: TEEN INTERPRETER

0. SACAGAWEA: TEEN INTERPRETER - Story Preface

1. LET'S MEET T. REX

2. WHO WAS ATTILA?

3. ATTILA: FEARSOME RULER

4. MEET the VIKINGS

5. VIKING SHIPS and SETTLEMENTS

6. SACAGAWEA: TEEN INTERPRETER

7. SACAGAWEA: TRIUMPHANT MISSION

8. LEWIS and CLARK

9. MEET A MUMMY

10. MUMMIES of PHARAOHS

11. MEET KING TUT

12. MEET the NEANDERTHALS

13. NEANDERTHALS and FIRE

14. TEDDY and TEX

15. NIGHT at the MUSEUM 3: KEEPING the FACTS STRAIGHT

This is the artistic interpretation of Sacagawea which the United States Postal Service used to create a 29-cent American stamp. The stamp was issued on October 18, 1994. Mountains of the form a backdrop to a cemetery in Ft. Washakie, . A stone, over one of the graves, reads "Sacajawea." Is it the final resting place of the only woman who accompanied Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their famous "Corps of Discovery" mission? Yes, according to oral tradition. No, according to other records. We may never know for sure. We do know the answer to a different question: How was it that a 16-year-old Shoshone teenager was involved with one of the most successful expeditions in recorded history? It was a time of exploration. When Lewis and Clark set out to find a waterway across the North American west, the typical "Indian Horseman" knew his way on the plains but the average white hunter did not. Even those who knew the way could not easily cross the great mountains that met the great plains. A transcontinental railway was not yet feasible. Native Americans still lived and hunted on their own lands, not on reservations. Women of the various tribes had little to say about whom they would marry. Sometimes they were given in trade to explorers, as depicted in Alfred Jacob Miller’s "The Trapper’s Bride." Sacagawea - a Shoshone Indian of whom no actual likeness survives - was such a woman. She had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa tribe who then sold her to the Mandan . When she was a teenager, the Mandan sold Sacagawea to a French trapper and interpreter, Toussaint Charbonneau. In 1804, Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living in a Mandan-Hidatsa village (scroll down 80%) in modern-day North Dakota. It was there that she met Lewis and Clark. The Expedition needed interpreters since the two leaders could not communicate with Native Americans on their own. Sacagawea spoke Shoshone and Hidatsa. Her husband spoke Hidatsa and French. One of Lewis and Clark’s men spoke French and English. The three interpreters also provided the means by which the Expedition could purchase supplies - especially Shoshone horses. But there was a significant difference between Sacagawea and the rest of the Corps. The young Shoshone was a pregnant teenager. On 11 February 1805, Lewis made a note in his diary: ...about five oClock this evening one of the wives of Charbono [Sacagawea] was delivered of a fine boy [Jean Baptiste]. It is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this woman had boarn, and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and the pain violent. (Journals, page 88, Penguin-Classics edition, Frank Bergon, editor.) The rest of the journey, Sacagawea carried Jean Baptiste, strapped to her back, while she performed her Corps responsibilities. What she did on a daily basis during the expedition is unclear. But one event dramatically contributed to the mission’s ultimate success.

See Alignments to State and Common Core standards for this story online at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/AcademicAlignment/SACAGAWEA-TEEN-INTERPRETER-Night-at-the-Museu m See Learning Tasks for this story online at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/AcademicActivities/SACAGAWEA-TEEN-INTERPRETER-Night-at-the-Museum

Media Stream

Wind River Range - Beauty in Wyoming Picture (image 243749) online, courtesy SummitPost.org. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Wind-River-Range-Beauty-in-Wyoming

Sacajawea - Claimed Cemetery, Ft. Washakie Photo online, courtesy Digital Image Collection at the Denver Public Library. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Sacajawea-Claimed-Cemetery-Ft.-Washakie

Sacajawea - Claimed Burial Site Image online, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Sacajawea-Claimed-Burial-Site

Indian Horseman - by Alfred Jacob Miller Image online, courtesy Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Indian-Horseman-by-Alfred-Jacob-Miller Trapper's Bride, The - Alfred Jacob Miller Image online, courtesy Wikimedia Commons. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Trapper-s-Bride-The-Alfred-Jacob-Miller

Sacagawea - Sculpture of Shoshone Interpreter Image online, courtesy the Native American Encylopedia website. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Sacagawea-Sculpture-of-Shoshone-Interpreter

Scalp Dance of the Minatarres Image online, Library of Congress. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Scalp-Dance-of-the-Minatarres

Travelers Meeting with Minatarre Indians Image online, Library of Congress. View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Travelers-Meeting-with-Minatarre-Indians SACAGAWEA: TEEN INTERPRETER View this asset at: http://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/SACAGAWEA-TEEN-INTERPRETER-Illustration-