Why Is Sacagawea Important

Sacagawea

Stephanie Krakowski

US History 1 Honors

Mrs. Farris

October 22, 2014 Sacagawea was one of the most important people to make the expedition of Lewis and Clark a success. She is the most well-known person for the expedition of Lewis and Clark. Despite Sacagawea facing difficult problems before joining the journey, she immediately proved to play a vital part to help the members of the Corps of Discovery along the journey. Sacagawea played a significant role in the success of the expedition of Lewis and Clark. Sacagawea was known to speak the language of the Shoshones which was her home village or tribe as well as being familiar with their culture. Sacagawea even gave birth to a child along the

First, Sacagawea had many valuable skills such as an Indian language translator, navigator, and an expert on which foods are safe to gather along the journey. "The captains brought with them 43 men, 8 canoes, food, medicine, and gifts for the Indians." The environment was very diverse with mostly men and few women on the expedition. Sacagawea was able to change the atmosphere of the journey. She created a positive feeling on the expedition. The group was able to avoid the hostile Indians due to the peaceful symbol that Sacagawea represented. ""William Clark explained that “the Wife of Shabono [Charbonneau]…reconciles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions. A woman with a party of men is a token of peace.”" Sacagawea and her child represented peace to other tribes in the different regions that they came across during the journey. ""As Clark explained in his journals, Charbonneau was hired “as an interpreter through his wife.” If and when the expedition met the Shoshones, Sacagawea would talk with them, then translate to Hidatsa for Charbonneau, who would translate to French. The Corps’ Francois Labiche spoke French and English, and would make the final translation so that the two English-speaking captains would understand."" Not only could she understand different languages but she could also negotiate with different tribes. The members along the expedition of Lewis and Clark were

Local Indians were kind enough and told the Corps about a whale being on the beach. There was a scarce amount of food during the winter and it was hard to obtain food during the season. When they had heard that there was a whale on the beach, Clark took this as an opportunity to get food. Clark got a group of men to accompany him to find the whale on the beach and possibly feed the Corps with oil and blubber. Sacagawea had yet to see the whole Pacific Ocean and wanted to take the opportunity to see the ocean finally on the beach. When Sacagawea asked Clark to join him on the beach he could not refuse. ""As Captain Lewis wrote on January 6, 1806, “[T]he Indian woman was very impo[r]tunate to be permited to go, and was therefore indulged; she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very hard she could not be permitted to see either.”" After they had discovered the whale and had eaten they decided to return back from the journey. On their journey back they had passed through Sacagawea's homeland, where she proved to be a valuable guide. "She remembered Shoshone trails from her childhood, and Clark praised her as his “pilot.” The most important trail she recalled, which Clark described as “a large road passing through a gap in the mountain,” led to the Yellowstone River.