Sacajawea
Page 140
“One of the biggest hoaxes in history had its beginning in 1904 at Laramie, Wyoming,” according to Blanche Schroer, who lives in Lander, Wyoming, and was a resident of the Wind River Indian Reservation.6 Schroer does not believe that the Wind River woman called Porivo was Sacajawea at all, but some other Shoshoni woman, who knew little of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and that the closest she ever came to a large body of water was the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
In 1886, Shoogan, or Bazil, a subchief under Washakie, died. He was wrapped in a sheet and blanket and taken by a few Indians up to a stream called Mill Creek, and placed in a new gulch that was dug into the bank and that caved down and covered the body.
In 1924, Andrew Bazil, son of old Bazil, gave his consent to Dr. Charles Eastman, inspector and investigator for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, to have his father’s grave site dug into. He recalled that his father was buried with the papers that had belonged to Sacajawea and many of them from members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Brig ham Young of the Mormon Church. The wallet was found lying underneath the skull “in good condition.” But thecontents were “ruined by moisture and the passage of time” so that they could not be read. The skeleton was found in poor condition. An old saddle lay across the feet, and beside the skeleton was a handsome pipe of peace. On January 12, 1925, the bones were reinterred beside the bones of Sacajawea in the Shoshoni cemetery. On account of freezing weather, it was impossible to hold a formal ceremony beyond the reading of the prayers for the dead.7
This raises the question of why Dr. Eastman, who was college-educated, did not send the leather wallet with its “moisture-ruined” papers to a museum or some university’s anthropology department or the Smithsonian Institution, where people qualified to open and take the papers apart carefully would have been delighted at the chance to “prove” that this man buried in the Shoshoni cemetery was the nephew of Sacajawea and that the papers had, indeed, belonged to Sacajawea. And why was the grave of the old Shoshoni woman, said to be Sacajawea, not opened at the same time? There might have been some identifying thing buried with her.
Finn Burnett, the government farmer on the reservation, never went to school, but taught himself to read and write. He said that all he ever knew of the Lewis and Clark Expedition he learned from the squaw called Porivo, whom he believed to be Sacajawea. He said he had heard her speak English, French, and Shoshoni, and seen her good form of hand language.8
James I. Patten, U.S. Government teacher, religious instructor, and Indian Agent to the Shoshonis from 1874 to 1880, said:
I believe most sincerely in the identity of this Shoshone woman. From the very first of my acquaintance with her in 1874, I was sure of this fact. She must have been Sacajawea for how could an old Shoshone squaw have known of Lewis and Clark if she had not seen them and had not been associated with them at least for some time?9
Tom Rivington, a western pioneer who lived his last years in Gering, Nebraska, wrote to Dr. Hebard about being with Sacajawea in Virginia City, Montana, in theyears 1860 and 1861, when he was an orphaned boy.10 At that time there was no Virginia City. Gold was not discovered in Alder Gulch until May 26,1863, and Virginia City came into existence in June of that year. It is known that Tom was a tall-story teller, and he probably wrote some of his tall ones to Dr. Hebard to please her and to have his name in her famous book.
Rivington told Dr. Hebard that all U.S. Army officers at Fort Washakie knew Sacajawea and gave her presents. She traveled constantly through the mountains, helped by the stage drivers, who never charged for her rides. Rivington went on to say that Henry Plummer, the sheriff and onetime road agent, gave her three sacks of flour to keep her from going on a certain stage. That night the stage was robbed and the passengers shot.11
Rivington also wrote to Dr. Hebard the following, which shows he had a flair for writing as well as storytelling:
She never liked to stay or live where she could not see the mountains, for them she called home. For the unseen spirits dwelt in the hills, and a swift running creek could preach a better sermon for her than any mortal could have done. Every morning she thanked the spirits for a new day. She worshipped the white flowers that grew at the snow line on the sides of the tall mountains for, as she said, she sometimes believed that they were the spirits of little children that had gone away, but reappeared every spring to gladden the pathway of those now living.
I was just a boy then, but those words sunk down deep in my soul. I believed them, and I believe now, that if there is a hereafter, that the good Indian woman’s name will be on the right side of the ledger. Sa-ca-ja-we is gone.12
Merrill J. Mattes of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, wrote about Tom Rivington’s character:
It so happens I remember very vividly my conversations with Tom Rivington of Gering, Nebraska, way back in the 1930’s and I distinctly remember his telling me that he knew Sacajawea and rode in the stage coach with her, etc. At the time I believed him, because I didn’t have much background in western history. Now, however, I think this was a fabrication, or else the woman he claims he knew as Sacajawea was actually someone else with an assumed name.
It is a difficult thing to come right out and admit that the famous grave at Fort Washakie is not that of Sacajawea after all, but of some other historical nobody.13,14
The people in the state of Wyoming freely admit the veracity of the journal entries of Judge Brackenridge and Clerk John Luttig stating that Charbonneau was on the keelboat going up the Missouri in 1811. But they believe that the woman with him, who later died at Fort Manuel, was a Shoshoni, but not Sacajawea. Charbonneau always had several young squaws; Otter Woman was also a Shoshoni.
Will Robinson, secretary of the South Dakota State Historical Society, wrote:
I have not the slightest doubt but that she died ai Fort Manuel [South Dakota]. The Wyoming myth was a good one before the Luttig Journals were unearthed in 1912, suggesting she died in 1812. Add the testimony of Brackenridge and others as to her being at Ft. Manuel and Clark’s final statement, and no one could possibly have known better of her death than he and you have the final rivet in the coffin of the Wyoming myth.15
The people in Oklahoma like to quote Edith Connelley Clift, wife of the late William H. Clift, a Lawton businessman, cotton gin owner, and historian. Edith Clift was a researcher and writer of historical articles. She says:
She left a son among the Comanche and during recent years, a daughter of that son visited us here on this reservation. One time when she was on the reservation she explained to me that she was a granddaughter of Sacajawea. The tradition was very common among this tribe of Indians that Sacajawea had led a large body of white men to the west to a body of big waters.
The daughter of Sacajawea’s son, Ticannaf, above referred to was Ta-soon-da-hipe or Tah-cu-tine, which translated means Take Pity On. She resided within a few miles of Lawton, Oklahoma, on the Reservation there.
And so, Oklahoma may claim contact with the history of our earlier days as a nation; and an important link with the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition.16
And so Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota claim to have the burial ground of Sacajawea. Oklahoma takes much pride in having her grandchildren grow up near Lawton. Even the city of Cloverport, Kentucky, population about 1,400, celebrates an annual Sacajawea festival in August. The city’s inhabitants believe, although they are incorrect, that Sacajawea was already with Captain Lewis when he was sent to Louisville to recruit nine Kentucky woodsmen in 1803 for the expedition.17 The state of Idaho claims to have Sacajawea’s birthplace near Fort Lemhi. North Dakota, Washington, and Oregon have statues commemorating Sacajawea as the “guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition.”
The cemetery at Wind River Reservation, Fort Washakie, Wyoming, where it is believed by many that Sacajawea lies buried, is a forty-acre tract of ground enclosed by a fence of cedar posts and barbed wire, with an irrigation ditch running along the left side
, that once belonged to Andrew Bazil. Among the grave decorations, iron bedsteads, neatly painted white, hold the most prominent place. They are placed around the graves; the head-and footboard and two sides mark a small fence to protect the grave. Many wagons are likewise given an honored place, though the boxes and tongues have been removed from them.
When the woman called Porivo, believed to be Sacajawea, was buried, a small wooden slab was placed at the head of her grave.18 The spring grass stood high, brushing the moccasins of the mourners. Groves of yellow-green cottonwood trees sheltered the splashing waters of the Wind River. Sage covered the ridges and mesas.
On the lower hills were stands of sycamore, of alder and aspen. Near the water, always, were the slender white trunks of graceful birch rising out of the bloodred soil. Above all loomed the distant high peaks of the Shining Mountains, the magnificent snowclad Wind River Range to the west and the Owl Creek Mountains to the northeast.
Today, however, a substantial gray-granite column placed on a raised concrete slab marks the grave. On the face of this rough stone is a large polished area containing the inscription:19
SACAJAWEA
DIED APRIL 9, 1884
A GUIDE WITH THE
LEWIS AND CLARK
EXPEDITION
1805 1806
IDENTIFIED, 1907 by
REV. J. ROBERTS
WHO OFFICIATED AT
HER BURIAL
Under this inscription is a bronze plaque with the words:
DEDICATED BY
THE WYOMING STATE ORGANIZATION
OF THE WYOMING SOCIETY
OF THE DAUGHTERS
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1943
Annually, hundreds of people visit this commemoration of the final resting place of Sacajawea. She was the first woman to travel across half the continent with American soldiers to the Pacific Coast.
Notes
Many facts and stories from a variety of sources came to my attention during the writing of this novel that were interesting sidelights, but did not necessarily further the life story of Sacajawea. Collected here, they give authenticity and perspective to our Indian heroine. In most cases, the citations include: author’s name, year of publication if more than one work of the author appears in the Bibliography, and relevant page numbers. More complete information regarding these sources may be found in the Bibliography that follows these Notes. Notes that do not have source references are my own explications. In some cases copyright owners requested that the complete source be included here in the owners’ particular format.
—A.L.W.
CHAPTER 1 Old Grandmother
1. The Agaidükas, or Salmon Eaters, were the Lemhi Shoshonis first seen by explorers in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. The Tukadükas, or Sheep Eaters, probably merged with the Agaidükas just prior to discovery by white men. From The Shoshonis, Sentinels of the Rockies, by Virginia Trenholm and Maurine Carley, p. 22. Copyright 1964 by the University of Oklahoma Press.
2. Halfway up the mountain toward the large medicine circle, there are several huge horseshoe prints, and another close to the top. All are made of stones. Apparently pointing to the large circle from nearly one hundred miles away to the southwest is a fifty-eight-foot-long arrow made of stones. Trenholm and Carley, p. 25.
3. A Shoshoni chiefs office was not hereditary. The chief depended on his valor and integrity to acquire and retain the office. Trenholm and Carley, p. 32.
4. Many Native Americans, including the Shoshonis, incorporate a story of a great flood in their myths and legends. Trenholm and Carley, p. 35.
5. A mother bear seldom leaves her cubs very far away, even during the second summer. She will attack anything she thinks is trying to molest the cubs. Scharff, p. 126.
CHAPTER 2 Captured.
1. The journals of Lewis and Clark give a most complete record of the daily progress of their expedition. The inventive spelling and laconic prose style have endeared both men to generations of readers.
2. Some say that the storytelling period of the Shoshonis is during December, January, and February, and that they refuse to tell their stories any other time. Good storytellers were always in demand, but no one had exclusive right to any particular tale. From The Shoshonis, Sentinels of the Rockies, by Virginia Trenholm and Maurine Carley, p. 36. Copyright 1964 by the University of Oklahoma Press.
3. On July 28, 1805, nearly five years later, Captains Lewis and Clark named the eastern fork of the Missouri, which was 2,500 miles from its mouth, Gallatin, after Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin; the middle fork, the Madison, for Secretary of State, James Madison; and the western fork, the Jefferson, “in honor of that illustrious personage Thomas Jefferson.” R. G. Ferris, pp. 149, 152.
CHAPTER 3 People of the Willows
1. Flintlock is a term used indiscriminately for any type of gun that has a spring that activates a hammer so that it strikes a piece of flint against a vertical, pivoted, striking plate to produce sparks that ignite the charge. From the late 1600s to the early 1800s the flintlock was the dominant firearm in use. From Encyclopedia of Firearms, edited by Harold L. Peterson. Copyright (c) by George Rainbird Ltd., 1964. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, E. P. Dutton, Inc., p. 130.
CHAPTER 4 Bird Woman
1. Mandan bull boats were different from any boats made by other tribes. They were surprisingly similar to the Welsh coracle. Both were made of rawhide stretched on a frame of willow and shaped round, like a tub. It was light enough for a woman to carry from storage to the water. The Mandan woman stood in the front of her bull boat and dipped the paddle forward, drawing it back to her. She did not paddle at the side. She moved rapidly in her little round boat. Catlin, Vol. II, p. 261.
2. This Shoshoni girl’s name is spelled in this fashion only because it is the most common spelling found in the U.S. Most readers are probably aware of the good-natured disagreement the various spellings of her name can inspire. The National Park Service, in 1979, adopted the spelling Sacagawea, because despite the varied spelling in the Lewis and Clark Journals, the g is generally present. Also, since she was Shoshoni, this is a Shoshoni word (meaning boat launcher).
Historian John Bakeless used Sacagawea because Clark wrote in his journal on Monday, May 20, 1805,“… this stream we called Sah-ca-gah-we-a or bird woman’s River, after our interpreter, the Snake woman.”
It was George Shannon who spelled the Shoshoni woman’s name Sacajawea, with the soft j in the middle.
The people in the Dakotas, close to Hidatsa territory, write Sakakawea. The famed Mandan and Hidatsa anthropologist, Dr. Alfred Bowers of Moscow, Idaho, told me in May 1979 that she was given her name while living among the Hidatsa, and it means Bird Woman.
In 1970 the Lemhi County Historical Society, Salmon, Idaho, published a letter written by a historian, John E. Rees, sometime in the mid-1920s to the Hon. Charles H. Burke, U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The1970 reprint of the letter was edited by David G. Ainsworth and titled, “Madame Charbonneau: The Indian Woman Who Accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804–6: How she received her Indian Name and what became of her.” Rees points out that both Sacajawea and Sacagawea are Shoshoni versions and mean “travels with the boats that are being pulled.” The Hidatsa language contains no j or g. Sakaka in Hidatsa means “bird” and wea means “woman.” The Lewis and Clark Journals are clear that her name means Bird Woman.
3. Coyotes belong to the same mammalian family as domestic dogs. In summer they hunt and kill small prey, gophers, mice, and squirrels, and in winter they feed on large, dead prey such as carrion of deer, moose, and elk. Coyotes mate once a year and the same pair returns to the same den site each year. Bekoff and Wells, pp. 130–48.
4. Catlin writes about these people’s “extraordinary art of manufacturing a very beautiful and lasting kind of blue glass beads.” Catlin, Vol. II, pp. 260–1.
It is assumed that by the early 1800s there had been a cultural exchange between the Manda
n and Hidatsa (origin, early Crow). They lived close together in the five-village area near the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers, in what is now North Dakota. Thus, their lodges, food, clothing, religious rites, etc. were quite similar.
CHAPTER 5 The Wild Dog
1. Besides hunting the buffalo, the Mandan also “gathered” buffalo meat. Every spring when the ice of the Missouri River and its tributaries began to melt and break up, the buffalo which had drowned or been frozen in the ice floated downstream. The Mandans swam or floated out on the river on blocks of ice to gather in these buffalo. This soft, rotten meat was a great delicacy to these people. Spicer, p. 219.
CHAPTER 6 The Trading Fair
1. In 1736 a Jesuit missionary told about the Assiniboins’ annual spring visit to the Mandan to trade for dried corn. La Verendrye, two years later, experiencedthe Mandan trade fair and wrote about the dried corn, tobacco, grain, and squash exchanged for flintlocks, axes, kettles, powder, knives, and awls. A decade later the Arapaho were holding trade fairs on a branch of the Platte River to obtain British steel knives and axes from the Cheyenne, who in turn had traded them from the Mandan. During this heightened trade period, the Crees traded their furs and snowshoes for guns and in a period of a few years turned from a secluded Woodland type people to a typical nomadic Plains people. From Indians of the Plains, by Robert H. Lowie, pp. 22, 130, 211, Natural History Press. Copyright 1954 by the American Museum of Natural History.
CHAPTER 7 Toussaint Charbonneau