Pat Danner: “in studying the history of Missouri, we always pause to pay tribute to two men, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who…”

“in studying the history of Missouri, we always pause to pay tribute to two men, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who were commissioned by President Jefferson to explore the West. All along the routes they took, we have marked the trails with their names to honor their bravery. But just in case you might have forgotten, it was Sacajawea--a woman--who showed them the way. Sacajawea was a Shoshoni, who had been captured by the Mandan tribe as a young girl. Because of this, she was familiar with the Rocky Mountains area and knew the language of several tribes. She was 16, married to a Canadian trader and mother to a new baby son when she joined the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sacajawea proved most valuable to the group many times, in many ways, The baby, whom Lewis and Clark feared would be a hindrance, also proved valuable because Indian tribes would not attack the group since the Indians knew that because they had a woman and a baby with them, they were not a war party. The journey was difficult; temperatures were often 30 to 40 degrees below zero, and at times the snow was almost 2 feet deep. However, Sacajawea was never a burden to the expedition; rather she was the calm, level-headed individual who keep them going. When the expedition ended, she lived in the village of St. Louis for many years before eventually returning to the Mandan tribe. She had five additional children and lived to be 100 years old.”