Sacajawea’s grave is hidden away in a small cemetery off an unmarked road near Lander, Wyoming. The loudest sounds are the birds chirping and wind rustling flowers and mementos left to honor loved ones. You can’t help but feel the great respect her people, the Shoshone, have for Sacajawea in this peaceful place, without show or profit or pomp.
At the age of twelve it is thought that Sacajawea was kidnapped from her Idaho home in the Lemhi River Valley by a band of Hidatsa and taken to North Dakota. At 13 or 14, she was sold into marriage to fur trapper Toussaint Charbonneau. In 1804, Lewis and Clark chose Sacajawea as an interpreter for their famous expedition. The 19 year-old Sacajawea accompanied the explorers through from what is now North Dakota, thousand of miles, to the Pacific Ocean.
There is however great contention about the final resting place of Sacajawea, with some saying that she died of a fever at Fort Manuel Lisa in North Dakota in December 1812, there being documented writings to that effect by John Luttig, a clerk at the fort.
In 1932 scholar Grace Hebard blew the Sacagawea story wide open, “discovering” that she had been buried on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Hebard’s conclusions were amazing: Sacagawea apparently lived to be 100 years old. She witnessed years of westward expansion, conquest, ethnic cleansing, and forcible corralling. Hebard even unearthed evidence that Sacagawea eventually reunited with her long-lost son Jean-Baptiste (buried beside her) and became a chief among her people until she died in 1884.
At the Wind River gravesite today there is a stature of Sacagawea holding a sand dollar. This sculpture represents a truly remarkable young Lemhi Shoshone woman who has just made a journey of 3000 miles with the Lewis and Clark Expedition and is viewing the Pacific Ocean. The sand dollar is significant, as it was given to Chief Washakie who wore it with honor in many historical pictures.
The facts as they are known indicating that North Dakota is her final resting place is that on August 17, 1806, the Corps of Discovery returned to the Mandan and Hidatsa villages on the Missouri and Knife Rivers in North Dakota. Here it was time to say goodbye to Sakakawea and little Pomp, her son, who was now 1½ years old. During the trip, Clark had given Sakakawea the nickname “Janey.” He had also given Pomp a special honour.
Along the Yellowstone River, near present-day Billings, Montana, there is a rock pillar that rises 200 feet above the plain. Clark and his party stopped at this site, and Clark carved his name and the date, July 25, 1806, on the rock face. He named the natural pillar in honor of the youngest member of the expedition, calling it “Pompey’s Pillar.” Today, it is a National Monument where you can still see William Clark’s signature. Clark had grown so fond of Pomp that some years later, he raised Pomp as his own son.
Lewis and Clark realized that Sakakawea’s knowledge and courage during the expedition was important and helpful to the success of the journey. Her skill in finding food, making medicine, building shelters, making clothing, and using her many other abilities helped to save lives and make the journey a little less difficult. The explorers depended on her to interpret signs left by various tribes of Indians in different locations along their route.
If it had not been for Sakakawea, the expedition might have been attacked by tribes along the way who had never seen white men. These were sometimes ready to defend themselves from these strange-looking people, but when they saw that a woman was traveling with the group, they knew that the men were peaceful. A war party does not travel with a woman and a baby.
The teenage Sakakawea had used her courage, strength, and abilities to help the expedition succeed. She became one of the most famous women in the history of the United States. Sakakawea has more memorials dedicated to her than any other woman in American history. She is pictured on a United States golden dollar coin, and several Navy ships have been named in her honour.
Today, the Hidatsa village where she lived is part of Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site near Stanton. North Dakota has honoured Sakakawea many times. An eight-foot-high bronze statue of Sakakawea is located on the North Dakota State Capitol grounds, and in 2003, a statue just like it was placed in the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The largest lake in the state bears her name—Lake Sakakawea.