Red Devils -11 More on Lewis and Clark's Adventures

The expedition resumed the westward trek on April 7 with 31 men, one woman, one baby and one dog. On their route along the Missouri River they took six canoes and two pirogues, and went west to the mountains. They typically traveled 14 river miles a day.

On May 14 an incident was recorded which was typical of the calmness and self-possession Sacagawea was to display throughout the journey.  The boat Sacagawea was in, which her husband was rowing, was hit by a sudden storm squall. It keeled over on its side and nearly capsized. Her husband panicked, and as the other members of the crew worked desperately to right the boat, Sacagawea, with her baby strapped to her back, busied herself with retrieving the valuable books and instruments that floated out of the boat. They had been wrapped in waterproof packages for protection and suffered no damage.

She was very resourceful when it came to collecting roots and berries and digging in the ground for white potatoes, the name they gave for what we call Jerusalem artichokes. Her husband also contributed to the culinary delights of the trip. His favorite dish was called White Pudding, or boudin blanc, made from buffalo and beaver tongues and seasonings forced into buffalo-intestine casing. 

Sacagawea and her family lived with Lewis and Clark in the one tepee that they brought with them for the trip - so they were warmer and drier than most of the travelers. She became very close to Clark and he called her Janey.

She only influenced the direction taken by the expedition one time, after reaching the area where her people hunted she indicated they should take a tributary of the Beaverhead River to get to the mountains where her people lived and where Lewis and Clark hoped to buy horses.

On August 15 Sacagawea saw a young brave, and recognized him as her brother. She was re-united with her tribe, only to learn that all her family had died, with the exception of two brothers and the son of her oldest sister, whom she adopted. One of her brothers, Cameahwait, One who never walks, was head chief of the Shoshone. The Shoshone chief agreed to sell the party the horses they needed for the trek through the mountains. He also sketched a map of the country to the west and provided a guide, Old Toby, who took them through the mountains and safely to the Nez Perce country where they resumed river travel.

When Sacagawea saw her brother who was now the chief, she forgot her deeply ingrained belief that women were to remain submissive and respectful at important conferences, and ran to him and hugged him, threw a blanket over him and wept.

Lewis recorded the reunion in his journal:

"Shortly after Capt. Clark arrived with the Interpreter Charbono, and the Indian woman, who proved to be a sister of the Chief Cameahwait the meeting of those people was really affecting, particularly between Sah cah-gar-we-ah and an Indian woman, who had been taken prisoner at the same time with her, and who had afterwards escaped from the Minnetares and rejoined her nation.”

And Clark in his:

"August 17 Saturday 1805 The Intertrepeter & Squar who were before me at Some distance danced for the joyful Sight, and She made signs to me that they were her nation.”

As the expedition approached the mouth of the Columbia River, Sacagawea gave up her beaded belt in order to allow the captains to trade for a fur robe they wished to return to President Jefferson. The journal entry for November 20, 1805 reads:

"one of the Indians had on a roab made of 2 Sea Otter Skins the fur of them were more butifull than any fur I had ever Seen both Capt. Lewis & my Self endeavored to purchase the roab with differant articles at length we precured it for a belt of blue beeds which the Squar—wife of our interpreter Shabono wore around her waste."

Throughout the expedition, Sacagawea maintained a helpful, uncomplaining attitude of cheerfulness in the face of hardship. This was so remarkable that it was commented on by all the men who kept diaries. There is one record of her complaining, however. While wintering on the Columbia River before starting their journey back to the east, nearby Indians reported that a whale had washed up on the beach about 35 miles from the fort. Sacagawea said that she had traveled a long way to see the great waters and, now that a monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it "very hard" that she could not be permitted to see it, and the ocean too. Captain Clark took a party of two canoes, including Sacagawea and her husband, to find the whale and possibly obtain some blubber. By the time they arrived there was nothing left but the skeleton, but they were able to buy about 35 pounds of blubber.

After the expedition was over in the summer of 1806 her husband was paid $500 for his two years’ work but she was paid nothing. However, Clark does record in his diary that the value of her contribution to the expedition was inestimable. Clark wanted to adopt the little boy, now two years old, but he was still breast feeding so Sacagawea said no.

In August 1806, Captain Clark wrote to Charbonneau and invited him to come to St. Louis and bring his family, or to send Jean Baptiste to Clark for schooling. Charbonneau and Sacagawea accepted the offer and lived near St. Louis for a time. In March, 1811, however, Charbonneau sold his land back to Clark and returned to the Dakotas with Sacagawea. Their son remained in St. Louis in the care of Capt. Clark, who was the Indian Agent of the Louisiana Purchase at that time.

Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette, sometime after 1810. According to Bonnie "Spirit Wind-Walker" Butterfield, historical documents suggest Sacagawea died in 1812 of an unknown sickness:

"An 1811 journal entry made by Henry Brackenridge, a fur dealer at Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, stated that both Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living at the fort. He recorded that Sacagawea ".had become sickly and longed to revisit her native country."

A few months later, fifteen men were killed in an Indian attack on Fort Lisa, located at the mouth of the Bighorn River. John Luttig and Sacagawea's young daughter were among the survivors. Some say Toussaint Charbonneau was killed at this time; others say he signed over formal custody of his son to Clark in 1813.

"This evening the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake squaw, died of a putrid fever. She was a good and the best woman in the fort, aged about 25 years. She left a fine infant girl." It is a fact that, in March 1813, John Luttig returned to St. Louis with a baby whom he called "Sacagawea’s Lizette." In August 1813, he applied to be her guardian, as well as that of a boy called "Toussaint," but the court record shows his name crossed out and Capt. William Clark's written in. Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was often called Toussaint. John Luttig died in 1815.

There is no record of what became of Lizette. However some sources say that Charbonneau took her to Clark and he raised her as well. As further proof that Sacagawea died at this time, Butterfield says:

"An adoption document made in the Orphans Court Records in St. Louis, Missouri states that "On August 11, 1813, William Clark became the guardian of "Toussaint Charbonneau, a boy about ten years, and Lizette Charbonneau, a girl about one year old." For a Missouri State Court at the time, to designate a child as orphaned and to allow an adoption, both parents had to be confirmed dead in court papers.

"The last recorded document citing Sacagawea's existence appears in William Clark's original notes written between 1825-1826. He lists the names of each of the expedition members and their last known whereabouts. For Sacagawea he writes: "Se car ja we au- Dead"

It is not believed that Lizette survived childhood, as there is no later record of her.

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau lived at least until 1866. His life can be traced through various records of explorers and fur traders up until that time. He was said to be a remarkable man; superior as a guide and trapper, but also well-educated and conversant in French, German and Spanish as well as his native Shoshone. He was with Prince Paul of Wurttenberg on his travels of the American West in 1823, and returned with him to Germany where he stayed for several years, returning in 1829.

He was with Jim Bridger in 1832, with Kit Carson in 1839 and in charge of a fur-trading party in 1842 when they met Charles Fremont. He was included in George Frederick Ruxton's book, "Life in the Far West" as one of the important fur traders of that time. He was with Lt. Albert on an exploration down the Canadian River and with Col. Philip Cooke and his troops from New Mexico to California. In 1866 he started for the gold fields in Montana and Idaho, but is said to have died on Cow Creek near Danner, Oregon, in 1866.

“That is all very interesting, Josephine,” Miss Marble said, “but I think you should break down the bits about the Indian girl and add them when appropriate to the story, rather than having her life all in a piece, as you have given it to us today.”

“Yes, Miss Marble. I will do that. It does make sense to do it in chronological order.”

Walking home after school I told Josephine how interesting I thought her research on Sacagawea was.

“Yes, but that is all I could find about her. I couldn’t possibly have written 10,000 words just about her, because Lewis and Clark’s journals hardly mention her at all.”

“And to think she was younger than we are now, and was married, and had a baby and did that momentous walk.”

“Did you go up to Fredrick’s grandmother’s house then, to see the Journals?”

“Yes, and she is a lovely sweet old lady, and you would not believe the number of books she has in her library. It is almost more than in the public library. You could go there too, if you needed more information. She said any of us would be welcome.”

“Thanks. I might do that, but just now I have more information that I know what to do with, and I have been given the address of Mrs. Custer in New York, so my next job will be to write to her. I wish we had known she lived there when we were there last weekend as we might have been able to interview her directly.”

“Now we have an excuse for another visit to New York,” said Cora Sue.

“Well, I cannot think Aunt and Uncle are willing to let us spend any more of our money from Mr. Bennett. We had such a funny conversation with the newspaper editor’s wife. She told us all sorts of very odd things about him.”

“Well, it might not have been true,” put in Cora Sue.

“I have a feeling that it was true, although she may have embellished it slightly for our benefit.”

Just then we saw Nelson and Thomas talking together loudly, no doubt to get our attention. We couldn’t help but hear what they were saying.

Thomas said, “What did you say that Lincoln did? Had a night out with a prostitute and got the clap?”

Nelson said, “And she told him she charged $5 and he only had $3 so he was going to leave, and in the end he got it for nothing. And he got something else from her too - syphilis. He had to postpone his wedding to the bitch he married because he didn’t want her to get it.” They both were laughing loudly, knowing that they had our attention.

I couldn’t help myself. “Nelson, don’t you dare write those things about Mr. Lincoln.”

“They were in a book I read. And if they are true, I don’t see why I can’t write them.”

“Miss Marble would be so upset, and anyway, why should you want to say such things? You know that Mr. Lincoln was a good man. Why try to spoil his image?” 

“I think it shows him to be more human, miss smarty pants,” said Nelson. “And I will include it if I want to. You can’t change history by pretending the heroes never did anything that they might be ashamed of. I expect your Mr. Custer had it off with the Indians once or twice didn’t he?”

“I would never write that in my essay, even if it was true,” I said stoutly, although I must admit that I had intended to use the information about Custer’s half-Indian son.

“I heard that he had syphilis and all - and that’s why he couldn’t have children. That’s what it does to you, makes you sterile.”

“Well, if your original story was true, how about all the children that Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln had.”

“Some of them weren’t quite right in their minds, and a couple of them died early. And his wife was clearly dotty.”

“Now you're trying to say that if a child dies young his father had syphilis, are you?”

“No, of course not. But I have read that if you have children when you’ve had it, it can affect them. Can you deny that?”

“I really cannot say that I have researched the subject,” I said haughtily.

“Come on, Mattie,” said Cora Sue, “We have to get home.”

So we left the boys, still not knowing whether we had convinced them to protect Lincoln’s reputation or not.