The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-07-09
In. D. INDIAN PRINCESS WHO
HELPED In WINNING WEST
Beated Honors to Sakakwea the Shoshone Girl Who Ploed
the Lewis and Clark Expedition Across the
Mountains to the Coast

/ Blackfeet. Sakakawea threw her
4 blanket over her brother and with her
head on his shoulder "wept profusely,"
as Lewis and Clark journal relates.
She also recognized the girl friend
with whom she had been carried away,
and embraced her with the tenderest
affection" Her brother told her that
all her family were dead excepting
himself and another brother and the
little son of an elder sister, whom she
at once adopted.
Though welcomed cordially by her
brother and people, Sakakawea showed
no disposition to remain with her tribe
or kinsmen, and little later gave a
marked evidence of her loyalty to her
husband and his employers. She dis
covered a plot on the part of the In
dians to stampede and drive away a
number of the horses that Lewis and
Clark had bought from them. She at
once informed the leaders, though to do
so she had to reveal the treachery of
her brother and her tribe, only stipu
lating that her brother be not put to
death. 80
Sakakawea spoke the French and
broken English of her husband, and the
tongues of such Indians as she had
known in her youth. Naturally there
came times when her services as inter
prefer were of great value, especially
with the Shoshones or kindred tribes
of the northwest. On one such occa-
sion there had come up difference be-
tween two Chopunn chiefs over the
ownership Of q number of horses which
f.k,a IL.
akawea took the statements of the Cho-
punnish chiefs and translated It into
Shoshone and then rendered it into the
Hidatsi patois, with which Charboneau
was most familiar, and he In, turn
translated it into French, which a
member Of the expedition put into Eng
lish for the leaders. Their decision,
going back to the Chopunn warriors
| by the same circuitous route, was en-
tirely satisfactory.
There were many other ways in which
| the Indian girl won grateful recogni-
! tion from the members of the expedi-
| ton, not the least Of which was her
| inherent and secret knowledge of the
curative properties of various herbs
and plants, and a natural ability for
nursing, which, as there was neither
! physician nor surgeon in the party, was
often called into requisition.
! Almost daily, in the journal Of the
expedition, there is some given report
| of the services of this woman. Indeed"
says the journal in one instance, "she
has borne with patience truly admir-
able, the fatigue Of so long a route, en-
numbered with an infant who is now
only nineteen months old. She is OBJ
| servant and has a good memory, re-
membering locations not seen since
childhood. In trouble she is full Of re-
| source, plucky and determined With
| her helpless infant she rode with men.
guiding us unerringly through noun
, tain passes and lonely places. Intelli-
gent, cheerful, tfreless, and faithful, she
| inspired us ALL"
The expedition reached the coast in
| December, 1905, and made a winter
| camp, some distance inland 1t was
here that an incident occurred that
broke through the habitual stoicism
and patient Indifference of the Indian
woman and revealed a keen, though
legitimate, curiosity, very much as
would be shown by her white sisters
under similar circumstances. There had
been discussion as to the advisability
of leaving Sakakawea and her babe in
camp while the others went to the
, coast. She had heard of the big water
ever since her childhood and of the
wonders of the deep. 1t had been re-
ported in camp that a whale had been
cast ashore-a fish larger than two
| tepees set end to end, and she wanted
to see them. Captain Clark writes:
THE poor woman stated very earnest
ly that she had travelled a long way
with us to see the great water, yet she
] had not been down to the coast. and
now, that this monstrous fish was also
to be seen, it seemed hard that she
should not be permitted to see either
ocean or whale" 1t is needless to say
that her request was granted. a
In the following March the return
was begun, and in August the expedi-
tion reached Mandan. Here Charbon-
! eau received $500 from Lewis and Clark
! as agreed upon, but there is no record
/ that Sakakawea ever received any COM
| pensation. ..... .
/ For nearly a century that is all the
outside world ever knew of this Indian
! princess. For princess she was-born
of line of chieftains and surely, in
L. H.. =