What Was The Role Of Sacagawea In The Lewis And Clark Expedition?

Sacagawea was a woman who had played a great role in the geographical history of the United States by helping Jefferson's team of Lewis and Clark who had been sent to Louisiana to explore the land after the United States had bought the land from France along with the land of New Orleans. Sacagawea's husband, whose name was Toussaint Charbonneau was a French Canadian by descent, nevertheless he understood the sign language of the Native Americans and therefore proved to be a great deal of help for the Lewis and Clark expedition as they hired him as their interpreter. The couple met the Lewis and Clark expedition during the winter their group spent in North Dakota. The reason for hiring Sacagawea was the same as her husband as she also knew the Shoshone language being a Shoshone by birth. Both husband and wife played a great role in helping the Lewis and Clark expedition in achieving their mission and at the end of it, they returned to live with the Shoshone tribe, which was the native tribe of Sacagawea.

If you read the whole story they could not have done it without Sacagawea, and many times their lives were saved because she was with them! However that gave them no excuse to change some of the names of them to say they had discovered them! For my blood already had found them and knew of these things. THEY had already named them centuries before ANY white man!

Sacajawea was a slave (1). Sacajawea was one of two wives in a polygamous relationship (1). Sacajawea was abused by Charbonneau as reported by Clark (2). Sacajawea was not paid for her food gathering role as Charbonneau as her owner took all the money (2).

1. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition. Columbia University Press
2. Wooden Dollar by Ben Metcalf

She translated conversation between indian spots for Lewis and Clark.

And helped the indians understand that Lewis and Clark are good people.

Sacajawea was a guide and interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition. Without her the expedition wouldnt have been able to make it.