May 6, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, she was just a teenager, carrying her infant son, when she joined the most daring expedition in American history—and without her, Lewis and Clark might never have made it. Dr. Dedra Birzer of Hillsdale College brings us the incredible story of Sacagawea, the young woman who made America's most daring road trip possible.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and we tell every kind
of story here on this show, and our favorite kind,
of course, has to do with American history. And up
next comes Deirdre Berzer. And Deirdre is a professor at
Hillsdale College, proud sponsors of all of our history stories,
and today she'll be sharing with us the story of
(00:30):
one of history's most essential women, Sacajawea. Here's our own
Monty Montgomery to kick off the story.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
When Lewis and Clark left Saint Louis, Missouri on August
thirty first, eighteen or three, to find a passage to
the west. They left to have forty five men, twenty
seven of which were unmarried bachelors. Needless to say, there
was no womanly presence within the core of discovery at all.
But something changed. Here's Hillsdale College's doctor dejer Burr with
(01:00):
more on that.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
They add in Sakajuea, who is just an amazing character
on every level. So they spend the first winter with
the Mandan people in their villages in what is now
north of Bismarck, North Dakota. Here in those villages they
encounter one of these French metis, Toussaint Charboneau, who has
(01:25):
three wives and two of them are Hidatsa, and then
they have saskagueyas a third wife, and she is Shoshoni,
but she was captured as a child and sold to
the Hidatsa, so she's about sixteen years old. She's pregnant,
but the key here is that she is Shoshoni, so
(01:48):
she knows that language, and Lewis and Clark already know
and they're very worried actually that they're going to need
horses to get across the mountains. Right, the boats are
not going to be able to go across the mountains.
They're going to need horses, and they are going to
need them from the Shoshone people. And they've been really
really concerned about how all of this is going to transpire,
(02:09):
and they're actually so worried they think they might have
to turn back around and go back and give up
the expedition. So they meet to Kaduea and they convince
Charboneau to sign on to the expedition, and they know
that she is going to be essential to them, and
what her being a young mother, So she gives birth
during these winter months in February February eleventh actually eighteen
(02:32):
oh five, that she by her presence, not only is
going to be able to help them with making translations
and connections with her people, the Shoshoni, but she's also
going to give the expedition a friendlier demeanor, right that
they're not going to look like a military group two
(02:54):
different Indian tribes they encounter if they have a woman
and a baby with them, and that turns out to
be really essential to the safety of the entire core.
And so she's amazing on so many levels. But I
wanted to just think a moment about the translation issue.
So she speaks to Shoney and Hidatsa. So she speaks
(03:16):
to her husband, charboneaut in Hidatsa. Then he knows Hidatsa
in French, so he then speaks in French to one
of the members of the expedition of French Matee named
labeech Okay. Then Labiche takes the French and translates it
into English for Lewis and Clark. Can you imagine how
(03:37):
much might get lost in translation there? But apparently it
went really, really well and was so important. You have
to picture how patient Lewis and Clark had to be
for all of the negotiations to go through four languages
before they before they could take part and understand what
was being said. But one of the things that Sakajuwea
(03:59):
brings to them is her vast knowledge, not just of
the territory. Once they head out along the Missouri from
the Mandan villages, when the river finally is free of ice,
and she starts to recognize places, especially when they get
closer to Montana, but she knows how to find edible roots.
(04:25):
When they start out it's early spring, there aren't any
things for them to eat that have grown yet. Rather
they're just starting to peep out under from under the snow.
She knows where little rodents have cachete things for the winter,
and she goes. She sees these kind of piles of logs,
and she knows that that is a place where mice
(04:46):
tend to hoard the goodies that they have collected, and
so she goes immediately, and Lewis and Clark just kind
of watching her, going what is she up to? And
she finds all these roots for them. So she's continually
foraging and finding things that are essential for their diets,
for their nutrition, especially when they can't go hunting to
(05:07):
throw it aside here. When they are able to hunt, they
do so they find out that they really like beaver steaks.
Beaver is really tasty, and they end up someone along
the way has averaged this out to figure out on
the days when the Core Discovery could eat meat, each
of them was eating about nine pounds worth of meat
(05:28):
that day. We're talking about fifty some men eating nine
pounds of meat a day. Yes, And they were very
partial as well to buffalo tongue, and they would kill
the buffalo just for the tongue and the bone marrow.
Then Sakajuea would come and use every single part of
that buffalo and really show them how even the bones
(05:48):
that she would boil down for grease and then be
able to use that to seal up things from the water,
all kinds of stuff. So she brought essential knowledge to
the Core, and Lewis and Clark wrote everything down, all
the different medicines, and even when she was giving births,
she was having a really hard time, and some of
the Indians said something in translation to Lewis and Clark
(06:12):
about does anyone have a rattlesnake rattle? And they did,
and so that was ground up and given to her
and it really eased her labor pains, and she gave
birth very shortly after that, and so that all is
being recorded in these journals of all the different medicinal things.
She got very sick a couple of months into the
(06:34):
trek in the summer of eighteen oh five. She was
very sick, very close to dying, and of course the
medicine of the time probably made it worse for her.
They came across the place of a soul for hot springs.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Lewis remembered that taking the soul for water was something
that was used as a medicine sometimes and that it
might be effective, and so he gave her a lot
of the sulfur water to drink, and it almost immediately
started working. And of course, if she was dehydrated, if
that was the problem, getting that liquid in her would
(07:10):
have been a very important thing to save her. But
she was really close to death. And one of the
ways we know this is they wrote in the journals
that she was complaining all night long, and she was
so reticent she wouldn't have made all of that noise
at all all night long. But the other ways when
we see her being really essential is they often had
(07:31):
trouble with keeping the boats from capsizing. Sudden winds would
come up or the water would suddenly get really rough,
and they seem to have not have the weight distributed
very well sometimes and Sharboneau would just freeze and he
was supposed to be manning the sails or at the rudder,
and he would freeze. He would just get scared and
(07:53):
couldn't do anything, and that people in the other boats
and on the shores were trying to yell at him
what to do, and he would just kind of freak out,
and all of the things are falling out of the boat.
So picture this Sakajuweya sitting in the back of the boat,
calmly picking up everything she could reach out of the
water and putting it back in. So her calmness and
ability to do what needed to be done in the
(08:17):
moment of crisis was a real contrast with her husband,
who was a liability on many many fronts, but that
they had to be. They had to deal with him,
they had to keep him in line so they could
have access to the knowledge that Sakajuweya kept. And the
importance of Sakajueya is really seen in how every night
(08:38):
the Charboneau family was kept in the tent with the
captains with Lewis and Clark. And part of that is
that Sakajuweah was the only woman with these almost fifty men,
and so they wanted to protect her. But they kept
the Charbonoau family very close to them, and over time
became extremely close to the baby, who was named Jean Baptiste.
(09:02):
They called him pomp and he was a great favorite
and he took ill too, and that was a real
crisis moment for them. So when they finally meet up
with the Shoshoni people and they are looking and looking
all through the western side of Montana for the Shoshone
and have split up into different groups and all kinds
(09:23):
of things, and it's kind of just unbelievably crazy story.
The chief that they meet turns out to have to
be Shakajue as a brother, and so they're able to
negotiate with him. They have this great reunion. She was
kidnapped when she was eleven, so she hasn't seen her
family since then. And the horses that the Shoshone could
(09:49):
provide and the directions were very very important, and so
they provided a guide named Old Toby in about thirty
six really fine horses, and Old Toby led them through
the Lolo Trail, which is how you get kind of
from the mountains in Montana into its US twelve US
(10:10):
twelve right into Idaho. And it's very twisty and turney
and cavernous, and they would not have gotten through there
very well without the guidance of Old Toby. So this
connection provided through Sacajawea, it's like this sort of providential
moment that she was essential for the entire journey would
(10:34):
not have happened and the way it did without her.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And a special thanks to Hillsdale College professor Diirdre Berser.
The kajaway Is story told here on our American Stories
This is our American Stories, and we tell every kind
of story here on this show, and our favorite kind,
of course, has to do with American history. And up
next comes Deirdre Berzer. And Deirdre is a professor at
Hillsdale College, proud sponsors of all of our history stories,
and today she'll be sharing with us the story of
(00:30):
one of history's most essential women, Sacajawea. Here's our own
Monty Montgomery to kick off the story.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
When Lewis and Clark left Saint Louis, Missouri on August
thirty first, eighteen or three, to find a passage to
the west. They left to have forty five men, twenty
seven of which were unmarried bachelors. Needless to say, there
was no womanly presence within the core of discovery at all.
But something changed. Here's Hillsdale College's doctor dejer Burr with
(01:00):
more on that.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
They add in Sakajuea, who is just an amazing character
on every level. So they spend the first winter with
the Mandan people in their villages in what is now
north of Bismarck, North Dakota. Here in those villages they
encounter one of these French metis, Toussaint Charboneau, who has
(01:25):
three wives and two of them are Hidatsa, and then
they have saskagueyas a third wife, and she is Shoshoni,
but she was captured as a child and sold to
the Hidatsa, so she's about sixteen years old. She's pregnant,
but the key here is that she is Shoshoni, so
(01:48):
she knows that language, and Lewis and Clark already know
and they're very worried actually that they're going to need
horses to get across the mountains. Right, the boats are
not going to be able to go across the mountains.
They're going to need horses, and they are going to
need them from the Shoshone people. And they've been really
really concerned about how all of this is going to transpire,
(02:09):
and they're actually so worried they think they might have
to turn back around and go back and give up
the expedition. So they meet to Kaduea and they convince
Charboneau to sign on to the expedition, and they know
that she is going to be essential to them, and
what her being a young mother, So she gives birth
during these winter months in February February eleventh actually eighteen
(02:32):
oh five, that she by her presence, not only is
going to be able to help them with making translations
and connections with her people, the Shoshoni, but she's also
going to give the expedition a friendlier demeanor, right that
they're not going to look like a military group two
(02:54):
different Indian tribes they encounter if they have a woman
and a baby with them, and that turns out to
be really essential to the safety of the entire core.
And so she's amazing on so many levels. But I
wanted to just think a moment about the translation issue.
So she speaks to Shoney and Hidatsa. So she speaks
(03:16):
to her husband, charboneaut in Hidatsa. Then he knows Hidatsa
in French, so he then speaks in French to one
of the members of the expedition of French Matee named
labeech Okay. Then Labiche takes the French and translates it
into English for Lewis and Clark. Can you imagine how
(03:37):
much might get lost in translation there? But apparently it
went really, really well and was so important. You have
to picture how patient Lewis and Clark had to be
for all of the negotiations to go through four languages
before they before they could take part and understand what
was being said. But one of the things that Sakajuwea
(03:59):
brings to them is her vast knowledge, not just of
the territory. Once they head out along the Missouri from
the Mandan villages, when the river finally is free of ice,
and she starts to recognize places, especially when they get
closer to Montana, but she knows how to find edible roots.
(04:25):
When they start out it's early spring, there aren't any
things for them to eat that have grown yet. Rather
they're just starting to peep out under from under the snow.
She knows where little rodents have cachete things for the winter,
and she goes. She sees these kind of piles of logs,
and she knows that that is a place where mice
(04:46):
tend to hoard the goodies that they have collected, and
so she goes immediately, and Lewis and Clark just kind
of watching her, going what is she up to? And
she finds all these roots for them. So she's continually
foraging and finding things that are essential for their diets,
for their nutrition, especially when they can't go hunting to
(05:07):
throw it aside here. When they are able to hunt, they
do so they find out that they really like beaver steaks.
Beaver is really tasty, and they end up someone along
the way has averaged this out to figure out on
the days when the Core Discovery could eat meat, each
of them was eating about nine pounds worth of meat
(05:28):
that day. We're talking about fifty some men eating nine
pounds of meat a day. Yes, And they were very
partial as well to buffalo tongue, and they would kill
the buffalo just for the tongue and the bone marrow.
Then Sakajuea would come and use every single part of
that buffalo and really show them how even the bones
(05:48):
that she would boil down for grease and then be
able to use that to seal up things from the water,
all kinds of stuff. So she brought essential knowledge to
the Core, and Lewis and Clark wrote everything down, all
the different medicines, and even when she was giving births,
she was having a really hard time, and some of
the Indians said something in translation to Lewis and Clark
(06:12):
about does anyone have a rattlesnake rattle? And they did,
and so that was ground up and given to her
and it really eased her labor pains, and she gave
birth very shortly after that, and so that all is
being recorded in these journals of all the different medicinal things.
She got very sick a couple of months into the
(06:34):
trek in the summer of eighteen oh five. She was
very sick, very close to dying, and of course the
medicine of the time probably made it worse for her.
They came across the place of a soul for hot springs.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
And.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Lewis remembered that taking the soul for water was something
that was used as a medicine sometimes and that it
might be effective, and so he gave her a lot
of the sulfur water to drink, and it almost immediately
started working. And of course, if she was dehydrated, if
that was the problem, getting that liquid in her would
(07:10):
have been a very important thing to save her. But
she was really close to death. And one of the
ways we know this is they wrote in the journals
that she was complaining all night long, and she was
so reticent she wouldn't have made all of that noise
at all all night long. But the other ways when
we see her being really essential is they often had
(07:31):
trouble with keeping the boats from capsizing. Sudden winds would
come up or the water would suddenly get really rough,
and they seem to have not have the weight distributed
very well sometimes and Sharboneau would just freeze and he
was supposed to be manning the sails or at the rudder,
and he would freeze. He would just get scared and
(07:53):
couldn't do anything, and that people in the other boats
and on the shores were trying to yell at him
what to do, and he would just kind of freak out,
and all of the things are falling out of the boat.
So picture this Sakajuweya sitting in the back of the boat,
calmly picking up everything she could reach out of the
water and putting it back in. So her calmness and
ability to do what needed to be done in the
(08:17):
moment of crisis was a real contrast with her husband,
who was a liability on many many fronts, but that
they had to be. They had to deal with him,
they had to keep him in line so they could
have access to the knowledge that Sakajuweya kept. And the
importance of Sakajueya is really seen in how every night
(08:38):
the Charboneau family was kept in the tent with the
captains with Lewis and Clark. And part of that is
that Sakajuweah was the only woman with these almost fifty men,
and so they wanted to protect her. But they kept
the Charbonoau family very close to them, and over time
became extremely close to the baby, who was named Jean Baptiste.
(09:02):
They called him pomp and he was a great favorite
and he took ill too, and that was a real
crisis moment for them. So when they finally meet up
with the Shoshoni people and they are looking and looking
all through the western side of Montana for the Shoshone
and have split up into different groups and all kinds
(09:23):
of things, and it's kind of just unbelievably crazy story.
The chief that they meet turns out to have to
be Shakajue as a brother, and so they're able to
negotiate with him. They have this great reunion. She was
kidnapped when she was eleven, so she hasn't seen her
family since then. And the horses that the Shoshone could
(09:49):
provide and the directions were very very important, and so
they provided a guide named Old Toby in about thirty
six really fine horses, and Old Toby led them through
the Lolo Trail, which is how you get kind of
from the mountains in Montana into its US twelve US
(10:10):
twelve right into Idaho. And it's very twisty and turney
and cavernous, and they would not have gotten through there
very well without the guidance of Old Toby. So this
connection provided through Sacajawea, it's like this sort of providential
moment that she was essential for the entire journey would
(10:34):
not have happened and the way it did without her.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And a special thanks to Hillsdale College professor Diirdre Berser.
The kajaway Is story told here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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