Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-09-29
Sacaiawea, Guided for Lewis and Clark, Stands
High Among List of Heroimes of All History
BY ERIC THANE

"This evening the wife of Char
boneau, Snake squaw, died of a
putrid fever. She was a good and
the best woman in the fort, aged
about rs years. She left a fine in
FAINT girl" Thus, on Dec. 20, 1872,
John c. Luttig, clerk for Lisa's
Fur Co. at Fort Manuel on the
Missouri river near the present
boundary of the two Dakotas, re-
corded the passing of an Indian
woman whose quiet, bravery and
patient endurance are honored by
more memorials than have been ac-
corded any other woman: Sacajawea
ferson's expedition under Msriwether
Lewis and William Clark to blaze, dur
ing 1904 to 1906, a trail from the
Mississippi to the Pacific through a
region blank on the Biographies of the
time and popularity supposed to be in
habited by maStadonS and other fear
some creatures.
guided, was this Sacajawea. She was
simply slender. small Indian girl with
a remarkably keen memory for
mountains, rivers and plains, and a
steadfastness of purpose which en-
abled her to go onward when strong
men faltered. A river, peak and noun
tain pass in Montana bear her name
today; she is honored by bronze
statue in Portland, Ore: a statue in
Bismarck, N. D.; bronze tablet at
Three Forks, Mont: a monument at
Armstead, Mont, and a public foun-
there stands a cement shaft above
the grave supposed to be hers.
In life, she saved the explorers from
destruction by the Indians, piloted
them from midcontinent to the sea
with baby on her back, gave up her
beads to buy them furs against the
cold rescued their instruments, records
they had fallen, and bore without COM
plant the toll of trail so difficult
that men, toughened by years in the
wilderness, hesitated. For this two
years work, she and her French hus-
band, Toussaint Charbonneau, received
$500.
Long afterwards Captain Clark sent
a message to Charbonneau, saying:
Your woman who accompanied you
on that long, dangerous and fatiguing
route to the Pacific ocean and back
deserved a greater reward for her at
tention and services on the route than
we had in our power to give her -
CharbOnneau Jealous of Her
Toussaint Charbonneau, her hus-
band, least Of all appreciated her in
telligence, resourcefulness and courage
as, encountered by her newborn baby
she retraced the path through the
mountains which she had traversed as
a captive five years before. He was
jealous of her instructive sense of di-
rection. He had been hired as guide
and wanted the glory. Sometimes his
lack of liberation took violent FORM
as is recorded in the Lewis and Clark
journals under the date of Aug. Ia,
1905, when Captain Clark noted: Il
checked our interpreter for striking
his woman at their dinner"
Sacajawea accepted her lot with
placidity and humility. She was, she
considered, privileged above all women
Of her race in the fact that she had
white man for a husband. She was
born about 1887 in the present state
of Idaho of the royal family of the
Shoshone. Her brother was Cameah-
wait, the chief. AS a child she was
separated from her people when they
were attacked by their ancient foes,
the MinnetareeS. She was playing that
day the enemies of the Shoshone
Swooped down on the village; one of
them snatched her up on his horse,
and with nine other boy and girl
prisoners she was carried from her
home on the Snake river eastward over
the Rocky mountains into the Dakota
country.
Save for her friend, Otter Woman,
Sacaj awea was the only one who con-