Sea Stories My Life in Special Operations Book Review Washington Post
If you learned of Sacagawea in your high-school history class, it'south likely that you remember of her as a key part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But the common delineation of Sacagawea is thoroughly distorted; many truths most her, and her circumstances, have either been twisted or left out entirely in order to suit a particular narrative. That is, the expedition was meant to exist a heroic, American endeavor, and, every bit such, it'south ofttimes romanticized by historians.
Withal, romanticizing the colonization of Ethnic peoples and lands is harmful — and using Sacagawea every bit a symbol of this alleged "heroic" mission is fifty-fifty more than damaging. With this in listen, we're disclosing key aspects of Sacagawea'due south life in observance of Women's History Calendar month.
Sacagewea'due south Early Years
Built-in effectually 1788 or 1789 into the Lemhi Shoshone ring of the Northern Shoshone, Sacagawea was office of the Agaidika people, or "Salmon-eater" Shoshone, and grew upwards in what is present-day Idaho. Although some accounts suggest that her name is Hidatsa in origin, with "sacaga" meaning "bird" and "wea" meaning "woman," many Shoshone people maintain that it'southward a Shoshone proper noun that means "gunkhole launcher" and is pronounced more like "Sacajawea" (via National Women'south History Museum).
"Cagaagawia'sh, in Hidatsa, or Birdwoman, in English language, has go an important figure in both American Indian history and identity and as an icon of the women's suffrage movement," Alisha Deegan (Hidatsa/Sahnish), a denizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, and the estimation and cultural resource programme director at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, told Teen Faddy. Deegan goes on to note that, "There are many questions well-nigh Cagaagawia'sh and her life, but what we do know demonstrates that she was an amazing and strong woman."
Around 1800, when she was just 12 years old or so, Sacagawea and several other immature Shoshone girls were kidnapped by Hidatsa warriors and, later on, enslaved. Over the next few years, Sacagawea became fluent in the Hidatsa language, a form of Siouan language spoken in what is now considered present-day North Dakota.
It's around this point in her story that details become a bit murkier. Yet, it is known that effectually 1803 or 1804, Sacagawea was sold equally an enslaved person to, or "won" by, a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. Along with several other unknown Indigenous girls, Sacagawea was made to be one of Charbonneau'south "wives." Although many history textbooks shy away from the truth, playwright and activist Carolyn Cuff does non, writing that this was "a formalized child-rape arrangement brokered by adults," who also enslaved said kid.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased western territory that had been claimed by French colonizers. Known every bit the Louisiana Purchase, this deed nearly doubled the size of the United States. At that point, much of the middle of the continent had gone unexplored by white settlers. In guild to map a safety route from the East Coast to the Pacific Body of water, Jefferson hired explorer Meriwether Lewis and frontiersman William Clark to lead an expedition of roughly xl men up the Missouri.
While spending the wintertime months at an encampment near the Hidatsa-Mandan villages, Lewis and Clark met Charbonneau, who angled to join the expedition equally an interpreter. The explorers immune Charbonneau to join them, merely it was clear that they saw Sacagawea, who was just 16 or 17 years old at the time, as more of an nugget to their colonialist expedition than Charbonneau, who Lewis later called "a man of no peculiar merit" in his writings.
Not only was Sacagawea an interpreter herself, simply she was besides meaning at the fourth dimension, and it's clear that Lewis and Clark felt the optics of having an Indigenous mother with them — an trek of more often than not white men — was benign. That is, the Corps of Discovery likely thought that Indigenous people they encountered wouldn't think of them every bit a war party if Sacagawea was with them. While Sacagawea'due south abilities (and very presence) were deemed important by the Corps, it's important to note that she didn't have any bureau over joining or non joining the expedition.
In addition to guiding the Corps of Discovery, Sacagawea was able to identify edible plants, communicate with other Indigenous people they encountered, and, in one example, ensured the survival of the expedition's documentation. That is, when a boat nearly capsized, Sacagawea nerveless all of the journals, navigational tools, and provisions that might have otherwise been lost — all while conveying her baby, and Jean-Baptiste (nicknamed "Pompey"), on her dorsum. Indebted to her efforts, Lewis and Clark named the Sacagawea River, which flows through present-day Montana, later her.
In July of 1805, the expedition reached the three forks of the Missouri River, which Sacagawea recognized. About a month later, the Corps encountered Shoshone peoples and, in a twist of fate, Sacagawea realized that the chief, Cameahwait, was her brother. By that fall, the Corps reached the Pacific Ocean, thank you in large part to the horses the Shoshone people provided them.
Needing a place to prepare up their winter encampment, the Corps once again leaned on Sacagawea'south cognition. Merely determining where to install Fort Clatsop wasn't the final time Sacagawea'south insights proved invaluable. In fact, on the return journey, it was Sacagawea who safely guided the group she was with through what's known today as the Bozeman Laissez passer, an human activity that caused Clark to note that she had been "a pilot through this country."
Despite the instrumental role she played, Sacagawea was not given whatsoever bounty; the same was true for York, the enslaved Black man who also made the roundtrip journey with the Corps. Sacagawea'due south captor, on the other hand, was given $500 and over 300 acres of land, despite Lewis' dislike of him.
Sacagewea's Legacy Today
There isn't much in the way of written documentation when it comes to Sacagawea's life after the expedition. It is well documented that Sacagawea's son was left in the intendance of Clark, who was (strangely) eager to oversee the boy's instruction in St. Louis. Subsequently that, Sacagawea seemingly went on fur-trading expeditions and gave nativity to a girl, Lisette, in 1812.
When information technology comes to her death, there'southward quite a fleck of dubiety, too. While records from a fur-trading post note that she died of typhus in 1812, other accounts indicate that she didn't laissez passer abroad at just 25 years one-time. The National Women'due south History Museum points to Ethnic oral histories, some of which suggest that "Sacagawea lived for many more years in the Shoshone lands in Wyoming, until her death in 1884."
Cultura Colectiva points out that, "In 1925, Dr. Charles Eastman, an Indigenous physician, was sent past the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look for the remains of the keen Sacagawea." In retracing Sacagawea's steps, Dr. Eastman learned of a Shoshone woman, who went by the proper name Porivo and lived on a Comanche reservation; Dr. Eastman believed this elder to be Sacagawea.
"Though information technology is known that she separated from the abusive Charbonneau, little else is certain near the balance of Sacajawea's life," the Brooklyn Museum notes. "Well-nigh Native people believe she died in 1812 at Fort Mandan and is buried somewhere on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation lands, Northward Dakota, while some prove states that she lived with the Shoshone tribe for many years afterwards."
In fact, Sacagawea has two "official" burial sites. One, in Corson County, South Dakota, aligns with the story that she died at just 25 years onetime. This site, located at Fort Manuel, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 every bit the final resting place of Sacagawea, simply this completely discounts the oral history collected by both Dr. Eastman and Dr. Grace Hebard. The 2nd site is located at Fort Washakie in the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
According to the National Park Service, there are more than statues dedicated to Sacagawea than whatever other woman in American history. Unveiled in 1905, Alice Cooper's Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste is one of the most notable monuments. Oft, the sculpture is credited with inspiring now-controversial author Eva Emery Dye, who, in writing, cemented the romanticization and colonialist depiction of Sacagawea.
Additionally, the National American Adult female Suffrage Association, perchance non realizing the full story, saw Sacagawea as a symbol of women's independence. And, in 2000, the U.S. Mint aimed to honor her with a golden dollar money, but printing the likeness of someone who was enslaved by white men on currency is, to say the very to the lowest degree, a problematic choice.
But attempts to honor Sacagawea go beyond monuments, misguided coins and named natural landmarks. In fact, she is the only Ethnic woman represented in feminist artist Judy Chicago's installation The Dinner Political party, which features place settings for prominent, history-making women. "The circumstances surrounding her life have become the stuff of fable, prompting interpretation by historians, writers, and filmmakers," the Brooklyn Museum, which houses The Dinner Party, notes. "In an era in which women, particularly Native American women, were considered either weak and helpless or dangerous, Sacajawea proved to be an icon of bravery."
In a alphabetic character entitled "To the Youth / OUR FUTURE," Canadian First Nations artist George Littlechild ponders Sacagawea's complicated, but important, legacy. "It is a known fact that America glorifies historical figures such as Lewis and Clark, that they are commemorated for opening up the West to 'Progress,' thus 'Civilizing' bequeathed lands," he writes. "They have become cultural icons for their deeds…. In fact what did they truly do for this state known equally America?"
Venerated past some merely rightly despised by others, Lewis, Clark and the whole expedition were harbingers of the destruction, disease, and expiry that was nevertheless to come with the United States' westward expansion. "It is upward to usa to rewrite the history books," Littlechild writes, "to make alter and in a higher place all to have respect for all humanity…" And, in function, that tin can beginning with looking beyond whitewashed history to understand historical figures similar Sacagawea more than honestly.
Source: https://www.reference.com/history/sacagawea-life-story?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740005%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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