The legend tells us of Sacagawea ("Bird Woman") as the guide showing Lewis and Clark the way over the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, and fictionalized accounts have embroidered on her life as it might have been. In fact, however, her life as it might have been. In fact, however, the young Indian woman who accompanied the expedition did not serve as a guide—though her presence with her child probably ensured the expedition's safety by signifying to the tribes whose territories were crossed that it was not a raiding or war party.
This carefully researched historical account separates the verifiable facts about Sacagawea from the extensive legend. It provides a readable, credible account of Sacagawea coping with the incredible hazards of the journey, caring fo her child, dealing with her half-breed husband, and aiding the expedition with her survival knowledge, pluck, and constancy.
The authors have unearthed new documentary evidence which enables them to trace Sacagawea's later life until her death, and to locate her burial spot. They also tell how the Sacagawea legend was deliberately created, and show how it became so widely accepted. Nontheless, this is not a "debunking" study. Sacagawea, seen in the light of accurate history rather than legend, remains an intriguing and inspiring figure in our past.
Ella E. Clark (1896-1984) was Professor Emeritus of English, Washington State University, and the author of Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest and Indian Legends from the Northern Rockies. Margot Edmonds is a writer and editor.
"The authors of this meticulous study have done Sacagawea a service by restoring her accomplishments to human proportions and by replacing much nonsense with many fine, and factual, details."—New Yorker
"Clark and Edmonds have used archival and published studies to gather all available material on the legendary Indian maiden who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition. By careful examination of these materials the authors describe the very real contributions Sacagawea made to the success of the Expedition and trace the development of the legend which gradually transformed and magnified her role. . . . Neither unduly adulatory or revisionist, this is a story which old and young, historian or buff, will enjoy and profit from."—Pacific Historia
"The story of Sacagawea has the kind of mystery about it that insures that it will be with us forever. . . . [This book] brings the great Shoshoni women alive as a rare human being for any culture at any time."—Westways
184 pp.5.5 x 8.25
9780520050600$23.95|£20.00Paper
Sep 1983