I’m gonna take some time to talk about Sacajawea (a.k.a. Sacagawea a.k.a. Sakakawea). Why? Because she’s my all time favorite lady and possibly my all time favorite historical figure. She was kick ass and saved Lewis and Clark’s booty all while her 13 year old self had a youngen strapped to her back.

Sacajawea was born around 1788 into the Agaidika tribe of the Lemhi Shoshone. Not much is known about Sacajawea’s life, except what was recorded during the Lewis and Clark expedition and oral accounts from Shoshone Indians.

In 1800, Sacajawea was one of several young girls who were kidnapped by Minnetarees, another native tribe, where she was taken as a captive to a Minnetaree village in North Dakota. A year later, at the age of 13 (when she should have still been leaving naked Barbies around the house, chasing after the ice cream truck and talking to her BFF on the phone for hours a day), she was taken as a bride by Toussaint Charbonneau, a Québécois trapper living within the village. Rumor has it Sacajawea was either purchased or won by Charbonneau.

By the time the Corps of Discovery led by Capt. Lewis stumbled upon the village, Sacajawea was preggers. When the troupe learned Charbonneau, their newly hired trapper, had a wifey who spoke Shoshone, they dragged her along with them across the States.

On February 11, 1805, Sacajawea gave birth to Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, whom the white men nicknamed Pomp.

On May 14, 1805, Sacajawea was recorded as being the only one to rescue equipment and supplies from the party’s capsized boat. Reports have her calmly fishing things out of the Missouri River. For her quick thinking and action, the Sacajawea River was named.

In August 1805, the party met up with a Shoshone tribe, whose chief happened to be Sacajawea’s brother. The Shoshone helped Lewis and Clark by bartering horses and sending them off with a guide over the Rocky Mountians.

When the group made it to the Pacific Ocean, Sacajawea gave up her beaded belt in return for a fur robe the party wished to give to President Jefferson after several attempts to barter other items for the gift.

Sacajawea can also be credited with choosing what would later be known as the best route for the Northern Pacific Railway to cross over the Continental Divide.

Her peaceful demeanor and interpretation skills were possibly the greatest help to the entire expedition. She certainly could be credited with voicing the peaceful intent of the expedition with the Native nations. She also became close friends with Lewis and Clark during the journey, which would lead to Sacajawea’s settlement in St. Louis in 1809, an invitation Clark passed before leaving Sacajawea at Fort Mandan. When Sacajawea and her family moved to St. Louis, Pomp’s education was then entrusted to Clark, and soon he was enrolled in the Saint Louis Academy.

Sometime after 1810, Sacajawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette, who was not believed to have survived past childhood. In 1812, Sacajawea was reported to have died of an unknown illness. However, some oral accounts have her instead leaving her husband in 1812 to rejoin her native people in Wyoming, where she died in 1884. There is a grave marker alleging to be Sacajawea’s in Wyoming where it states she died on April 9, 1884. Even so, all historical accounts list Sacajawea as passing in 1812, which is backed up by a note in William Clark’s original papers written sometime between 1825-1826. In it he lists the names of each expedition member and their last known whereabouts. Next to Sacajawea’s name he writes “Sa car ja we au-Dead”.

The woman who passed in 1884 and now resides beneath the Wyoming marker was a Shoshone chief woman named Porivo. In 1925, Dr. Charles Eastman was hired by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to locate Sacajawea’s remains. Dr. Eastman visited many tribes to try and locate Sacajawea. He happened upon a group of Comanche who spoke of a woman who had helped white men and had in her possession a silver Jefferson peace medal which was carried by members of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Porvio had married into the Comanche tribe after her husband was killed. She lived with the tribe, along with her sons Bazil and Baptiste, before finding her way to the Wind River Indian Reservation where the Lemhi Shoshone tribe resided. With that, Dr. Eastman concluded Porivo was in fact Sacajawea. However, historians believe Porvio was not actually Sacajawea because of the lack of hard evidence to the fact. And things like this is what makes me love history so damn much. The mystery, although frustrating at times, really gets a person thinking. At least, that’s what I believe because it gets me thinking.

The Lewis and Clark Trail. From PBS.org

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838) were not the first to cross North America on foot, but they were the first Americans to do so, and arguably the most famous.

They were assisted by the US Army, Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian explorer and Sacajawea, a Shoshone woman who was taken as a bride at the age of 13 by Charbonneau (side-eye to Charbonneau….actually a side-eye to Lewis and Clark, too.). They were funded by US Congress, at the insistance of President Thomas Jefferson. In 1803, President Jefferson formed the Corps of Discovery with the mission “to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river that may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce”. Meriwether Lewis, US Army captain, was selected by the President to lead the Corps of Discovery. William Clark was picked to be his right hand man by Lewis himself.

They left Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at eleven in the morning, 31 August 1803, according to Lewis’ written accounts. The mouth of the Dubois River became the “official” starting point and on 14 May 1804 at 4 PM, the epic journey began. Two days later, they reach St. Charles, Missouri (which Google Maps tells me is about thirty miles away) where they settle for five days. On May 25th, Charles Floyd, a non-commisioned officer within the Army and part of the Lewis/Clark Troupe, marks passing La Charrette along the Missouri River as “the last settlement of whites on this river”.

During the expedition, fourdifferent Army personnel were tried for varies reasons. The first trial, which took place at the end of June, consisted of Pvt. John Collins who, while on guard duty, thought it a good idea to break into supplies and get drunk. He invited Pvt. Hugh Hall to join in the festivities. For their follies, Collins received 100 lashes, Hall 50. The second trial, taking place on July 11-12th, concerned Pvt. Alexander Hamilton Willard, who was convicted on sleeping on the job, which is punishable by death (and still is to this day in times of war). His punishment was 100 lashes for four straight days. The third trail happened on October 13, when Pvt. John Newman was tried for insubordination and received 75 lashes. In February of 1805, Thomas Howard scaled the walls at the newly constructed Fort Mandan (which will be discussed later). The Natives followed suit. For “setting a pernicious example to the savages”, he was given 75 lashes.

On July 21st, the party reached the beginning of Sioux territory. Twelve days later, the party held the first official council between representatives from the United States and the Oto and Missouri Indians at what was called the Council Bluff. It would later be turned into the first US Army outpost west of the Missouri River. During the ceremony, they handed out peace medals and flags while showing off their men and advanced technology. A little under thirty years later, these two tribes would be pressured into ceding land to the States… On August 30th, they had another council with the Yankton Sioux where, as legend goes, a newborn Sioux was wrapped in an American flag and declared an American. The first unfriendly confrontation with Native Americans wouldn’t come until September 25th, when a band of Lakota, also a Sioux tribe, demanded a toll to travel further up the Platte River.

The first and only casualty of the trip was the aforementioned Pvt. Floyd. He would die of a burst appendix on August 20th.

In November, the troupe would first meet Charbonneau and his child-bride, Sacajawea. It was during this time the group constructed Fort Mandan, where they would live during the harsh winter months. They moved on in April, reaching Yellowstone later on in the month where they see their first Big Horned Sheep. They would also reach modern day Montana in April.

On June 13th, Lewis scouts ahead and sees the Great Falls of the Missouri River, which confirms they are on the right trail. A day later he’s chased by a grizzly bear into the river. I only mention that because it’s kinda funny. Clark would be the first white man to see the south side of the falls. By the time August ends, they’ve passed the Continental Divide which is daunting to cross in a vehicle (but oh so cool), much less in uncleared territory and on foot/horseback, which lead them out of land purchased by the States and the Oregon Country, which basically encompassed the present day Pacific Northwest.

Not an appropriate image, but it popped into my head while typing Oregon. Also, this is the greatest game in the history of games. I would play it even today.

In November, the group votes where they will hole up for the winter. What’s so cool about that is they allow a slave, Sacajawea and another woman to vote. They settle on the mouth of the Columbia River, where they chill (heh) until April of 1806. When they encounter snow atop the Bitterroot Mountains, the group splits (this won’t work so well for the Donner Party in the future…don’t worry they WILL be discussed because how could I not?), with one group traveling up the Bitterroot River and the other travelling the Blackfoot River. Lewis stumbles upon Blackfeet Indians who, after a rather peaceful day of food and wine with the white men, try to raid camp and steal their rifles at night. Two Natives were killed. Clark has problem of his own when half of his horses were stolen in the night, presumably by Crow Indians, who were marked as notorious horse thieves. However not a single Crow Indian was spotted, which makes them ninjas in my book.

November also marks the first time the Pacific Ocean is spotted. On December 3rd, 1805, penned the iconic “Ocean in view! O! The Joy!” into his notebook. The Pacific Ocean had been reached.

On July 25th, Clark reaches Pompeys Pillar, a rock formation located in Montana, and carved his name there. I can’t believe it took until 2001 to have this spot declared a national monument, but what do I know. It’s located in south central Montana and besides Clark’s signature, there’s tons of Native American pictographs. I wish I would have visited this on my drive westward…maybe on  my drive eastward.

On August 12th, the two groups meet back up in North Dakota. Two days later they drop off Sacajawea at Fort Mandan and continue back on to St. Louis, which they reach on September 23rd. And so ends their 7,689 mile (12,374 km) journey.

Well, let us begin, shall we?

At the turn of the 19th century, America looked like this:

And held roughly 5.3 million settlers, with twice as many indigenous folk who had been push westward as the population exploded. The country itself was only a tender 25 years old. Its President was John Adams and the capital had recently made a move from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. And along with the growing population came the growing urge to seek out new lands west of the Mississippi River.

I think we’ll first start out with the first overland expedition over US soil, the Lewis and Clark expedition. So, expect that in a few days!