Who Was Sacagawea?

that's closer to a correct pronunciation than saka Joweyah. Although Chicago Weea was from the Shoshone people, her name is given in the Hidatsa language and has been interpreted to mean bird woman or crow woman. We spoke with Caroline Gilman, author of Lewis and Clark Across the Divide. She said she was a native woman who was thrust into history when she accompanied Lewis and Clark. There are a lot of things that have been claimed for her that you

really can't say. We do know that Chicago Wia crossed the continental divide at the age of seventeen while toting her infant son. She also crossed cultures and played a role in the success of the expedition and perhaps unknowingly, in manifest destiny. Blemisha Shone Icago Weoh was born around seventeen eighty eight in modern day Idaho. Twelve years later, she was captured by the gun possessing Hidatsa tribe took her to the Hidatsa man Dance settlement near what's now

North Dakota. The settlement was an international trading center, and she lived with the Hidatsa, the reason her name is thought to be from that language, for a few years until a French Canadian fur trader by the name of Toussaint Charboneau took her as a wife. In this case, wife is a relative term, and she was one of two.

According to James Ring Adams, senior historian at the History and Culture Unit at the National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian, her role in the relationship was likely more as a consort a. Some accounts state that the marriage was an economic deal on behalf of her adoptive family, or even that she was one in a card game. Whatever the case, Charbonneau was about thirty seven years old to her sixteen, and Chicagoea was pregnant by the time

Merywether Lewis and William Clark arrived in the area. The Lewis and Clark Expedition had begun in eighteen o three, when President Thomas Jefferson sent out the Cores of Discovery to explore the land that the US government gained from the Louisiana purchase. It's important to remember that the land deal with France included a lot more than today's eponymous state.

The territory stretched from roughly the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to Colorado, nearly doubling the size of the United States at the time. Charbonneau offered his services as interpreter to Lewis and Clark. For offering that he had two wives from near the Continental vide he got the job, and Chicago Weea was

chosen to accompany him on the expedition. Gilman suggests that Lewis and Clark might have wanted to bring Chicago Wea more than her husband, because they were looking for a Shoshony translator. Sharboneau only spoke Hidatsa and French, but you couldn't hire a woman you had to hire her husband. Lewis and Clark had a generally low opinion of Charbonneau. In fact, Lewis later described him as a quote man of no peculiar merit. By contrast, Chicago Wea proved to

be an advantageous member of the expedition. In the beginning, Lewis and Clark were interested in her tribal connections because her Shshony people straddled the continental divide and it was crucial for them to cross it. Adams said it turned out even better than they expected. When the expedition first encountered the Shohony, Lewis was leading, and after an initial contact with an older woman, was approached by a band of about sixty shoshone on horseback, who became friendly enough.

But when Clark's group met up with him a day or so later, Chicago Weea was with him, and one of the Shoshonee women recognized her as the girl who had been kidnapped many years before. The leader of the band turned out to be her brother. An alliance was formed between the expedition and the band, which then provided horses and guides. Because of instance like this, Lewis and

Clark developed more and more respect for Chicago Weea. Simply having a woman with an infant signaled to those who they encountered along the way that they were not a

war party. Tellingly, by the time they reached the Pacific coast, she got a vote in deciding whether or not the expedition would stay there for the winter of eighteen o five into eighteen o six, and when the group returned to Fort Mandan and North Dakota, Lewis and Clark recorded paying both the interpreter Charbonneau and the interpretress Chicago Wea. Adams said her work to the expedition became more and

more evident as it went on. Her role the success of the expedition deserves all the legendary status that it has. After the expedition, Chicago Wea remained with Charbonneau, but we don't know much else, and she may have traveled to St. Louis with Charbonneau to deliver her son, John Baptiste, to Clark, who had offered to raise him and provide him with

an education. She had a second child, a daughter, who she named Lizette, just months later, though Chicago Wea died after suffering from what was recorded as a putrid fever. A popular myth of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming says that chicago Weea lived there into her nineties and was buried at Fort Washaki, but that's been debunked. According to adams A, most reports show that she died in eighteen twelve. There are few documentary mentions of Chicagoea,

says Gilman. A traveler who met her, commented that she was a sweet person, but offers just one sentence. A fur trader recorded her death in eighteen twelve and said she was the best woman at the fort. Everyone who discussed her had something good to say about her. Adams describes the Lewis and Clark expedition as overly successful. It was billed as a scientific exploration to learn about the newly acquired territory, which was largely unknown to colonists from

England at the time. Jefferson hypothesized that the expedition might encounter mammoths or mastodons. It served a political purpose to to solidify the U. S government's claim to the area. Clearly, the expedition had far reaching ramifications, and Kagoa played a part in its success. However, Lewis and Clark attached little importance to her role. It was Nicholas Biddle who edited

their journals for publication and interviewed Clark. Much of what is known about Chicago Weah comes from the Biddle interview rather than the journals, and Skagoa has an enhanced role in the eighteen fourteen published version because Biddle immediately saw that the public would be interested in her. Gilman said She's been used to symbolize various things over the years.

She explains that, for one, Chicago Wea has been adopted as Native American women like Pocahontas, have been as a symbol of the amity with which indigenous people's collaborated with European colonists, as a sort of justification for the colonizer's actions. Because Native people, and particularly women, collaborated with them, these figures symbolize the union of two different cultures and become symbolic founders. Gilman said, they all become mythic, and that's

what's actually going on for Icagoa. She is for the West what Pocahontas is for the East, and Gilman points out she's not just a figurative mother, but a literal mother figure She may be seen by some as a Lama lynch A style collaborationist, someone who was a facilitator of an invasion. Lam lynch A was the Mexican woman who played a key role in the Spanish conquest of

the Aztec Empire by her Non Cortez. But Gilman points out that Lewis and Clark were not on a military expedition in the way that Cortes was, so those accusations shouldn't be leveled against her. Gilman said, I would like people to empathize with her. She was a person who found herself in a situation where she could contribute to history, and she lived up to the expectations that were placed on her. She showed remarkable fortitude and perseverance throughout the

whole experience. Today's episode was written by Carrie Whitney and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts in my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.