Sacagawea

Sacagawea was either 16 or 17 years old when she joined the Corps of Discovery. She met Lewis and Clark while she was living among the Mandan and Hidatsa in North Dakota, though she was a Lemhi Shoshone from Idaho. She had been taken during a raid by the Hidatsa when she was either 11 or 12, and had lived at the Awatixa (Sakakawea) Village.

What was the Lewis and Clark Expedition like for Sacagawea?

The image of Sacagawea as a mother is such an enduring part of her story that she is pictured with her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on the face of the U.S. Golden Dollar coin first minted in 2000. In February 1805, after a labor that Meriwether Lewis described as “tedious and the pain violent,” Sacagawea gave birth to her first child, who was affectionately nicknamed Pompey by Captain William Clark.

Sacagawea had never seen the ocean before. On the day that she saw it for the first time, she also saw the carcass of a whale.

When Shoshone people encountered visitors near their camp, they never expected that one of them would be their long-lost relative.

During Women’s History Month, we’re honoring the Expedition’s most important woman – Sacagawea. There are more statues dedicated to Sacagawea than to any other American woman. While most memorials are along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, one proudly stands in Washington, D.C., in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.

Sacagawea is one of the most famous women in American history. She lived at a Hidatsa village near here.

It’s widely known that Sacagawea is the most frequently honored woman in the U.S. with at least 16 statues created in tribute to her. But few people know there are also four mountain peaks and one glacier named for her.

As we count down to the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which was signed into law on Aug. 26, 1920, we’re taking a closer look at modern images of the Shoshone woman who accompanied the Corps.

This statue of Sacagawea is believed to be the first of many across the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Today, you’ll find it in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon. It’s made of bronze and was unveiled at the Lewis and Clark Exhibition in 1905 in Portland to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Expedition.

Sacagawea and her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition from their home in Mandan and Hidatsa villages.