Who Was Sacagawea?

Fifty members of the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara tribes gathered in a conference room to correct what they saw as a grave error in the historical record: the story of Sacagawea. Jerome Dancing Bull, a Hidatsa elder, took the microphone first. “They got it all wrong!” he said.

It was July 16, 2015, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The meeting occurred not too far from the camp where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first met the 17-year-old Indigenous American girl who would accompany them on their celebrated 19th-century journey to explore the American West. The story of that journey, and Sacagawea’s role in it as a guide, has become one of the country’s foundational myths.

On July 16, 2015, 50 members of the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara tribes gathered at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. They were there to correct a serious historical error. They wanted to correct the story of Sacagawea. Jerome Dancing Bull, a Hidatsa elder, took the microphone first. “They got it all wrong!” he said.

The meeting took place not too far from the camp where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first met Sacagawea, a 17-year-old Indigenous American girl. She would go on to accompany them on their 19th-century journey to explore the American West. The story of that journey, and Sacagawea’s role in it as a guide, has become one of the country’s foundational myths.

The Paragon Agency

The Hidatsa book reconsiders Sacagawea’s story.

In the dominant telling—largely shaped by Lewis and Clark’s journals and later historians—Sacagawea was born a member of the Shoshone Tribe in present-day Idaho, was kidnapped by the Hidatsa as a child, spent most of 1805 and 1806 with the Lewis and Clark expedition, and died in 1812, while she was still in her 20s. End of story.

The Hidatsa insist that’s mostly untrue. They say Eagle Woman, as they call her—their English translation of her Hidatsa name, Sacagawea*—was a member of their tribe all along. They believe she died 57 years later in 1869, at the age of 82, after living a full life out of the public eye.

The 2015 meeting of tribal historians and elders, many of whom believe themselves to be Sacagawea’s descendants, was organized by scholars Dennis and Sandra Fox. Dennis Fox is a direct descendant of Cedar Woman, whom the Hidatsa believe was Sacagawea’s daughter, born some 30 years after the Lewis and Clark expedition ended. He worried that the memory of Sacagawea, and the oral tradition that had kept it going, was at risk of being lost.

“As people passed away, the story started to die,” Dennis Fox says.

The group decided to put together a book sharing their version of Sacagawea’s life. They recognized that the American historical record has long prioritized documents, often written by those in power, over oral histories. The Foxes managed the project, working with an advisory board of Hidatsa elders. In 2021, a small press published Our Story of Eagle Woman: Sacagawea: They Got it Wrong. The process of researching, writing, and finding a publisher had stretched over six years.

But the group was determined. Oral history, the authors write, “cannot be, and must not be, discounted since it is the method through which our clanships, names, language, and ceremonies still survive today.”

The most common telling of the story is based on Lewis and Clark’s journals and later historians. Sacagawea was born a member of the Shoshone Tribe in present-day Idaho. She was kidnapped by the Hidatsa as a child and spent most of 1805 and 1806 with the Lewis and Clark expedition. She was in her 20s when she died in 1812. End of story.

The Hidatsa insist that’s mostly untrue. They call her Eagle Woman, which is their translation of her Hidatsa name, Sacagawea*. According to the Hidatsa, she was a member of their tribe all along. They also believe she died in 1869, at the age of 82, after living a full life out of the public eye.

Many of the tribal historians and elders who attended the meeting in 2015 believe themselves to be descendants of Sacagawea. The meeting was organized by scholars Dennis and Sandra Fox. Dennis Fox is a direct descendant of Cedar Woman, whom the Hidatsa believe was Sacagawea’s daughter. She was born some 30 years after the Lewis and Clark expedition ended. He worried that the memory of Sacagawea, and the oral tradition that had kept it going, was at risk of being lost.

“As people passed away, the story started to die,” Dennis Fox says.

The group decided to put together a book sharing their version of Sacagawea’s life. They recognized that the American historical record has long prioritized documents, often written by those in power, over oral histories. The Foxes managed the project. They worked with an advisory board of Hidatsa elders to write a book. It took the group six years to research, write, and find a publisher. In 2021, a small press published Our Story of Eagle Woman: Sacagawea: They Got it Wrong.

The group was determined. Oral history, the authors write, “cannot be, and must not be, discounted since it is the method through which our clanships, names, language, and ceremonies still survive today.”

On May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition set off from the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri. Their mission: to explore the new territory President Thomas Jefferson had acquired from France in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The 828,000 square miles of land, stretching west of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to present-day Montana, had doubled the nation’s size.

Jefferson hoped the expedition could find a water connection between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean that could open up more trading routes. He also wanted to establish relationships with the Indigenous Americans living there, map the region, and catalog its wildlife. He tapped his secretary, Army captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead the expedition. Lewis and his co-commander, his Army friend William Clark, departed from Missouri in three boats. The group, known as the Corps of Discovery, included 27 young soldiers and York, an enslaved man and servant to Clark. Sacagawea didn’t join the expedition until April 1805, nearly a year after it began. While she’s often depicted as the expedition’s guide, many historians say her primary role was as an interpreter who could speak Hidatsa and Shoshone.

On May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition started near the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri. Their mission was to explore the new territory President Thomas Jefferson had acquired from France in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase had doubled the size of America. The 828,000 square miles of land stretched west of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to present-day Montana.

Jefferson hoped the expedition could find new trade routes by finding a water connection between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. He wanted to establish relationships with the Indigenous Americans living there. Jefferson also wanted to map the region and catalog its wildlife. He tapped his secretary, Army captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead the trip. Lewis and his co-commander, his Army friend William Clark, left from Missouri in three boats. The group was known as the Corps of Discovery. It included 27 young soldiers and York, an enslaved man and servant to Clark. Sacagawea joined the expedition a year later in April 1805. While she’s often depicted as the expedition’s guide, many historians say her primary role was as an interpreter who could speak Hidatsa and Shoshone.

Between 1804 and 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled some 8,000 miles, from Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Oregon and back. Along the way, the group faced treacherous terrain, harsh weather, disease, wild animals, and hunger. Lewis and Clark, along with a few Corps members, chronicled these trials in their journals.

They didn’t find the water link to the Pacific Ocean, but the expedition did gather important information about the Indigenous Peoples, geography, and wildlife of the West. The Corps of Discovery established a route to the Pacific and paved the way for the Western expansion that would define 19th-century America.

The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition “is an American epic,” in large part owing to its prolific documentation, says historian Craig Fehrman, author of a forthcoming book about the journey. In total, the captains and their soldiers wrote more than a million words about their trip. “It’s shocking how many details were preserved and how many perspectives were preserved,” Fehrman says.

Between 1804 and 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled some 8,000 miles. They traveled from Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Oregon and back. Along the way, the group faced many challenges, including dangerous terrain, harsh weather, disease, wild animals, and hunger. Lewis and Clark, along with a few Corps members, wrote about their journey in their journals.

They didn’t find the water link to the Pacific Ocean. But they did gather important information about the Indigenous Peoples, geography, and wildlife of the West. The Corps of Discovery established a route to the Pacific and paved the way for the Western expansion that would define 19th-century America.

The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition “is an American epic,” in large part owing to its plentiful documentation, says historian Craig Fehrman, author of a forthcoming book about the journey. In total, the captains and their soldiers wrote more than a million words about their trip. “It’s shocking how many details were preserved and how many perspectives were preserved,” Fehrman says.

The authors of Eagle Woman assert that from the beginning, Lewis and Clark’s understanding of Sacagawea was shaped by her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trapper who joined the expedition as a Hidatsa interpreter. He told Lewis and Clark that Sacagawea was Shoshone and had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa when she was little. When the couple joined the expedition, Sacagawea was the only girl among dozens of men. She’d given birth to a son just two months before setting off with the Corps in April 1805, and she brought him along on the journey.

But, the authors say, Charbonneau was unreliable. His command of Hidatsa, the only language he shared with Sacagawea, was reportedly poor, and his English was worse.

The authors of Eagle Woman say that from the beginning, Lewis and Clark’s understanding of Sacagawea was shaped by her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. He was a French-Canadian fur trapper who joined the expedition as a Hidatsa interpreter. He told Lewis and Clark that Sacagawea was Shoshone and had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa when she was little. When the couple joined the expedition, Sacagawea was the only girl among dozens of men. She’d given birth to a son just two months before setting off with the Corps in April 1805. She brought him along on the journey.

But, the authors say, Charbonneau was unreliable. His command of Hidatsa, the only language he shared with Sacagawea, was reportedly poor. His English was even worse.

“The language situation surely resulted in inaccuracies all through the journals,” the authors of Eagle Woman write. “Each communication should be seen as a possible misinterpretation.”

When Sacagawea is mentioned in the journals, it’s more often in terms like “the Indian woman,” “squaw,” or “interpreter’s wife” than by name. Her most memorable appearance may be in the entry for January 6, 1806, in present-day Oregon. Clark was putting together a small group to investigate a whale that had washed ashore, and Sacagawea wanted to come along. Lewis wrote: “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 the expedition’s end in the fall of 1806, Sacagawea ended up where Lewis and Clark had found her, with the Hidatsa in North Dakota. One of Clark’s final entries about Sacagawea commends “the Indian woman” for being “of great service to me as a pilot through this country.”

“The language situation surely resulted in inaccuracies all through the journals,” the authors of Eagle Woman write. “Each communication should be seen as a possible misinterpretation.”

When Sacagawea is mentioned in the journals, it’s more often in terms like “the Indian woman,” “squaw,” or “interpreter’s wife” than by name. Her most memorable appearance may be in the entry for January 6, 1806, in present-day Oregon. Clark was putting together a small group to investigate a whale that had washed ashore. Sacagawea wanted to come along. Lewis wrote: “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 the expedition’s end in the fall of 1806, Sacagawea ended up back with the Hidatsa in North Dakota. One of Clark’s final entries about Sacagawea commends “the Indian woman” for being “of great service to me as a pilot through this country.”

After that, Sacagawea mostly disappeared from written records. However on December 20, 1812, John Luttig, a clerk stationed at the Fort Manuel Lisa trading post several hundred miles upriver from St. Louis, recorded that “this Evening the Wife of Charbonneau. . . died of a putrid fever. She was a good and the best Woman in the fort.” And in a list of expedition members that Clark made around 1825, he wrote next to Sacagawea’s name, “Dead.” Many historians took this list as the final word on Sacagawea’s fate, but the Hidatsa say it was one of Charbonneau’s other Indian wives who died in 1812, not Sacagawea.

But in that same list, Clark lists Corps member Patrick Gass as dead. Gass outlived Clark by some 30 years and became the longest-surviving member of the expedition.

Even the journals’ editing process presented more opportunities for confusion. Lewis died before he could turn his raw copy into a publishable book, so the task fell to Nicholas Biddle, a Philadelphia financier who had never been west of Pittsburgh. He included multiple scenes that appear in neither Lewis’s nor Clark’s notes from the expedition.

After that, Sacagawea mostly disappeared from written records. John Luttig was a clerk stationed at the Fort Manuel Lisa trading post several hundred miles upriver from St. Louis. On December 20, 1812, he recorded that “this Evening the Wife of Charbonneau . . . died of a putrid fever. She was a good and the best Woman in the fort.” And in a list of expedition members that Clark made around 1825, he wrote next to Sacagawea’s name, “Dead.” Many historians took this list as the final word on Sacagawea’s fate. However, the Hidatsa say it was one of Charbonneau’s other Indian wives who died in 1812, not Sacagawea.

On that same list, Clark lists Corps member Patrick Gass as dead. Gass outlived Clark by some 30 years. In fact, he became the longest-surviving member of the expedition.

Even the journals’ editing process presented more opportunities for confusion. Lewis died before he could turn his raw copy into a publishable book. The task was left to Nicholas Biddle, a Philadelphia financier who had never been west of Pittsburgh. He included multiple scenes that appear in neither Lewis’s nor Clark’s notes from the expedition.

Our Story of Eagle Woman describes the lost decades that Sacagawea spent back among the Hidatsa with striking detail. By her early 50s, she’d had three more children with Charbonneau. Smallpox had wiped out so many Hidatsa that women were encouraged to have as many children as possible to keep the tribe from extinction. Charbonneau eventually went back to St. Louis; Sacagawea refused to go with him, and moved further up the Missouri River to a village where she spent the rest of her life as a single mother. She loved coffee, and kept a garden. By adding decades to her story, the Hidatsa have changed its meaning: The journey to the Pacific becomes a year-and-a-half-long blip, rather than the whole of her existence.

The heart of the book’s narrative is a firsthand account of her supposed death in 1869, told years later to a U.S. soldier by a Hidatsa man who said he was her grandson, Bulls Eye. Although it has existed in written form for at least 100 years and as oral history for even longer, it has gone mostly unexamined by Lewis and Clark scholars.

Bulls Eye said that in 1869, when he was 4, he traveled with his mother, his grandmother, and a group to a trader’s post in Montana Territory where Sacagawea was hoping to buy some coffee. One night, they were attacked by a Sioux raiding party. Bulls Eye was unhurt, but his mother and Sacagawea were shot. “I can remember it well,” he said. “Several dead people lay around and under the wagons.” He said his mother died on the spot, and seven days later, Sacagawea died as well.

The soldier who initially wrote down Bulls Eye’s story went on to interview other Hidatsa who confirmed Sacagawea lived into her 80s.

Our Story of Eagle Woman describes the lost decades that Sacagawea spent back among the Hidatsa with striking detail. By her early 50s, she’d had three more children with Charbonneau. Smallpox had wiped out so many Hidatsa that women were encouraged to have as many children as possible to keep the tribe from extinction. Charbonneau eventually went back to St. Louis. Sacagawea refused to go with him. She moved further up the Missouri River to a village where she spent the rest of her life as a single mother. She loved coffee and kept a garden. By adding decades to her story, the Hidatsa have changed its meaning: The journey to the Pacific becomes a year-and-a-half-long blip, rather than the whole of her existence.

The heart of the book’s narrative is a firsthand account of her supposed death in 1869, told years later to a U.S. soldier by a Hidatsa man who said he was her grandson, Bulls Eye. The story has gone mostly unexamined by Lewis and Clark scholars even though it existed in written form for at least 100 years and as oral history for even longer.

Bulls Eye said that in 1869, when he was 4, he traveled with his mother, his grandmother, and a group to a trader’s post in Montana Territory. Sacagawea was hoping to buy some coffee. One night, they were attacked by a Sioux raiding party. Bulls Eye was unhurt, but his mother and Sacagawea were shot. “I can remember it well,” he said. “Several dead people lay around and under the wagons.” He said his mother died on the spot, and seven days later, Sacagawea died as well.

The soldier who initially wrote down Bulls Eye’s story went on to interview other Hidatsa who confirmed Sacagawea lived into her 80s.

To support this counternarrative, the advisory board behind Eagle Woman knew it would need documents that backed up Bulls Eye’s account. With the help of historians and a librarian at the Fort Berthold reservation, they found documents that supported this story, including an image of a U.S. government “individual history card” from Fort Berthold that lists Eagle Woman as Bulls Eye’s grandmother. They conducted DNA testing, collecting cheek swabs from Hidatsa elders that linked Hidatsa descendants of Sacagawea to descendants of Toussaint Charbonneau—more proof, they say, that she was Hidatsa, not Shoshone. “When we look at all of this,” Sandra Fox says, “we wonder why historians didn’t look into these things further.”

However, many historians remain skeptical of the evidence Eagle Woman presents. Jay Buckley, a historian at Brigham Young University, says he didn’t find the Bulls Eye narrative entirely convincing. Even the death scene was questionable: It was recorded 50 years after the fact, and Bulls Eye was describing something that happened when he was a young child.

To support this version, the advisory board behind Eagle Woman knew it would need documents that backed up Bulls Eye’s account. With the help of historians and a librarian at the Fort Berthold reservation, they found documents that supported this story. They found an image of a U.S. government “individual history card” from Fort Berthold that lists Eagle Woman as Bulls Eye’s grandmother. They did DNA testing, collecting cheek swabs from Hidatsa elders that linked Hidatsa descendants of Sacagawea to descendants of Toussaint Charbonneau. This supports that she was Hidatsa, not Shoshone. “When we look at all of this,” Sandra Fox says, “we wonder why historians didn’t look into these things further.”

However, many historians remain skeptical of the evidence Eagle Woman presents. Jay Buckley, a historian at Brigham Young University, says he didn’t find the Bulls Eye narrative entirely convincing. Even the death scene was questionable because it was recorded 50 years after the fact. Bulls Eye was describing something that happened when he was a young child.

Many of Buckley’s colleagues agree, saying they couldn’t disprove the primary claims of the book, but neither did they find them persuasive. Historian Larry Morris, who wrote a book about the Corps of Discovery, doesn’t think that the impasse will get resolved anytime soon.

“Everybody’s got some kind of vested interest,” he says. “Certainly the Hidatsa and Shoshones do. And of course, historians also do, because we like to believe in our tradition, which is finding primary documents and relying on those. And we don’t like to admit that they could be mistaken.”

Fehrman is leery of framing the debate over Sacagawea’s history as “journals vs. oral traditions,” and remains firm in his belief that Sacagawea was Shoshone. In his reading, the journals from the expedition include two instances of Sacagawea talking about being Shoshone, including recounting the story of her kidnapping from the Shoshone by the Hidatsa.

“Her story speaks to the things that lots of Native women whose names we’ll never know have accomplished,” he says. “She’s an incredible person with an incredible story, so it makes all the sense in the world to me that lots of nations would see themselves in her and want to claim her.”

Many of Buckley’s colleagues agree, saying they couldn’t disprove the primary claims of the book, but neither did they find them convincing. Historian Larry Morris, who wrote a book about the Corps of Discovery, doesn’t think that the issue will get resolved anytime soon.

“Everybody’s got some kind of vested interest,” he says. “Certainly the Hidatsa and Shoshones do. And of course, historians also do, because we like to believe in our tradition, which is finding primary documents and relying on those. And we don’t like to admit that they could be mistaken.”

Fehrman is cautious of framing the debate over Sacagawea’s history as “journals vs. oral traditions.” He remains firm in his belief that Sacagawea was Shoshone. In his reading, the journals from the expedition include two instances of Sacagawea talking about being Shoshone, including recounting the story of her kidnapping from the Shoshone by the Hidatsa.

“Her story speaks to the things that lots of Native women whose names we’ll never know have accomplished,” he says. “She’s an incredible person with an incredible story, so it makes all the sense in the world to me that lots of nations would see themselves in her and want to claim her.”