Sacagawea

At the age of thirteen, Sacagawea was sold to a Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian adventurer. Charbonneau got married to the young girl, and lived with her, and another Shoshone lady in a Hidatsa village.

According to records maintained by explorer Lewis, the tribal woman's son, Jean-Baptiste, nicknamed Pompy, was born on February 11, 1809. Jean was carried by his mother on her back for the whole expedition. The following year, Sacagawea gave birth to a baby girl, at St. Louis, and called her Lizette.

This courageous Shoshone woman succumbed to what is recorded as putrid fever, in the year 1812. Though there are speculations that she left her husband for another man, and died many years later, no evidence of this has been found.

Sacagawea was born in Lemhi County, Idaho, United States during the late 1780s, into the 'Agaidika' tribe of the 'North Shoshone' Native American race.

At the age of twelve, she was captured along with other young girls, by people of the rival 'Hidatsa' tribe, during a battle between the two ethnic groups.

In 1804, the 'Corps of Discovery', a unit belonging to the United States Army, led by explorers William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, entered the Hidatsa village where Sacagawea lived.

The adventurers zeroed in on the Shoshone woman, and her husband, Charbonneau, to be their interpreters and guides.

Soon, Sacagawea and Charbonneau began living at 'Fort Mandan' that the two explorers, Lewis and Clark, had built. In April, 1805, the expedition group, including the tribal pair, began their journey towards the Missouri river, in a small boat known as 'pirogue'.

On a particular occasion, one of the boats that they were travelling in fell into the river, and it was the young woman, who helped retrieve most of the things that had fallen out, including the diaries being maintained by Clark and Lewis.

In August, 1805, they noticed a Shoshone group, with whom they wished to barter horses and climb the Rocky Mountains. It was Sacagawea who interacted with the members of the tribe, and realized that the chief of the group was her long-lost brother, Cameahwait.

It was the ‘Lewis and Clark expedition’ during 1804-06, in which Sacagawea played a major role. Not only did she act as a guide and interpreter for the group, but was also a symbol of peace, being the only woman in the group of discoverers.