Sacagawea's Strength

by Stacia Deutsch

  Contents

  1. BORED

  2. WEST

  3. THE SHOSHONE

  4. CAMP FORTUNATE

  5. DREAMS

  6. BUFFALO

  7. BABS MAGEE

  8. MAPMAKING

  9. MAKING MAPS

  10. EXCITED

  A LETTER TO OUR READERS

  BEN FRANKLIN’S FAME EXCERPT

  ABOUT STACIA DEUTSCH AND RHODY COHON

  To SMC, All my love, RYC

  Bored

  “Did you hear that?” I looked around anxiously. “I swear I just heard a bear growl.”

  “What are you taking about, Abigail?” Zack asked me, making a crazy sign with his finger around his ear. He turned to his twin brother. “Did you hear anything, Jacob?”

  “I don’t think so,” Jacob replied, cupping his ear to hear better. “Nope. Nothing.”

  “I wish Abigail really did hear a bear,” Zack said with a yawn. I could see his tonsils. “We could use some excitement. I’m bored,” he moaned, stretching his arms and yawning again.

  “Me too,” Jacob added, sighing. “This isn’t how I wanted to spend the afternoon.”

  Usually, I love Mr. Caruthers’s assignments. Jacob and Zack are always excited by social studies too. But today’s project was cartography. And as far as I could tell, there was nothing more dull in the entire universe.

  Mr. C had explained that cartography is the art of making maps. We were supposed to draw in a journal an accurate map of the shallow creek bed that runs behind our school. He told us to pay special attention to the direction of the creek and which way the water flowed.

  Next to the map, we had to describe any plants and animals we saw. Mr. C even said we needed to sketch little pictures of the bugs we found.

  This was definitely the most horrible project in the whole history of social studies.

  There were four of us in our cartography group: Jacob, Zack, Bo, and me. Only Bo was interested in the class project. He was standing near a bush and holding the long iron chain Mr. C had given us. “Abigail,” he called, “would you mind holding one end of this chain against that rock over there?”

  Mr. C had told us the iron chain was called a two-pole chain. A “pole” is a unit of measurement equal to sixteen and a half feet. Each link was 7.92 inches. The whole chain was thirty-three feet long. Bo liked using the two-pole chain. By counting the links, he could figure out exactly how far it was from the bush to the rock and then put them both on our map.

  I didn’t really want to, but I went to help Bo anyway. “It could be worse,” I remarked to Jacob and Zack. Looking over my shoulder, I glanced over at the rest of our social studies classmates wandering around the creek bed. “Eliana Feinerman’s group didn’t even get a chain to measure stuff. They have two sticks and a bunch of rocks.”

  “Yeah,” Jacob replied. “And Shanika Washington’s group has it real bad too. They have to make a new map by copying and correcting an old one from the school library.”

  I picked up the end of the chain and placed it against the rock. Bo dragged the other end to the bush. “Well,” I commented, watching Bo stretch the chain tight, “at least Bo’s having fun.”

  Zack looked at Bo and joked, “Yeah, well, Roberto Rodriquez is new to our school. He probably doesn’t know how to have fun.” Because he was joking, Zack winked when he used Bo’s full, real name.

  Bo laughed softly and kept counting.

  After another huge yawn, Zack opened our journal book and wrote in big letters: HISTORY CLUB? Zack turned the book toward me so I could see.

  “No clue,” I replied with a frown and a shrug.

  Usually after school on Mondays, Bo, Jacob, Zack, and I have a History Club meeting. During History Club, our cool teacher, Mr. Caruthers, sends us on a time-travel mission to visit someone famous in American history.

  Mr. C invented a time-travel computer. The computer looks like a handheld video game with four red buttons and a large screen. Slipping a cartridge into the back takes us to the past. Pulling out the cartridge brings us home again.

  Our teacher told us that American history is in danger. He showed us a little black book full of names. For some mysterious reason, all the famous Americans in Mr. C’s book were quitting. They weren’t inventing, or speaking out, or fighting for what was right. They were giving up their dreams!

  Mr. C wanted more time to focus on his newest invention, so he asked the four of us to time-travel for him. He needed us to save history from changing forever!

  So far, we’d been very successful in all of our adventures. We’d managed to keep history on track. It was amazing since the computer only gave us two hours to get the job done.

  We’re so good at time travel, Jacob, Zack, Bo, and I totally thought that we’d be hopping through time today on another History Club adventure. It was Monday, after all. But late last week, Mr. C blew our hopes out of the water. He announced that the entire social studies class was going on a field trip after school instead.

  To be honest, I’m not sure that standing in the woodsy area behind school can be called a “field trip.” There wasn’t even a bus to bring us here. We walked.

  “This is so depressing,” I mumbled under my breath. I watched a beetle crawl across the ground, but didn’t mention it to anyone because I didn’t want to have to draw it in our journal.

  “Hey, Abigail!” Bo called. Now he was standing by a pine tree. “Will you please bring me the compass? I need to know which direction this moss is growing.

  Groaning, I stepped over the beetle and went to get the compass.

  Usually, I’m bold and curious. I like learning and always have a thousand questions about everything. But not today. Today I was so bored that I thought I might drop dead. They’d write on my tombstone: HERE LIES ABIGAIL KARLIN—BORED TO DEATH.

  I glanced over at Zack. He was yawning again. It was odd because Zack is hardly ever bored. Sure, he complains and worries, but even when he’s being a pain, he still makes things fun. Zack tells the best jokes. Even his clothes make me laugh. Today he was wearing torn jeans and a too-big sweatshirt that looked like his firefighter dad had saved it from a burning building.

  His twin brother, Jacob, is totally different. Jacob was wearing nice, clean khaki pants and a Hawaiian shirt. Jacob likes learning new things. It surprised me that he wasn’t more into the mapping project. I guess if there isn’t a computer involved, Jacob isn’t going to participate.

  I needed something exciting to happen. I desperately looked around for anything to inspire my curiosity and snap me back to being me.

  “North!” Bo exclaimed after looking at the compass. “This moss is growing north.”

  Ugh. Bo’s moss wasn’t going to do it. I rolled my eyes while Bo took our team journal and excitedly wrote down his discovery.

  Mr. C walked up behind me. I didn’t see him coming and I nearly jumped out of my skin when he spoke. “It looks like the only one really working in this group is Bo.” Mr. C looked at Jacob, Zack, and me with piercing eyes. “Why is that?”

  “I—,” I began, but stopped. I love Mr. C. He is the best teacher in the whole universe. There was no way I was going to tell him his cartography project was deadly dull.

  But Zack would. “B-O-R-I-N-G.” Zack spelled out each letter as if that would make the reason crystal clear.

  “Then you’ll get a Z-E-R-O,” Mr. C responded, pulling his grade book out of his pocket. “Everyone, that is, except Bo.”

  West

  “Give us another chance. Please,” Jacob begged our teacher. Getting a zero would ruin Jacob’s grade. And life.

  Mr. C pushed up his glasses. They are always falling down. He thought for a second, tucked his pen into his shirt po
cket, closed his grade book, and said, “I think the problem is that you kids simply do not understand why this project is so important.”

  Bo stopped measuring and came over to listen.

  I asked, “Please explain it to us, Mr. Caruthers.” Maybe if he gave more details, my curiosity would kick in. I needed to shake off my bored feelings. So far, cartography wasn’t even a teenie-weenie bit interesting. There wasn’t even one good question rattling in my mind.

  But Mr. C had a lot of questions floating around in his brain. “Can you imagine a world without maps?” Mr. C asked us.

  “There’d be more trees,” Zack joked. “Get it?” He poked me in the arm. “Most maps are on paper, and paper’s made of trees.”

  “I got it,” I replied with a chuckle.

  Mr. C flashed us a warning look and asked me to answer his question.

  “I suppose,” I said, “that it would be harder to get around. We might get lost. Or end up in the wrong place.”

  “Good, Abigail,” Mr. C said. “Now”—he turned to Jacob with the next question—“what if no one had ever been west of this creek?”

  I didn’t have the compass and wasn’t sure which way west was. I glanced at Bo. He pointed out the right direction.

  “Hey,” Zack said. “We live west of here!” Since I live next door to the twins, I lived west too.

  “So,” Jacob said thoughtfully, “if no one had ever been west of here, our neighborhood wouldn’t exist.” After Mr. C nodded, Jacob went on. “And people might be scared to cross the creek because they wouldn’t know what was there.” Mr. C nodded again. “And people would be crowded over here.”

  Mr. C smiled. “All true,” he said. “Did you know that in 1803, no one from the United States government had officially explored west of the Mississippi River? Most American citizens lived east of that big river.” Mr. C looked over at Bo.

  Bo was looking down, swinging his foot in the dirt. I knew that it was because he’s shy around adults, not because he didn’t know the facts.

  Bo reads all the time, and remembers everything he reads. “Bo?” Mr. C asked him. “What do you know about the Louisiana Purchase?”

  Bo raised his head slightly and answered softly. “In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the territory west of the Mississippi River from the French. The land doubled the United States’ territory. Problem was, no one really knew for sure who lived on the land. Or what kind of land it was.”

  Mr. C looked so proud, his eyes glowed behind his glasses. Bo sure knew a lot.

  Mr. C picked up the story. “President Jefferson knew there were Native Americans living out there. Traders and fur trappers, too. But he only had a few accurate reports. He also thought there were woolly mammoths, unicorns, an erupting volcano, and a great mountain made of salt.”

  I giggled. “That’s crazy!”

  Mr. C smiled and raised his eyebrows. “But without having seen the land, President Jefferson didn’t know that.”

  All of a sudden, Jacob remembered something important. “Meriwether Lewis and William Clark,” he bubbled. “They were the army captains President Jefferson sent out to explore the land.”

  “How did you know that?” I asked Jacob. There, I’d asked my first question. It wasn’t really a great one, but I was just getting started.

  Jacob winked and said, “There’s a computer game on the Internet called LC Adventures. The goal is to help Lewis and Clark cross America.” He started wiggling his fingers as if he were typing. “You have to follow the Missouri and Columbia rivers, then cross the Rocky Mountains to get to the Pacific Ocean. The game ends if you starve to death or get killed along the way. You get extra energy points when you correctly use the few supplies President Jefferson gives you at the beginning of the game.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Mr. C commented.

  “It is!” Jacob replied. “It’s a great game.” He paused, then added, “But I’ve never won. It’s really hard.”

  “Sounds very realistic,” Mr. C told us. “In 1803 Lewis and Clark led a group of thirty-three men called the Corps of Discovery. They set out to see if they could find a river route all the way from Saint Louis, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean. President Jefferson also wanted them to write down all the plants and animals they saw. And he asked Lewis and Clark to make a map of the new territory.”

  I sighed and said, “I knew there was a map in this story somewhere.”

  Mr. C laughed. “Lewis and Clark’s journey was all about making a map of the western part of the United States.” He looked me in the eyes and added, “Making maps is important work, Abigail.”

  I knew my teacher was right, but I still didn’t want to go back to watching Bo drag the two-pole chain around the creek bed.

  Mr. C shivered as he went on with his story. “About eight months into the trip it was getting cold, and the Corps of Discovery needed to spend the winter somewhere. They chose to be near several villages of Hidasta and Mandan Indians and built a fort. While at their fort, Lewis and Clark met Sacagawea.”

  “Sacaga-who?” Zack asked.

  Mr. Caruthers shook his head sadly. “Oh, dear,” he moaned. “The school year just isn’t long enough.”

  Jacob flicked Zack on the back of the head. “You’re going to get us stuck in summer school, dope.”

  “I bet you don’t know who Sacagawea is either.” Zack flicked his brother back on the neck. “Double dope.”

  “I do too.” Jacob bent his fingers into flicking position. “I learned about her from that computer game. She’s a character in LC Adventures.”

  Before another flick could be flicked, Mr. C stepped between the twins. With one hand firmly on each boy’s shoulder, he said, “Give me your journal, compass, and two-pole chain. You aren’t going to make a map today.”

  “Yippee,” Zack cheered, clapping happily.

  “Instead,” Mr. C said sternly, “you will be doing a different project.”

  “Bummer,” Zack grumped, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

  “What kind of project?” I wondered. My curiosity was finally kicking in.

  “When the other groups share their maps, your group will make a presentation about Sacagawea in class tomorrow.” Mr. C quickly turned to Bo and said, “I’m certain you’ve read enough about Sacagawea to make the presentation on your own. You can help, but don’t forget, this is a project for the whole group.”

  Bo stared at the ground and nodded.

  “Zack, you got us in trouble!” Jacob gave his brother a mean look. “Now we’re going to be stuck inside the library.”

  “You can’t blame me for not knowing about Sacagawea,” Zack argued. “I never played LC Adventures. You never let me play anything on the compu—”

  Once again Mr. C stepped between them before they started fighting. “You aren’t going to the library.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the time-travel computer. Shoving his glasses back up his nose, Mr. C said, “It’s time for History Club to begin.”

  “Hurray!” we all cheered at the same time.

  Mr. C handed Jacob the computer and the small cartridge that fit in the back slot. The cartridge had a drawing of a young Native American woman on it. She had a baby strapped to her back.

  “Is this Sacagawea?” I asked, pointing at the little picture. “Did Sacagawea quit?”

  “Yes,” Mr. C said with a long breath. “You are going to visit Sacagawea. But be prepared because this adventure will definitely be more difficult than the others.”

  “Why?” I asked. Every question I asked made me feel more and more like my old self. My brain was starting to spin.

  Mr. C didn’t answer. Instead, he walked us to the back of a large rock where no one else could see us. Jacob slid the cartridge into the computer, and the green glowing time-travel hole opened between the rock and a tree, about four paces away.

  Mr. C reminded us that the computer gives us only two hours. When we got back, we’d need to meet up with the field trip so we
could all walk back to school together.

  Jacob, Zack, and Bo waved good-bye and eagerly jumped into the time-travel hole. Even though the hole was closing, I hung back. Now curiosity was boiling inside me.

  I asked Mr. C again, “Why will this adventure be harder than the others?”

  “When you time travel, the famous people you meet are quitting. You have to convince them to follow their dreams, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said, carefully watching that the time-travel hole didn’t close and leave me behind. “So?”

  Mr. C looked at me very seriously. “What would the world be like if Sacagawea quit her dream?”

  I considered his question as the green hole shrank a bit more. I wished Jacob and Bo hadn’t time-traveled yet. I felt dumb and needed help. I had no clue what the world would be like because, well, I didn’t know who Sacagawea was. Or what her dream was.

  When I didn’t answer, Mr. C took pity on me. “According to my list, Sacagawea is quitting today. You’re going to have to figure out who she is and then discover the dream she’s giving up.” He handed me a sealed envelope. “I hope these will help you convince her not to quit.”

  As I stuffed the envelope into my pocket, I swore I heard another animal sound. This time, it wasn’t a bear growl. No. It was more like little feet scampering across the ground.

  Mr. Caruthers didn’t seem to notice the sound. I looked around, but didn’t see anything.

  Then I heard another noise. Something chewing crunchy leaves. “Did you hear that?” I asked Mr. C.

  “Hear what?” he responded.

  A second later, I swear a wolf howled. Mr. C didn’t react.

  When I heard the lion’s roar, I didn’t care if Mr. C heard it or not. I knew I wasn’t curious enough to stick around another second. I didn’t want to know what was out there, hiding behind the trees.

  Fast as lightning, before the last wisp of smoke floated up from the green hole, I jumped through time.

  The Shoshone

  Well, I definitely wasn’t bored anymore.