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Sacagawea was born in what is now Idaho, in 1789 or 1790. She was a Shoshone (Sho SHO nee) Indian. Her tribe lived along the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains. They often camped near the Snake River, so they were also called Snake Indians.

As a child, she had many different names. This was common for young Indians. In time, she became known as Sacagawea. Sakaga means "bird," and wea means "woman," so her name means "Bird Woman." She may have been called Bird Woman because she was small and moved quickly like a bird.

Sacagawea had two brothers and a sister. Her family lived in a tent called a tipi. The Shoshone were peaceful wanderers.

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The Shoshone did not have schools. Sacagawea learned by working beside the women of her tribe. She collected wood for fires. She helped make moccasins, clothing, and tipis. She picked berries and dug roots for her family to eat. She learned to make medicines from plants.

The village elders taught Sacagawea the beliefs of her people. She heard how the Creator made the world and Coyote made human beings.

Like all Shoshone girls, Sacagawea was promised to an older man. She would become his wife when she turned 13 or 14. But in 1800, her life changed forever. Sacagawea was 10 when the Minnetaree Indians, a neighboring tribe attacked. The enemy tribe had guns while Sacagawea's tribe only had bows and arrows. The  Minnetaree captured all the women and children in Sacagawea's tribe. Sacagawea was taken 600 miles to another village where she was given to a man three times as old as her to be married.

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Two centuries ago, the United States was much smaller than it is today. It only included the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. The country got much bigger in 1803. That year, France sold our young nation 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi. This was called the Louisiana Purchase. It doubled the country's size. The region was later divided into fifteen states.

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The historical audacity of the Louisiana Purchase - Judy Walton

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Much of the new land was unexplored. What did it look like?  Who lived there? What animals and plants might be found?

President Thomas Jefferson planned an expedition to head northwest to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers would travel mainly by river. They would make maps of the land. They would trade with Indians along the way. Two army men were appointed as the lead of the expedition. One was 29-year-old Meriwether Lewis and the other was 33-year-old William Clark.

Clark's first task was to find men for the expedition. He and Lewis needed men who could hunt and build boats and forts. They needed men who could handle horses. President Jefferson wanted to a record  of the trip so men who could keep journals were also needed. Most of what we know about Sacagawea has come from these journals.

Captain Clark gathered 43 men. Several men spoke French. One man knew Indian sign language. Another played the violin and was able to entertain the other men for hours. Clark's slave York also made the trip. One member of the group had four feet: Captain Lewis brought along Seaman, his 140 pound Newfoundland dog. However, Lewis and Clark were looking for one more person for their expedition. At one stage of their journey, they would need horses to help them cross Bitterroot Mountains. They hoped to get them from the Shoshone Indians, who were famous for their horse breeding. The explorers would need someone who could speak to the Shoshone. After meeting the pregnant Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark paid $500 to her husband to have the whole family join them on the expedition.

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Lewis and Clark - Historic Missourians - The State Historical Society of Missouri

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After Lucy Lewis married John Marks, the family moved to Georgia. Meriwether soon returned to Virginia where he received a basic education. He spent his spare time outdoors and enjoyed studying natural history. Like Clark, he joined the militia and later became an officer in the regular military.

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It soon became very clear that letting Sacagawea come along had been a very wise decision. On just her third day with them, Sacagawea found some tasty wild artichokes to eat. Bird woman found many kinds of plant foods during the expedition.

Five weeks later, Sacagawea prevented disaster. May 14, 1805, was very foggy. Lewis and Clark were walking along the Missouri River. Bird Woman, with her baby on her back, was in one of the small boats. Her husband was steering. Several other men were also in the boat. They were 300 feet from shore.

Suddenly, a gust of wind upset the boat. It quickly filled with water. Sacagawea's husband cried out that he couldn't swim. As the other men desperately bailed out the boat, Sacagawea saw their supplies floating away.

Clark later wrote in his journal:
"A squall of wind struck our sail broadside and the piroque nearly over...The articles which floated out were nearly all caught by Sacagawea...In this piroque were our papers, instruments, books, medicine and, in short, almost every article necessary to insure the success of the enterprise."

Had she not save the supplies, the expedition might have had to turn back. The captains wanted to honor Sacagawea. So they named a creek in central Montana for her. "This stream we called...bird woman's River, after our interpreter the Snake Woman," wrote Lewis. On maps it is called the Sacagawea River.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Rain and show made traveling difficult. But there were plenty of deer and buffalo to hunt. The explorers stored the meat in their canoes. The men pulling the loaded canoes had to wade in icy water up to their armpits. The ground was also very mucky. Those on the shore had to take off their moccasins and walk barefoot.

Hardly a day passed without problems. Captain Clark and Bird Woman were almost bitten by rattlesnakes. One man after another came down with the flu, fevers, and diarrhea. Sacagawea began running a fever around June 1. As she grew worse, the captains feared that she would die. They were also afraid that the expedition would fail without her. How would they trade for horses without their Shoshone translator? Without horses, how would they get across the Bitterrroot Mountains? And how would they take care of Pomp (Sacagawea's baby) if his mother died?

Clark wrote in his journal on June 16, 1805:
"The Indian woman verry bad, and... out of her senses."

The captains took turns caring for Sacagawea. They gave her tea made of tree bark. They brought her iron-rich water from springs. Not until June 24 did she feel better.

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By late July, the land began to look familiar to Sacagawea. Her excitement grew. After five years, she was coming back to her homeland! On July 22, they reached a creek. Sacagawea remembered that her people had camped in this very place. Soon after, she showed the men the exact spot where she had been kidnapped.

Days passed. There was still no sign of her people. The two captains grew desperate. They had counted on getting horses and guides from the Shoshone. If not, how would they cross the mountains? To make things worse, the men were exhausted. Their food was running low. Sacagawea, however, remained hopeful. When they reached a rock known as the 🤬's Head, she was sure that the Shoshone must be nearby.

On August 1, the explorers split into two groups to look for Sacagawea's tribe. Lewis led a small group by land. Bird Woman and her family stayed with Clark and the rest of the men. They continued on by canoe.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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On the morning of August 13, 1805, Lewis and his three men spotted two Shoshone women and a girl. The Indians bowed their heads. They expected to be killed. But Lewis spoke to them kindly. He gave them beads and mirrors. As a sign of peace, he also painted the Indians' cheeks red. The three Shoshone agreed to take Captain Lewis and his men to their village.

They were on their way when 60 Shoshone warriors appeared on horses. They thundered toward Lewis and his men. Their chief got off his horse and greeted Lewis with a hug. He then took the four strangers to his village. There, the explorers and Indians smoked the peace pipe together.  Lewis asked the chief to come meet the rest of the explorers. A Shoshone woman was with them, Lewis said. The chief agreed to go. But his warriors feared that Lewis was leading them into a trap.

Meanwhile, Clark approached with the main group. Sacagawea was walking along a riverbank. Suddenly, she saw several Indians on horses in the distance. Bird Woman stared at them. Then she began dancing with joy and sucking on her fingers. This was an Indian sign meaning "These are my people!"

The Shoshone warriors were happy to see Sacagawea, too. Now they knew that the white men meant no harm. Together, the Indians and the explorers headed toward the Shoshone village. When they were nearly there, a young woman pushed her way through the crowd. She hugged Sacagawea. They began talking excitedly. Bird Woman had found her dearest friend. Sacagawea had not seen her for five years.

At the village, the captains met with the chief. Sacagawea had to translate. She had barely sat down when she looked at the chief. Weeping with joy, she rushed to him and threw her blanket over him as a token of love. The Shoshone chief was her brother!

Sacagawea explained that the captain needed horses. Asking even simple questions was very hard. That was because they went from English to French to Minnetaree to Shoshone. The chief's answers went from Shoshone to Minnetaree to French and back to English. A deal was made. The explorers would give the Indians battle-axes, knives, and clothing. In exchange, the chief would supply horses and guides. Now the expedition had a way to cross the Bitterroot Mountains!

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Who Was Sacagawea?

erika.barlow on August 26 2018

Lewis and Clark's journey to the American Northwest would have been possible without the help of Sacagawea, a Native American teenager with a new baby. This video will show students how Sacagawea led the Corps of Discovery through uncharted territory and helped begin America's age of westward expansion! Check out all the educational videos from Flocabulary, often called the "Schoolhouse Rock" of the 21st Century, at http://flocabulary.com For lesson plans and activities that go along with this video, visit https://www.flocabulary.com/unit/sacagawea/ Connect With Us! Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/flocabulary Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/flocabulary Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/flocabulary Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/flocabulary Beat: TrackPros

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Lewis and Clark's journey to the American Northwest would have been possible without the help of Sacagawea, a Native American teenager with a new baby. This video will show students how Sacagawea led the Corps of Discovery through uncharted territory and helped begin America's age of westward expansion!

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And what became of the young Shoshone woman? Sacagawea made one of the most remarkable journeys in American history. She had traveled 4,500 miles carrying her baby on her back. Without her, the expedition might have failed. Yet she wasn't even paid one penny.

For a while, Sacagawea, her husband Charbonneau, and her son stayed at the Indian village. There Charbonneau received a letter from Clark asking them to come to St. Louis to stay because he missed them. Sacagawea, her husband, and Pomp (her son) eventually did go to St. Louis. Charbonneau bought a small farm from Clark but he soon grew restless. The next spring, he took Sacagawea on a fur-trading trip up the Missouri River. Six-year-old Pomp was left in St. Louis.

By late 1812, Bird Woman and Charbonneau were at a trading post in what is now South Dakota. Sacagawea died there on December 20, 1812. She had  just given birth to a daughter named Lisette.

Clark took the baby girl, Lisette too. He raised both of Sacagawea's children. Pomp became a well-known Western guide and trader. Later he was the mayor of a Spanish town in California. What became of Lisette is not known.

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For nearly a century after the Lewis and Clark expedition, Sacagawea was largely forgotten. During the 1800s, Indians and whites fought many wars. White people did not want to honor any Native American.

By 1900, the fighting had ended. The country was getting ready to celebrate the expedition's 100th anniversary. That was when Americans "discovered" Bird Woman. Suddenly, she became very well-known. Sacagawea has had more landmarks named for her and memorials built in her honor than any other American woman.

Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming have mountains named for Sacagawea. Washington and North Dakota have lakes named for her.

She also became a favorite subject of writers and artists. Nobody knows what she looked like, so artists have had to use their imaginations. A statue of her stands at the State Capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota. A statue of Sacagawea and Pomp was placed in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

As the 21st century approached, the U.S. Mint planned to issue a new dollar coin. Sacagawea would appear on its "heads" side. Twenty-three artists sent in designs for the golden dollar. The Mint showed the final choices on its Web site. More than 120,000 Americans voted for their favorites by E-mail. Many of them were school children.

The golden Sacagawea dollars came out in 2000. It shows a young Indian woman carrying her baby. This coin begins a period of Lewis and Clark celebrations. The years 2004-2006 marks the expedition's 200th anniversary.

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You've read lots of information about Sacagawea and why she is an important person in American history. Using all that information as well as your imagination, you will create a Facebook page as if you are Sacagawea. If Sacagawea were alive now, what would she be posting about? What would she take pictures of while on the expedition? Who would've been sending her Friend Requests?

Click the link below to create your Facebook page on Google Slides. *Make sure to click Make a Copy*

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ib2olnLq7-EjZPxbgCsHUaDFtV8UPvIlW7TpKtzMOu4/copy

When you are finished, you will have to click the blue Share button and type in my email address EXACTLY as it is below:

erika.barlow@frco.k12.va.us