A FINE BOY
Following Indian custom, several older women stayed close by. They did everything they could to comfort Sacagawea and help her through her ordeal. The women were joined by a group of white men, visitors to the village. They, too, were concerned. In low tones, they exchanged ideas about what they could do to ease Sacagawea’s pain.
One said he’d heard of a medicine made from bits of a rattlesnake’s rattle. The men quickly fixed the drink according to his instructions. Perhaps too weak to say no, Sacagawea drank down the strange potion the white men offered. Whether the medicine had anything to do with it no one could say, but only ten minutes later she gave birth to a healthy, hardy baby boy. She and the boy’s father, Toussaint Charbonneau, called him Jean Baptiste. Soon, though, he would be best known by the nickname Pomp.
As difficult as the baby’s birth had been, it was just one of many hardships young Sacagawea had already had to bear. A member of the Shoshone tribe, she had grown up in the Lemhi River Valley of present-day Idaho. Her people were great horse trainers, which gave them a powerful position among their Indian neighbors. Living on the grassy plains of the central United States, these Indians hunted buffalo that roamed in large herds. The hunters needed strong, obedient horses to find and chase their prey.
Shoshone horses, therefore, were in great demand. Indians of many tribes were eager to trade food and other goods for them. The Shoshone's enemies, though, preferred to steal the valuable animals. They often raided Shoshone villages and made off with as many horses as they could. Sometimes, raiders also captured Shoshone women and made them into slaves.
When Sacagawea was about twelve, she was taken prisoner by Hidatsa Indians who attacked her village. They led the terrified girl more than five hundred miles east to the Hidatsa's village of Metaharta in what is now North Dakota. There she lived as a prisoner, forced to do whatever her captors demanded. Separated from her family, she had only one tie left to her old life—another young Shoshone girl, whom the Hidatsa had also captured from her village.
It was while living with the Hidatsa that Sacagawea met Toussaint Charbonneau. His ancestors were from France. They had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled in what is now Canada probably in the early eighteenth century. Charbonneau himself was born in the Canadian city of Montreal. As an adult, he traveled south and became a fur trader on the Missouri River. He made his living by purchasing animal furs from Indians and reselling them to non-Indians at a higher price.
For eight years, Charbonneau had lived among the Hidatsa and their Indian neighbors the Mandan. Personally, the Indians did not particularly like or trust him. Yet, because he offered the Indian goods they wanted, they were willing to allow him to live in their villages.
Possibly to pay off a gambling debt, the Hidatsa gave Sacagawea and the other Shoshone slave girl to Charbonneau. Like many French-Canadian traders, he was happy to have Indian women tend to his needs. Life on the Missouri could be difficult, so non-Indian traders often relied on the labor of women to make their lives more comfortable. The women's work included gathering wild plants to eat, cooking meals, building houses, sewing clothes, and cleaning animal furs. Charbonneau and the other traders considered Sacagawea and her friend his wives. In fact, though, they were probably treated more like his servants.
Sacagawea had lived with Charbonneau for several years when, on October 26, 1804, some twenty white men appeared in their village. The Hidatsa and Mandan were accustomed to dealing with non-Indian traders, so they were not frightened by these strangers. These men, however, had not come to trade. They were explorers who called themselves the Corps of Discovery.
The Corps of Discovery was led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They had been hired by President Thomas Jefferson to lead a crew of men west from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Much of area was part of the Louisiana Purchase, a great tract of land that Jefferson had recently bought from France.
At that time, no American, not even Jefferson, really knew what this land was like. Lewis and Clark were given the mission to find out. They were told to take notes about every detail of their travels—from the rivers and mountains they came upon to the plants and animals they saw to the Indian people they met. It’s from the journals of Lewis, Clark, and several of their men that we know about Sacagawea and her baby.
Just over a week after Lewis and Clark's arrival, Charbonneau, accompanied by his two wives, paid them a visit. He wanted the explorers to hire him as an interpreter. Even though Charbonneau knew little English, the explorers were interested. They had come to the village by traveling up the Missouri River from the city of St. Louis. During the long trip, the explorers could speak to the Indians they encountered only through hand signs. Needless to say, Lewis and Clark had a hard time asking the Indians for directions and other information they needed. They knew their expedition would be far more successful if they had someone in their crew who could talk to Indians in their own languages.
Charbonneau knew how to speak Hidatsa. Lewis and Clark believed this might make him useful on the trip. But the explorers were more excited by his offer to bring Sacagawea along. In addition to Hidatsa, she could speak Shoshone, a skill that could make her very valuable to the expedition. Lewis and Clark were hoping to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. But if they couldn't and had to travel over land instead, they would need horses to carry their men and their supplies. By talking with the Hidatsa and the Mandan, the explorers had learned that the Indians with the best horses on the plains were the Shoshone.
If Sacagawea came on the expedition, she could talk to the Shoshone and translate what they said into Hidatsa. Charbonneau could then translate her Hidatsa words into French. Another expedition member who knew French and English could then repeat the message in English for the rest of the men. As complicated as this system was, it would still be more effective than trying to make a deal with Shoshone horse traders using hand signals alone.
Lewis and Clark were eager to have Sacagawea join them, but they had one concern: She was six months pregnant. They wanted to leave on their great journey as soon as the weather turned warm. But they knew they could not set off until Sacagawea had her baby and both were healthy enough to travel.
When Sacagawea delivered Pomp on February 11, 1805, the explorers and their men breathed a sigh of relief. Despite the painful childbirth, Sacagawea recovered quickly, and her baby became stronger every day that passed. Described by William Clark as a "fine boy," the child was soon ready to journey into history as the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery.
Learn about Pomp's experiences on the Lewis and Clark Expedition in
Chapter 2: West with Lewis and Clark
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© 2000 Liz Sonneborn. All Rights Reserved.