The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-02-14
Major WEIGH of Mandan Be-
lieves Bulls Eye Told the
Real Story of How "Bird
Woman of the Great Ex'
peditiOn was Slain
Mandan, N. D., Feb. 14.-Sakakawea

Mandan. N. D., Feb. 14.-Sakakawea
is dead.
The ''bird woman, who guided the
Lewis e. Clark expedition back in
1904 from a point near here to the
western rivers, is without qucs-
ton, dead, but no one knows where
a nation may raise statue over her
grave to honor her.
Doane Robinson, state historian of
South Dakota, declares she is buried
near Fort Manuel, long since obli-
terated trading post on the North
and South Dakota line and the Miss
ouri river. 80 miles south of here.
DR.. Grace Hebard. state historian Of
Wyoming, claims Sacajawe is buried
at the Fort Hall agency in Wyoming.
Major A. B. Welch. too. adopted
son of Chief John Grass of the Sioux
and who has been friend of the In
dians in this part Of the northwest
since 1882. when he came here as
youth in his teens, says the "bird
woman" has gone to her happy hunt
ing ground, and today for the first
time made public a story CLEANED
from her grandson. that Sakakawea
was killed during an attack upon
wagon train and is buried near
Glasgow, Montana.
The whole dispute has come up as
the result of introduction of bill
in congress to appropriate $4,000 for
erection of statue of the historic
Indian woman at the Fort Hall
agency in Wyoming.
DR.. Charles Eastman of the bureau
of Indian affairs, himself part Sioux,
recently came into this country and
has been endeavoring to bring order
out of the conflicting stories.
"Sakakawea" has been famed in
song and story. There is no ques-
ton but that it was due to her al
most uncanny faculty of orientation,
her knowledge of Indian customs and
their probable action under certain
circumstances; her acquired informa-
tion of the country through which
the party passed, and her sunny,
cheerful disposition that actually
saved the lives of the famous Lewis
& Clark expedition the winter they
spent north of Mandan in the Man
dan and Gros Ventres villages. And
these same qualities made it possible
for her to guide the men whose ex-
plorations were to result in the Unit
ed States acquiring the vast domains
from the Mississippi river to the
western sea.
Monuments Erected
Suitable monuments have been
erected to Sakakawea at Bismarck, N.
Oak. and at Sunnyside. Oregon and
congress now is considering giving
TO this buckskin clad woman of 100
years ago, her rightful "place in the
sum-"
DR.. Charles Eastman has the task
of determining just where Sakakawea
is buried. 1t will not be an easy one.
Historian Robinson of South Dakota
places his claim to the Lewis &
Clark expedition guide being buried
at Fort Manuel, on the entry made by
John C. Luttig, clerk in the employ
of the Missouri Fur Company in his
diary under date of Sunday, the
10th, December 1872" in which he
says "clear and moderate. This
evening the wife of Charbonneau, a
Shoshoni squaw died of fever. She
was good wife, and the best woman
in the fort. Aged about rs years.
She LIFT fine infant girl"
Major Welch of Mandan calls at
tention to the fact that Luttig does
not mention the name of the squaw,
and the only connection Robinson
finds to prove this woman to have
been Sakakawea is notation in the
diary of H. H. Bresenridge, who came
into the upper Missouri river coun-
try in 1911. That Luttig could not
be relied upon, Major Welch says, is
evidenced by the historic fact that he
did actually take four children Of
Sakakawea to ST. Louis in 1918 MAX
ing application for papers Of guard
Continued Oh page thfssl