struck the sail of the boat broadside nearly overturning it and its valuable contents including, "our papers [logs], Instruments, books, medicine, a great proportion of our merchandize, and in short almost every article indispensibly necessary…. the articles which floated out was nearly all caught by the Squar [Squaw: which was another name used for Sacagawea] who was in the rear" (Lewis, 1969).

Her husband Charbonneau was frozen in fear by the turbulence of the river. Clark wrote that a boatman in another boat, "…by repeated threats so far brought Charbono the stersman [Charbonneau was the one steering the boat when it tipped over] to his recollection that he did his duty…" (Lewis, 1969).

SACAGAWEA SAVES THE EXPEDITION SUPPLIES

Although Sacagawea had demonstrated her personal value to the Expedition, it was not yet recognized. On June 10, 1805, Lewis demonstrates an indifference to her survival. He writes that she is very sick and then he continues on about minor matters in the same sentence "Capt. C. [Clark] blead her [drew blood- a common 1800's treatment] the night was cloudy with some rain." Then he continued to discuss in great detail about a species of bird he had seen (Lewis, 1969).

On the same day, Clark entered notes in his journal misspelling the name assigned to her by her captors, "Sahcahgagwea our Indian Woman verry sick. I blead her, we determined to assend the South fork, and one of us, Capt. Lewis or my self to go by land as far as the Snow mountains S. 20 [degrees] W. and examine the country..." (Lewis, 1969).

SACAGAWEA BECOMES SEVERELY ILL

However, their journal entries indicate that as Sacagawea's condition worsened they began to realize she was their most precious asset. Clark had her moved to the back of his sleeping quarters which was more sheltered from the weather. On June 13 Clark gave her a dose of salts and a mixture of bark to apply to her infected region, "which eased her condition" (Lewis, 1969).

He further recorded that, "The Indian woman much wors this evening, she will not take any medison, her husband [Charbonneau] petitions to return &, river more rapid late in the evening..." (Lewis, 1969). We know he was referring to Sacagawea because she was the only Indian woman on the Expedition.

On June 16, 1805 Lewis also recorded Sacagawea's condition. "This gave me some concern as well for the poor object herself, then with a young child in her arms, as from the consideration of her being our only dependence for a friendly negociation with the Snake Indians [Shoshone Tribe] on whom we depend for horses to assist us in our portage from the Missouri [to travel by land from the River, through the rugged mountainous terrain to the Pacific Ocean] (Lewis, 1969).

AT TIMES NEAR DEATH, SACAGAWEA’S BODY STRUGGLES TO REBOUND

During the day, Sacagawea had continued to carry luggage and her nursing baby who was strapped on her back, while the Expedition Party traveled over rough terrain. Everyone had to do their share, and Charbonneau made no special concessions for the "Squaw" he had purchased. Nor did he follow the instructions given to him by Lewis concerning her care and feeding during her illness (Lewis, 1969).

Later in the day Lewis gave her water he obtained from a nearby sulfur springs, opium, and a mixture of ground bark believed capable of assisting her recovery. In fact, her symptoms demonstrate that she was experiencing septic shock from a spreading bacterial infection, which was frequently deadly before the advent of today's antibiotics (Lewis, 1969).

A good medic but a poor speller, Lewis recorded "w[h]en I came down I found her pulse were scarcely perceptible, very quick frequently irregular and attended with strong nervous symptoms, that of the twitching of the fingers and leaders of the arm... she complains principally of the lower region of the abdomen... from obstruction of the mensis...." Sacagawea was very ill (Lewis, 1969).

Clark further recorded on the evening of June 16, 1805 that she was "out of her senses...If she dies it will be the fault of her husband as I am now convinced." Clark’s medical knowledge and these recorded symptoms indicate that the explorers believed that Sacagawea had a venereal disease (Lewis, 1969).

SACAGAWEA SLOWLY RECOVERS

When the treatments Lewis had administered began to increase her strength, she was compelled by Chabonneau to stagger out of the camp to collect wild apples to cook, which was the duty of an obedient "Squaw." Her condition had worsened until Lewis intervened to provide her with additional rest and medication (Lewis, 1969).

It can be speculated that the obvious concern and assistance, which both Lewis and Clark had shown to Sacagawea during her severe illness and recovery, had created a permanent bond of loyalty. She would perform valuable services at critical times which actually saved the Expedition.

SACAGAWEA PROVIDES ADVICE: WHICH INDIAN TRAIL SHOULD THEY TAKE

On July 14, 1805 Clark recorded that Sacagawea had recognized the territory they were in because her Shoshone Tribe had traveled it when she was a child. Clark was faced with deciding which of the many Indian trails ahead of them would lead the Expedition through the correct Pass. Clark writes:

"I observe several leading roads which appear to pass to a gap in the mountain…. The indian woman [Sacagawea was the only Indian Woman on the Expedition] who has been of great service to me as a pilot through this country reccommends a gap in the mountain more south which I shall cross" (Lewis, 1969).  It was named the Bozeman Pass, and was later chosen as the best route for the Northern Pacific Railway!

The leaders of the Expedition had clearly begun to realize the importance Sacagawea held for the success of the President's order to find the "Northwest Passage." They also needed her to communicate with her Shoshone Tribe in order to obtain the horses that were essential to carry them and all their supplies through the mountains to reach the Pacific Coast. They had lost faith in Charbonneau's judgment, and slowly became aware of the abuse he leveled at Sacagawea (Lewis, 1969).

SACAGAWEA NEARLY DROWNS

On July 29, 1805 Lewis reported that Sacagawea, her infant, Captain Clark and Charbonneau all nearly drowned in a flash flood. A sudden downpour caused a torrent of water, mud, boulders and debris to violently descend upon them, as they huddled in a previously dry ravine (Lewis, 1969).

Charbonneau again demonstrated his incompetence to act intelligently during an emergency. Lewis wrote on June 29,1805, that Charbonneau was so frozen with fear that he dropped his "gun, shot pouch, horn, tomahawk... and Clark's compass... a serious loss..." (Lewis, 1969)

To emphasize the seriousness of the near drowning, Lewis continued to write of the concern he felt for Sacagawea and her infant, "The brier[infants cradle and mosquito netting] in which the woman carry's her child and all it's cloaths [clothes] wer swept away as they lay at her feet[,] she having time only to grab her child; the infant was therefore very cold and the woman also had just recovered from a severe indisposition [illness] was also wet and cold..." (Lewis, 1969).

Clark also recorded his concern about the incident on July 29, revealing that in the aftermath, he even gave Sacagawea some rum to help her recover. This was an unheard of gesture by a White or Indian man towards merely a "Squaw" (Lewis, 1969).

Clark wrote: "I derected [directed] the perty to return to the camp at the run as fast as possible to get back to the camp where they could get warm clothing for the mother and child who were ... wet and cold, I was fearful of a relapse I caused her [Sacagawea] and the others of the party to take a little of the spirits [Rum], which my servent had [carried for me] in a canteen, which revived [them] verry much" (Lewis, 1969).

Sacagawea's value to Lewis and Clark had finally been realized! At the same time, they became less tolerant of Charbonneau's mistakes and his mistreatment of Sacagawea.

EXPLORERS BECOME PROTECTIVE WHEN SACAGAWEA STRUCK BY HUSBAND

On August 14, 1805 Lewis angrily reported in his journal that Charbonneau, "struck his Indian Woman for which Capt. C.[lark] gave him a severe reprimand." Although wife abuse was accepted in the tribe of Sacagawea's childhood, she clearly began to thrive as her personal rights within the Expedition grew. The longing to return to her Shoshone Tribe would diminish after the excitement of the reunion with her brother wore off (Lewis, 1969).

EXPEDITION ENCOUNTERS THE SHOSHONE

A log entry for August 17, 1805, described the first meeting of Sacagawea's Shoshone Tribe. Clark recorded that: "I had not proceeded on one mile before I saw at a distance Several Indians on horsback comeing towards me, The Interpreter [Charbonneau] & Squar [Sacagawea] who were before me at Some distance danced for the joyful sight, and She [Sacagawea] made signs to me that they were her nation [Indian sign language of sucking her fingers]…" (Lewis, 1969)

On the same day Lewis recorded that "…the Indian woman [Sacagawea] proved to be a sister of the Chief Cameahwait. The meeting of those people was really affecting [emotional], particularly between Sah-cah-gar-we-ah and an Indian woman, who had been taken prisoner at the same time with her and who, had afterwards escaped from the Minnetares and rejoined her nation" (Lewis, 1969).

THE EXPEDITION'S SUCCESS WOULD DEPEND UPON SHOSHONE INDIANS WHO LIVED IN A STATE OF POVERTY

The Shoshone Tribe of Sacagawea's birth are described in the Expedition's journal. On August 19, 1805, Lewis entered into his log the following description of Sacagawea's people:

"From what has been said of the Shoshones it will be readily perceived that they live in a wretched stait [state] of poverty" (Lewis, 1969).

Lewis continued, "Yet notwithstanding this extreem poverty they are not only cheerful but even gay, fond of gaudy dress and amusements; like most other Indians they are great egotists and frequently boast of heroic acts which they never performed (Lewis, 1969).

Lewis wrote that, "They are fond of games of wrisk [risk]. They are frank, communicative, fair in dealing, generous with the little they possess, extreemly honest, and by no means beggarly. Each individual is his own sovereign master, and acts from the dictates of his own mind…."(Lewis, 1969).

SHOSHONES DISTRUST THE EXPLORERS MOTIVES

The explorers believed that because Sacagawea's brother was the Chief of the Shoshones, the Expedition was more likely to get the horses they needed to travel to their final destination, the Pacific Ocean. However, they soon discovered that the Shoshone knew that to help a few White men would only bring more people into their lands. Deception would become the initial Shoshone strategy (Lewis, 1969).

Shoshone Chiefs 1890 (Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Western History Archive)

SHOSHONE CHIEFS

By August 24, 1805 the Shoshone's had promised to assist Lewis's group in transporting their supplies and equipment up a mountain where they would meet with other members from the Shoshone Village. The Shoshone were to be waiting with the desperately needed horses, enabling the Expedition to cross land to the Pacific Coast. The explorers soon learned through Sacagawea's alertness and loyalty to the Expedition, that the Shoshone did not intend to help the White man claim their territory (Lewis, 1969).

The Shoshone knew that without the horses the Expedition could not proceed deeper into Shoshone territory. Lewis recorded his personal accusations against them on August 25, 1805. He said that the Shoshone Indians knew that they "...would never have seen anymore white men in their country." So they lied to Lewis (Lewis, 1969).

Sacagawea discovered the Shoshone deceit on the morning of August 25, 1805. She had heard her people discussing their plans for the next day which differed from what they had told Lewis. Some braves had quietly left the camp (Lewis, 1969).

Shoshone Men 1890 (Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Western History Archive)

Sacagawea told Charbonneau that instead of meeting Lewis's group on a mountain to provide the needed horses, the Shoshone intended to leave the area and abandon the explorers (Lewis, 1969).

That evening Charbonneau casually mentioned to Lewis that he was to meet the Indians in an opposite direction, greatly agitating Lewis by this revelation. Lewis recorded in his log that he angrily questioned Charbonneau and discovered that Sacagawea had urgently conveyed this information to Charbonneau many hours earlier and that Charbonneau had withheld the vital information (Lewis, 1969).

Lewis wrote that "I was out of patience with the folly of Charbonneau who had not sufficient sagacity to see the consequences..."(Lewis, 1969).

WAS CHARBONNEAU JEALOUS OF SACAGAWEA?

The entry Lewis made on the day before (August 24, 1805), indicates that Charbonneau may have had reason to be jealous of the high esteem the Explorers had developed for Sacagawea. Lewis gave Sacagawea one of the few highly valued horses that they had purchased a few days earlier during their first contact with the Shoshone. Even in her own tribe she would have been required to continue walking, while her husband rode horseback. Instead, Sacagawea rode the horse while the irritable Charbonneau walked behind (Lewis, 1969).

Lewis hurriedly met with the three Shoshone Chiefs and convinced them to hold to their promise of selling horses to the Expedition, and in return, Lewis promised to provide the Shoshone with the rifles needed for protection from enemy tribes, and for hunting buffalo (Lewis, 1969).

Sacagawea's relationship to her brother Cameahwait, one of the Shoshone Chiefs, allowed the Shoshone to trust the promise made by Lewis to provide them with rifles, and in return he got the needed horses to reach the ocean (Lewis, 1969).

SACAGAWEA'S WISH IS FULFILLED

At an encampment near the coast, it was decided that only two canoes carrying a lucky few, would be the first to travel down-river to view the ocean's shoreline. On January 6, 1806 Lewis recorded in his log that Sacagawea insisted that she be selected among those chosen to first view the Pacific Ocean (Lewis, 1969). To be chosen would confer upon those few, the great value they held for the success of the Expedition.

Lewis recorded in his journal that Sacagawea complained to him saying that she, "...had traveled a long way to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish [whales] was also to be seen, she thought it very hard..." if she was not selected among the first group (Lewis, 1969). Sacagawea was granted this wish along with an equal voice in future decisions. She declined to stay with her Shoshone Tribe. For Sacagawea the trip home was easy: she believed that she had earned an equal share of the Modern Democratic World.

WHAT HAPPENED TO SACAGAWEA AFTER THE EXPEDITION RETURNED?

Having acquired the taste of freedom and equality, she would find that the white world no longer needed the services of a young Native American. She remained living with her controlling and abusive, polygamous husband, Charbonneau and his several "Squaw" wives, until her death at about age 24, 7 years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Nonetheless, her legend began to grow immediately. In fact, her death in 1812 was not accepted by White or Native American peoples until historical documents were unearthed by historians and publicized in the middle of the 20th century.

An 1811 journal entry made by Henry Brackenridge, a fur dealer at Fort Manual Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, stated that both Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living at the fort. He recorded that Sacagawea "...had become sickly and longed to reviste her native country." The following year, John Luttig, a clerk at Fort Manuel Lisa recorded in his journal on December 20, 1812, that "...the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw [the common term used to denote Shoshone Indians], died of putrid fever." He went on to say that she was "aged about 25 years. She left a fine infant girl" (Drumm, 1920).  Documents held by Clark show that her son Baptiste had already been entrusted by Charbonneau into Clark's care for a boarding school education, at Clark's insistence (Jackson, 1962).

Because of this deception, a modern day burial site was erected on the Shoshone Reservation, in Wyoming, and it is complete with a memorial plaque stating her long life. The truth is that Sacagawea was not buried in Wyoming, nor was she born there, and her Shoshone Tribe did not inhabit Wyoming at the time of Sacagawea's life. During her childhood, the Shoshone were in Montana and Idaho, where their villages dotted the meadowlands near the junction of the Salmon and Lemhi Rivers. Evidence that Sacagawea's Band of Shoshone lived in this area and not in Wyoming, is confirmed by both Lewis and Clark in their daily journals. They recorded the fact that as the Expedition proceeded up the Jefferson River, Sacagawea recognized a large rock formation called "Beaver's Head" and that she announced that her tribe would be found on "a river beyond the mountains and running to the west." This soon proved true. And not only was the Shoshone Tribe of her childhood in the area as she had predicted, but the explorers soon discovered that her brother Cameahwait had become their Chief (Lewis, 1969).

Knowing the "slave-like" treatment commonly given to females in the Shoshone Band of Sacagawea's origin, as described in journal notes by several Expedition members, the false monument appears to serve merely a commercial and sentimental cause. The truth is, that nobody cared enough about her life after the Expedition, either white or Native American, to make significant notice and appreciation of the important details of her life and her death.

Sacagawea's female status and her ethnic identity in the early 1800's, kept her in the background of both white and tribal society. Only after the Expedition's incredible value became popularly, and politically well accepted, did Sacagawea's personal courage, sacrifices and contributions to the opening of the West gain the recognition they deserve. References are listed below.

Many of the above photographs are from the original "gold tone" glass negatives, owned by Butterfield, and produced by Indian photographer Edward S. Curtis during the 19^th century

(©Copyright 1998, 2000)

Many visitors have asked that I place photographs of Shoshone women on this web site, so that they may have a better idea of what Sacagawea looked like (there are no photographs or paintings done directly from her image). The photographs below were taken of Shoshone women on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and are owned by the Denver Public Library Archives. They will give you a good idea of her physical type, but probably not the manner in which she dressed. Sacagawea lived with the Mandan Indians for much of her short life, and she probably dressed similar to them. However, I suspect that she may have also worn pieces of White Women's clothing, following the positive interactions she had experienced with the White leaders of the Expedition. It was common for Indians who intermingled with Whites as Sacagawea did, to where articles of their clothing: such as hats, coats, dresses, ect., along with the traditional clothing of the tribe.

A Shoshone Woman In 1884 (Photo Owned By The Denver Public Library Archives)

Shoshone Women and Children Photographed In 1870 (Photo Owned By The Denver Public Library Archives)