Firearms a Global History to 1700 Book Review

Photo Courtesy: Larry Gerbrandt/Moment/Getty Images; Alice Cooper's "Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste," 1905 via Wikimedia Commons

If you learned of Sacagawea in your high-schoolhouse history grade, it's likely that yous recollect of her as a fundamental function of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But the common depiction of Sacagawea is thoroughly distorted; many truths about her, and her circumstances, have either been twisted or left out entirely in order to adjust a particular narrative. That is, the trek was meant to be a heroic, American endeavor, and, every bit such, it's oft romanticized by historians.

However, romanticizing the colonization of Indigenous peoples and lands is harmful — and using Sacagawea as a symbol of this declared "heroic" mission is fifty-fifty more than dissentious. With this in mind, we're disclosing key aspects of Sacagawea'south life in observance of Women's History Calendar month.

Sacagewea'due south Early Years

Born around 1788 or 1789 into the Lemhi Shoshone band of the Northern Shoshone, Sacagawea was part of the Agaidika people, or "Salmon-eater" Shoshone, and grew upward in what is present-day Idaho. Although some accounts propose that her name is Hidatsa in origin, with "sacaga" meaning "bird" and "wea" meaning "adult female," many Shoshone people maintain that information technology'south a Shoshone proper noun that means "boat launcher" and is pronounced more than like "Sacajawea" (via National Women's History Museum).

Photo Courtesy: Charles Yard. Russel/Wikipedia

"Cagaagawia'sh, in Hidatsa, or Birdwoman, in English language, has get an of import figure in both American Indian history and identity and every bit an icon of the women's suffrage motility," Alisha Deegan (Hidatsa/Sahnish), a denizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in Due north Dakota, and the interpretation and cultural resource program manager at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, told Teen Vogue. Deegan goes on to note that, "In that location are many questions about Cagaagawia'sh and her life, merely what we do know demonstrates that she was an amazing and strong adult female."

Around 1800, when she was just 12 years old or so, Sacagawea and several other young Shoshone girls were kidnapped by Hidatsa warriors and, later, enslaved. Over the next few years, Sacagawea became fluent in the Hidatsa language, a form of Siouan language spoken in what is at present considered present-twenty-four hours North Dakota.

It'southward effectually this point in her story that details become a bit murkier. However, it is known that around 1803 or 1804, Sacagawea was sold as an enslaved person to, or "won" by, a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. Forth with several other unknown Ethnic girls, Sacagawea was made to exist one of Charbonneau's "wives." Although many history textbooks shy away from the truth, playwright and activist Carolyn Gage does non, writing that this was "a formalized kid-rape arrangement brokered by adults," who besides enslaved said child.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased western territory that had been claimed past French colonizers. Known every bit the Louisiana Purchase, this human action nearly doubled the size of the United States. At that bespeak, much of the middle of the continent had gone unexplored past white settlers. In order to map a prophylactic route from the East Declension to the Pacific Ocean, Jefferson hired explorer Meriwether Lewis and frontiersman William Clark to atomic number 82 an expedition of roughly xl men upwardly the Missouri.

Photo Courtesy: Charles Marion Russell/Wikipedia

While spending the winter months at an encampment near the Hidatsa-Mandan villages, Lewis and Clark met Charbonneau, who angled to join the expedition as an interpreter. The explorers allowed Charbonneau to join them, but it was articulate that they saw Sacagawea, who was just sixteen or 17 years old at the fourth dimension, equally more of an asset to their colonialist trek than Charbonneau, who Lewis later on chosen "a man of no peculiar merit" in his writings.

Non only was Sacagawea an interpreter herself, merely she was also pregnant at the time, and it's clear that Lewis and Clark felt the eyes of having an Ethnic mother with them — an expedition of mostly white men — was beneficial. That is, the Corps of Discovery likely thought that Indigenous people they encountered wouldn't think of them equally a state of war party if Sacagawea was with them. While Sacagawea's abilities (and very presence) were deemed important by the Corps, it's important to notation that she didn't have whatsoever agency over joining or not joining the trek.

In improver to guiding the Corps of Discovery, Sacagawea was able to identify edible plants, communicate with other Indigenous people they encountered, and, in one instance, ensured the survival of the expedition's documentation. That is, when a boat well-nigh capsized, Sacagawea collected all of the journals, navigational tools, and provisions that might take otherwise been lost — all while carrying her baby, and Jean-Baptiste (nicknamed "Pompey"), on her back. Indebted to her efforts, Lewis and Clark named the Sacagawea River, which flows through present-24-hour interval Montana, afterwards her.

In July of 1805, the trek reached the three forks of the Missouri River, which Sacagawea recognized. About a calendar month afterwards, the Corps encountered Shoshone peoples and, in a twist of fate, Sacagawea realized that the principal, Cameahwait, was her brother. By that fall, the Corps reached the Pacific Body of water, thanks in large part to the horses the Shoshone people provided them.

Needing a place to fix their winter encampment, the Corps once over again leaned on Sacagawea's knowledge. Only determining where to install Fort Clatsop wasn't the terminal fourth dimension Sacagawea'due south insights proved invaluable. In fact, on the return journey, it was Sacagawea who safely guided the group she was with through what'south known today as the Bozeman Pass, an act that acquired Clark to annotation that she had been "a pilot through this country."

Despite the instrumental role she played, Sacagawea was not given any compensation; the same was true for York, the enslaved Blackness human being who as well made the roundtrip journeying with the Corps. Sacagawea's captor, on the other mitt, was given $500 and over 300 acres of land, despite Lewis' dislike of him.

Sacagewea's Legacy Today

There isn't much in the style of written documentation when it comes to Sacagawea'south life after the expedition. Information technology is well documented that Sacagawea's son was left in the intendance of Clark, who was (strangely) eager to oversee the boy'due south education in St. Louis. Subsequently that, Sacagawea seemingly went on fur-trading expeditions and gave birth to a girl, Lisette, in 1812.

Photo Courtesy: Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party" (Sacajawea place setting), 1974–79, Brooklyn Museum; Alice Cooper's "Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste," 1905 via Wikimedia Eatables

When it comes to her death, there's quite a bit of uncertainty, 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 away at simply 25 years old. The National Women's History Museum points to Indigenous oral histories, some of which suggest that "Sacagawea lived for many more than years in the Shoshone lands in Wyoming, until her death in 1884."

Cultura Colectiva points out that, "In 1925, Dr. Charles Eastman, an Indigenous medico, was sent past the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look for the remains of the neat Sacagawea." In retracing Sacagawea'south 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 it is known that she separated from the abusive Charbonneau, niggling else is certain most the remainder of Sacajawea's life," the Brooklyn Museum notes. "Most Native people believe she died in 1812 at Fort Mandan and is buried somewhere on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation lands, Due north Dakota, while some show states that she lived with the Shoshone tribe for many years afterwards."

In fact, Sacagawea has 2 "official" burying sites. One, in Corson County, South Dakota, aligns with the story that she died at only 25 years quondam. This site, located at Fort Manuel, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 equally the final resting place of Sacagawea, only this completely discounts the oral history collected by both Dr. Eastman and Dr. Grace Hebard. The second site is located at Fort Washakie in the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

According to the National Park Service, there are more statues dedicated to Sacagawea than any other woman in American history. Unveiled in 1905, Alice Cooper'south Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste is one of the most notable monuments. Often, the sculpture is credited with inspiring at present-controversial author Eva Emery Dye, who, in writing, cemented the romanticization and colonialist depiction of Sacagawea.

Additionally, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, perhaps not realizing the total story, saw Sacagawea as a symbol of women's independence. And, in 2000, the U.S. Mint aimed to honor her with a gilt dollar coin, merely press the likeness of someone who was enslaved past white men on currency is, to say the very to the lowest degree, a problematic pick.

But attempts to accolade Sacagawea become beyond monuments, misguided coins and named natural landmarks. In fact, she is the only Indigenous woman represented in feminist creative person Judy Chicago's installation The Dinner Political party, which features place settings for prominent, history-making women. "The circumstances surrounding her life have go the stuff of legend, prompting interpretation by historians, writers, and filmmakers," the Brooklyn Museum, which houses The Dinner Party, notes. "In an era in which women, especially Native American women, were considered either weak and helpless or unsafe, Sacajawea proved to be an icon of bravery."

In a letter entitled "To the Youth / OUR Time to come," Canadian First Nations artist George Littlechild ponders Sacagawea's complicated, only 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 W to 'Progress,' thus 'Civilizing' ancestral lands," he writes. "They have become cultural icons for their deeds…. In fact what did they truly do for this land known every bit America?"

Venerated by some but rightly despised by others, Lewis, Clark and the whole expedition were harbingers of the devastation, illness, and death that was yet to come up with the United States' westward expansion. "It is upwardly to usa to rewrite the history books," Littlechild writes, "to make change and above all to take respect for all humanity…" And, in part, that can showtime with looking beyond whitewashed history to understand historical figures like Sacagawea more than honestly.

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Source: https://www.reference.com/history/sacagawea-life-story?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740005%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex

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