Sacagawea Facts

Fact 1. Sacagawea, often pronounced sack-uh-guh-wee-a although there's plenty of debate about that, is currently considered to be the most common spelling of her name and the one that is most widely used. There are many variants of her name but this is the spelling used most by modern historians and this spelling is also on the year 2000 Dollar coin which features her.

Fact 2. She is also known as Sakakawea, an anglicized form, which is said to be derived from tsakaka wia from the Hidatsa (Minnetarees) language which means 'bird woman' - sakaka meaning 'bird' and wea meaning 'woman.' Sacagawea's husband told other people that her name had this meaning which seems to corroborate it.

Fact 3. The Lemhi Shoshone, the Northern Shoshone tribe that Sacagawea was born into, refer to her as Sacajawea which comes from the Shoshone word for her name, Saca tzah we yaa. This variant of her name means 'boat puller' or 'boat launcher.'

Image Credit: Shared with a CC License, Neathway on Flickr

Fact 4. Not a great deal is known or recorded on Sacagawea's early years. She was born around 1788 as the daughter of a Lemhi Shoshone chief and was of the Akaitikka, Agaideka or 'Eaters of Salmon' tribe. They were traditionally based near the Idaho upper Salmon River, hence the 'Eaters of Salmon' name.

Fact 5. Sacagawea was kidnapped along with several other girls in 1800. At that point she would have been about 12 years old. The kidnappers were an enemy tribe called the Hidatsa Indians (Minnetarees) who took the girls to what is the present day North Dakota.

Fact 6. At the tender age of 13, Sacagawea was either bought or won in gambling by a man called Toussaint Charbonneau. He took Sacagawea and another woman to be his 'wives' though it is not known by what custom they were bound.

Fact 7. Her husband, Charbonneau, was a French-Canadian Trapper, originally from Quebec. He worked as a fur trapper and also an interpreter of the Hidatsa tribes when he settled among them. He is not written about in a particularly favorable light.

Image Credit: Shared with a CC License, clarabesque on Flickr

Fact 8. Sacagawea and Charbonneau were invited to join an expedition by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The trip which started on the 14th May 1804, is often referred to as the 'Corps of Discovery' and was a 3,700 mile journey from the Mississippi River to explore newly acquired western lands and find a route to the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea was to be the only woman on the trip and was there as a Shoshone interpreter.

Fact 9. During the Lewis Clark expedition, Sacagawea and Charbonneau worked as translators or language interpreters. Sacagawea didn't speak English so she conversed with the Shoshone and then translated to Hidatsa to her husband. Charbonneau, who also didn't speak English, translated this into French to another expedition member, Francois Labiche, who then translated this into English for the expedition leaders.

Fact 10. Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February 11, 1805. The boy was given the nickname 'Little Pomp' or 'Pompey' from the expedition leader, Clark and other members.

Fact 11. The Sacagawea River in Montana was named in her honour on the 20th May 1805 after she rescued journals and records by Lewis and Clark after a canoe boat almost capsized in a storm.

Fact 12. During the Lewis and Clark expedition, Sacagawea had an emotional reunion with her brother, Cameahwait, who was now a chief in a band of the Shoshone Indians. Their meeting, in August 1805, was one of happy chance. The expedition party needed to trade with the Shoshone for horses so they could cross the Rocky Mountains.

Fact 13. The Lewis and Clark expedition had a difficult time traveling over the Rocky Mountains, so bad that they might have had to survive by eating beef (fat) tallow candles. Sacagawea helped the group regain strength when they got to the other side of the mountains by cooking camas roots.

Fact 14. Sacagawea's blue beaded belt was used to barter for a beautiful fur robe made of sea otter skins that Lewis and Clark wanted for a gift for the then president Thomas Jefferson.

Fact 15. Sacagawea was useful to the expedition which ended in September 1806 in a variety of roles. She was an interpreter but also as an occasional guide, a symbol of peace to Indian tribes who they encountered along the way which discouraged their party from being attacked, a food gatherer and cook, a cleaner and someone who could repair clothes.

Image Credit: Shared with a CC License by jennlynndesign on Flickr

Fact 16. Sacagawea was never actually paid for her part in the expedition because it was her husband who was paid with money and land for his and Sacagawea's help and assistance on the trip.

Fact 17. After the expedition, Charbonneau and Sacagawea spent 3 years among the Hidatsa before settling down in 1809 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Fact 18. A daughter, Lizette or Lisette, was born sometime after 1810 to Sacagawea. Not much is known about Lizette and it is thought that she may have died in childhood.

Fact 19. Sacagawea is reported to have become sick in 1811 and died in 1812 from some kind of fever or sickness.

Fact 20. Jean Baptiste, along with his younger sister, Lizette, was adopted by the expedition leader, Clark, after Sacagawea died. Clark was very fond of Jean Baptiste and had stated his desire to raise him as his own son at the end of the expedition. In fact, Jean Baptiste had been entrusted into Clark's care before the death of Sacagawea and given a boarding school education.

Fact 21. Jean Baptiste, held a kind of celebrity status as the only child who went on the Lewis Clark expedition. He spent 6 years living with German royalty after he was befriended by a prince.

Fact 22. During the expedition, Sacagawea had been given certain rights such as the permission to vote for where a fort would be built that the expedition party could stay in during the winter months. So she became a bit of a role model for suffragists, such as The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century, who sought voting rights for women. She was 'adopted' as a symbol of independence.

Fact 23. Many tributes to Sacagawea and her contribution to the Corps of Discovery have been created such as place names, statues, lakes and buildings. She was even featured on a 2000 issue of a Dollar coin.

Fact 24. The picture on the 2000 Dollar coin is not actually Sacagawea, no-one knows what she looked like and no picture exists. The face on the coin was that of a modern Shoshone-Bannock woman called Randy'L He-dow Teton.

Fact 25. Sacagawea was featured in the 2006 comedy movie, Night at the Museum, where the night guard, played by Ben Stiller, had real trouble pronouncing her name. She has been in many books, documentaries, movies and even songs. Her spirit lives on.

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