Sacagawea

c. 1788 – 20 December 1812

Sacagawea (c. 1788 - 1812) was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1805 to 1806, serving as an interpreter and helping the Corps of Discovery obtain horses from the Shoshone. Traveling with her infant son, she became one of the most celebrated figures of the expedition and an enduring symbol in American history.

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Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Sacagawea.

Life events

Born among the Lemhi Shoshone
c. 1788

Sacagawea was born into the Lemhi Shoshone people in the area of present-day Salmon, Idaho, around 1788.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Captured by a Hidatsa raiding party
c. 1800

Around the age of twelve, Sacagawea was taken captive by Hidatsa raiders and carried to their villages near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Personal ✓
Became a wife of Toussaint Charbonneau
c. 1804

The French-Canadian trapper Toussaint Charbonneau took Sacagawea as one of his wives while she was living among the Hidatsa.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Gave birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau at Fort Mandan
11 February 1805

Sacagawea's son Jean Baptiste, nicknamed Pomp by William Clark, was born at the expedition's winter quarters and traveled the entire route on her back.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Personal ✓
Departed Fort Mandan with the Lewis and Clark Expedition
7 April 1805

Sacagawea, Charbonneau, and their infant son joined the permanent party of the Corps of Discovery as it set out up the Missouri River toward the Pacific.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓
Reunited with her brother Cameahwait and secured horses for the expedition
August 1805

When the expedition reached the Shoshone, Sacagawea recognized their chief as her brother, and her interpreting helped the Corps obtain the horses needed to cross the Rocky Mountains.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Reached the Pacific coast and saw the ocean
January 1806

Sacagawea wintered with the expedition at Fort Clatsop and joined the party that traveled to the coast to see a beached whale.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Returned to the Hidatsa villages as the expedition ended
August 1806

On the return journey Sacagawea and her family left the expedition at the Mandan and Hidatsa villages, where Charbonneau was paid for his services.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Died at Fort Manuel Lisa, in present-day South Dakota
20 December 1812

Contemporary records state that Charbonneau's Shoshone wife died of putrid fever at Fort Manuel Lisa shortly after the birth of her daughter Lisette, though some Native American oral traditions hold that Sacagawea lived until 1884.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓