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Sakakawea-Sacagawea-SacajaweaInterpreter and GuideSakakawea, a Shoshone Indian gal, was taken into custody by a war party of Hidatsa Indians. These Indians lived in three earth lodge villages, on the Knife River, near what is now Washburn, ND.According to journals written by Lewis & Clark on there expedition west, Sakakawea was captured in 1800, when she was just 12. She later married a French-Canadian trader named,Toussaint Charbonneau when they joined the expedition as a translator. Sakakawea was invaluable to the Corps of Discovery, providing translations and contacts with the Shoshone, living west of Mandan and Hidatsa. Sakakawea is mentioned numerous times in the journals kept on the expedition. Being very familiar with all aspects of the outdoors, she was able to provide sources of food along the way, for example- she gathered native wild beans, artichokes, wild berries and nuts, also show the men what roots were edible, for members of the party to eat. It is documented that on May 14,1805, Sakakawea rescued packets of paper, books and medicine being washed out of one of the boats, which almost capsized during a violent thunder-storm. Written by William Clark in his journal on October 13, 1805, "The wife of Chabono [Charbonneau] our interpreter we find reconciles all Indians as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men as a token of peace." A key role was played by Sakakawea in helping the expedition establish friendly relations with the Shoshones from which the group needed to get horses to go onward with their journey. From the headwaters of the Missouri to the tributaries of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. A band of Shoshone, led by the elder brother of Sakakawea, named Cameawah, provided the party with horses for their long journey west. On their return trip to what is known today as North Dakota, in August 1806, Sakakawea,her husband and infant son left the expedition to return to the Mandan and Hidatsa Villages. On August 20, 1806 William Clark wrote a letter to Sakakawea's husband, praising his wife: " your woman who accompanied you that long, dangerous and fatiguing route to the Pacific Ocian deserves a much greater reward for her attention and services on that rout that we had in our power to give her..." On February 11 1805,Sakakawea and her husband had a son. They named the boy Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. On April 7, 1805, the expedition left Fort Mandan and headed west toward the Pacific Ocean. Sakakawea carrying her son in a cradle board , left with the expedition. Captain William Clark nicknamed the little boy "pomp". When the boy was about six years old Captain Clark offered to educate the young lad. It was at this time he took the boy into his home in St Louis. In 1823 Baptiste met Prince Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurtemberg, who took him to Europe to live.He returned to the United States with the German Prince in 1829, becoming a mountain man, fur trader , and later a guide. He guided explorers and soldiers such as, John C. Fremont, Philip St. George Cooke, W.H. Emory and James Albert. In 1847 he was appointed Alcade, for the San Luis Rey Mission in California. Baptiste died of pneumonia in Oregon on May 16,1866 while on his way to the gold fields of Montana. As far as what ever happened to Sakakawea, It is in much debate. Research indicates she died of "putrid fever" in 1812 near what is now Kensal, SD.(Fort Manuel) and is buried there. Clark wrote an account book for the period of 1825-1828. Mentioning about the members of the expedition, whether they were alive or not. In this writing he recorded that Sakakawea was deceased. Other places it is documented that she lived to be nearly 100, and died on The Wind River Shoshone Indian Reservation in Wyoming in 1884. The picture below, a statue of Sakakawea and her son on her back, was taken at the Heritage Center, near the capitol, in Bismark. 
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