Sacagawea was daughter of a Shoshone Chief.
Around the age of 12, she was captured by Hidatsa Indians an enemy of the Shoshones.
She was sold to a French-Canadian trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau who made her one of his wives.
Sacagawea and her husband lived among the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians in the upper Missouri River area (present-day North Dakota)
In November 1804, she was pregnant with her first child.
Lewis and Clark met Charbonneau (husband of Sacagawea) and quickly hired him to serve as interpreter on their expedition. Sacagawea was chosen to accompany them on their mission.
Lewis attended the birth of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on February 11, 1805 son of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau.
Education
She didn’t have a proper education, but she learned from her tribe. She was forced to work for them, learning how to pick berries, and edible roots. She also learned how to get roots for medicine and obviously her tribe taught her how to speak, and she learned language of the Hidatsa Indians. Those skills that she just picked up along the journey of her life were very handy on her expedition with Lewis and Clark.
What are the accomplishments/contributions made by Sacagawea?
She became valuable as a guide in the region of her birth, near the Three Forks of the Missouri
Served as a great interpreter between the expedition and her tribe, the Shoshone, when the expedition reached that area.
Quieted the fears of other Native Americans, for no war party traveled with a woman and a small baby.
She traded horses so they could get over the Rocky Mountains.
On May 14th, 1805 great gusts of wind tipped one of their white pirogues over and inside were the papers, instruments, books, and medicine. As Charbonneau panicked, it was Sacagawea who stayed calm and gathered up the articles that were floating out into the river. As Lewis said, "The Indian woman, to whom I ascribe equal