Tatjana Wall and Maryam Hasanova 6B
Sacagawea
Sacagawea was born in the year of 1788. She was important to history because she lead Lewis and Clark on their amazing expedition to explore the northwestern territories of the United States. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead the expedition, and Sacagawea and her husband went along. What happened before to lead up to this event is that she was a Shoshone chief’s daughter. The Shoshone tribe occupied what is now a day’s central Idaho on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. In the year of 1799 during a small battle with the Hidatsa tribe and she got kidnapped, at the time she did not know that this even would make her a big part of US history. After being kidnapped she was sold into slavery and was bought by a French Canadian named Charbonneau. When she was fifteen years old she became his wife. In 1804 Lewis and Clark’s expedition arrived at the village where Sacagawea lived. They took Sacagawea with them to travel because they were passing her village and needed a translator, and her husband spoke English and Shoshone and even though Sacagawea just gave birth to her son, Jean-Baptiste Lewis and Clark decided to take her along, and her having a baby would show the Shoshones that they came in peace. In April 1805 the group set out. They traveled in canoes up the Mississippi river. Sacagawea traveled with her baby strapped to her back. Because she had a great knowledge of native plants and herbs she often helped feed the people and also knew which plants and roots were good for medicine and medical use. When Charbonneau was handling a canoe clumsily itgot tipped over and a lot of records would have been lost without Sacagawea, and doing this she gained the respect of Lewis and Clark. In Mid November the expedition finally reached the Pacific Ocean. For the First time in her life Sacagawea looked at the Ocean. In March of 1806 they headed back from their journey and when they reached the Hidatsa village (now North Dakota) in Mid-August Sacagawea and her husband stayed along with her child, she was a girl. After about six years she had another child. Both of her children were legally adopted by Clark. When her first child, the boy, was 18 years old he was sent to Europe to study, there is no information or evidence that the daughter even survived. Sacagawea’s name means birdwoman. She Died December 20, 1812 at the age of 25. It is believed that without the help of Sacagawea, the expedition would have been impossible to complete.
http://www.essortment.com/all/biographysacaga_rcqc.htm
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/saca.html
http://www.randomconnections.com/travel/travelblog.asp
Wordly Wise Power 3000 lesson 8E
