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Sacajawea
(c. 1790 - Dec. 20, 1812)
Sacajawea was born to the Agaidika tribe of the Shosone in what is now the state of Idaho. When she was a young girl, she was kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa Indians and brought to their village in present-day North Dakota. Some time later, she was taken as a wife by Toussaint Charbonneau, a French trapper living in the Hidatsa village.
Sacajawea was pregnant with her first child when the Corps of Discovery arrived near the Hidatsa villages to spend the winter of 1804-1805. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter when they discovered that his wife spoke the Shoshone language, as they knew they would need the help of the Shoshone tribes at the headwaters of the Missouri. Lewis himself assisted with the birth of Sacajawea's baby, who was named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.
The corps resumed the westward trek on April 7, 1805. Along the route, they encountered a sudden storm squall that could have put the party's mission in jeopardy. Sacajawea's quick thinking saved the valuable books and instruments that floated out of her boat, which nearly capsized. The corps commanders, praising her action, would name the Sacajawea River in her honor.
Contrary to popular opinion, Sacajawea did not serve as a guide for the party. She did, however, lead the group to the mountains where her people lived and where Lewis and Clark hoped to buy horses. By August 1805, the corps had located the Shoshone tribe and Sacajawea was brought in to translate. As it turned out, the tribe's chief was her brother Cameahwait, who agreed to sell the party the needed horses and also sketched a map of the country to the west, as well as provided a guide to take them safely through the mountains. On the return trip from the Pacific Ocean, as they approached the Rocky Mountains in July of 1806, Sacajawea advised Clark to cross into the Yellowstone River basin, later chosen as the optimal route for the Northern Pacific Railway to cross the continental divide.
Charbonneau and Sacajawea later accepted Clark's invitation to settle in St. Louis, Mo., in 1809. They entrusted their son's education to Clark, who enrolled him in the Saint Louis Academy boarding school.
Sacajawea gave birth to a daughter sometime after 1810. However, in March 1811, Charbonneau sold his land back to Clark and returned to the Dakotas with Sacajawea. Popular belief is that Sacajawea died on Dec. 20, 1812. Shoshone oral tradition says that she wandered the West for a few years and eventually returned to her tribe on the Wind River Reservation, where she died on April 9, 1884, and is buried next to her son, Jean Baptiste. Today, there is a monument to Sacajawea over the grave.