Share on Facebook

Sacagawea Biography

Explorer

Sacagawea was a Shoshone Indian who traveled with the Lewis and Clark expedition from 1804-1806. She was the slave wife of the expedition's French-Canadian guide, Touissaint Charbonneau; the only woman in the party, she also carried with her an infant son, Jean Baptiste (nicknamed "Pompy"). Her native knowledge and her relations with her own tribe proved invaluable to the explorers as she traveled with them all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea is depicted on the front of a U.S. gold dollar coin, which was first minted in the year 2000.

Extra credit: A Wind River Shoshone woman who claimed to be Sacagawea lived until 1884, but most scholars believe that the Sacagawea who accompanied Lewis and Clark died in 1812. William Clark adopted Jean Baptiste and a daughter, Lisette, after her death... The Sacagawea dollar replaced the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, which was last minted in 1999.

Sacagawea appears with Abe Lincoln and James Madison in our loop On The Money.

Blog posts mentioning Sacagawea:

• Tiger Woods and Sarah Palin? Really?
• Book Review: "The Silent Spirit"
• Sacagawea Gets Backup
• Here Come the Dollar Presidents