WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 If you reach into your pocket right now, or maybe 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:05.059 check that cup holder in your car where all the 00:00:05.059 --> 00:00:07.019 loose change goes to die, there's a pretty good 00:00:07.019 --> 00:00:08.900 chance you might find a gold -colored coin staring 00:00:08.900 --> 00:00:11.099 back at you. The dollar coin. The dollar coin. 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:14.480 And on it, there is a young Native American woman. 00:00:14.969 --> 00:00:17.329 She's carrying an infant on her back. She's looking 00:00:17.329 --> 00:00:20.390 over her shoulder, looking, well, looking stoic, 00:00:20.390 --> 00:00:22.829 looking forward. We all know who it is. It's 00:00:22.829 --> 00:00:25.670 Sacagawea. It is. She is, without a doubt, one 00:00:25.670 --> 00:00:27.969 of the most recognizable faces in the American 00:00:27.969 --> 00:00:30.469 historical pantheon. She's on the money. She's 00:00:30.469 --> 00:00:32.890 in the textbooks. And yet, if you actually sit 00:00:32.890 --> 00:00:35.390 down with the source material, the journals, 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:38.670 the oral histories, the ethnographic studies, 00:00:38.990 --> 00:00:41.409 she is arguably one of the most misunderstood 00:00:41.409 --> 00:00:44.280 figures in that entire history. It is wild. when 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:45.880 you actually stop and think about it, we have 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.840 this very specific, almost mythologized image 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:52.060 of her. The guide pointing the way west for Lewis 00:00:52.060 --> 00:00:54.759 and Flark, like a living GPS. Yeah, that classic 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:56.840 pose. But when you actually dig into the sources 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.840 we have for today, the picture gets blurry fast. 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.659 And it's not just blurry, it's full of contradictions. 00:01:02.899 --> 00:01:05.239 Blurry is the perfect word. We're dealing with, 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:07.420 I mean, contradictory timelines, contradictory 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:10.560 names, contradictory tribal origins, and even... 00:01:10.969 --> 00:01:13.469 even contradictory death dates. That is the part 00:01:13.469 --> 00:01:15.069 that really surprised me in the reading. Like, 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:17.189 is she the young mother who died tragically in 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:20.090 1812? Or is she the revered elder who lived all 00:01:20.090 --> 00:01:22.890 the way until 1884, spanning nearly the entire 00:01:22.890 --> 00:01:27.230 19th century? And is her name Shoshone? Or is 00:01:27.230 --> 00:01:30.359 it Hidatsa? How do you even say it? And look, 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:32.540 these aren't just trivial trivia questions for 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:35.060 a pub quiz. The answers fundamentally change 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:37.819 who she was. They change who gets to claim ownership 00:01:37.819 --> 00:01:40.519 of her story, and they change what her legacy 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:42.819 actually means to the narrative of the American 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:45.939 West. So that is our mission for this deep dive. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:48.739 We are going to look past the statue, past the 00:01:48.739 --> 00:01:51.590 coin, and try to uncover the teenager. And we 00:01:51.590 --> 00:01:53.810 have to remember, she was just a teenager who 00:01:53.810 --> 00:01:56.409 acted as a diplomat, a symbol of peace, and a 00:01:56.409 --> 00:01:58.950 mother during one of the most grueling expeditions 00:01:58.950 --> 00:02:01.230 in human history. And we're going to unpack the 00:02:01.230 --> 00:02:03.689 heated and, frankly, fascinating debate over 00:02:03.689 --> 00:02:06.450 what happened to her after the expedition ended. 00:02:06.790 --> 00:02:08.909 Because that story, I mean, it's a rabbit hole 00:02:08.909 --> 00:02:11.050 all on its own. OK, so let's start at the very 00:02:11.050 --> 00:02:13.870 beginning. Her origins. I think most of us learned 00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:16.069 in fourth grade, you know, she was Shoshone. 00:02:16.110 --> 00:02:18.150 That's the standard line. Yeah. Is that still 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:21.150 the consensus among historians? That is the standard 00:02:21.150 --> 00:02:23.909 narrative, yes. If you look at the journals of 00:02:23.909 --> 00:02:26.150 Lewis and Clark, and specifically the accounts 00:02:26.150 --> 00:02:28.849 of her husband Toussaint Charbonneau, the historical 00:02:28.849 --> 00:02:32.530 consensus is that she was born around 1788. She 00:02:32.530 --> 00:02:35.699 was Lémi -Chachon. And specifically... Of the 00:02:35.699 --> 00:02:38.479 Agatika tribe. Agatika. That's a specific band. 00:02:38.620 --> 00:02:40.840 What does that mean? It translates to salmon 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:43.860 eaters. These were mountain people living in 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.080 the Lemhi River Valley in what is now Idaho. 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:49.199 Their entire culture, their sustenance, it all 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:51.500 revolved around the salmon runs in those river 00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:53.919 systems and hunting in the Bitterroot Mountains. 00:02:54.180 --> 00:02:56.080 Okay, so she's from the mountains of Idaho, high 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:59.039 country. But the expedition meets her in North 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:02.599 Dakota, which is flat, plains country. That is 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:05.219 a massive geographical distance, especially in 00:03:05.219 --> 00:03:08.099 the year 1800. How does a 12 -year -old girl 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:10.620 end up hundreds and hundreds of miles from home? 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:12.819 This is where the story really begins, and it 00:03:12.819 --> 00:03:14.560 doesn't begin with adventure. It begins with 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:18.300 trauma, significant trauma. Around the year 1800, 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:20.439 when she was about 12 years old, there was a 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.199 raid. Hadassah warriors, who were based in North 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:25.719 Dakota, traveled all the way to the Rockies and 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:28.120 attacked her group. And reading the background 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:30.039 on this, this wasn't just a little skirmish. 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:32.780 The sources describe it as, well, as a massacre. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.659 It was brutal. The Shoshones were outgunned. 00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:38.580 The Hadassah had access to firearms through trade 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:40.960 networks that... The Shoshone I just didn't have 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.879 yet. Oh, okay. So four Shoshone men, four women, 00:03:43.979 --> 00:03:46.780 and several boys were killed in the attack. And 00:03:46.780 --> 00:03:49.060 Sokka Gwea, along with several other children, 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:51.919 were taken captive. So she's 12. She watches 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:54.310 her family and her friends get killed. And then 00:03:54.310 --> 00:03:57.270 she is forced to walk. She was marched from the 00:03:57.270 --> 00:03:59.969 Rockies all the way to a Hidatsa village near 00:03:59.969 --> 00:04:03.050 present day Washburn, North Dakota. That is roughly 00:04:03.050 --> 00:04:06.689 a 600 mile journey on foot, likely bound, traveling 00:04:06.689 --> 00:04:09.229 with the very people who just destroyed her village. 00:04:09.509 --> 00:04:12.289 We really need to pause and acknowledge the harsh 00:04:12.289 --> 00:04:14.979 reality of that. She's a child. She's a prisoner 00:04:14.979 --> 00:04:17.540 of war, essentially. She's being taken to a completely 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:20.240 different landscape, a different culture, a language 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:22.839 she doesn't speak. Precisely. And she lives among 00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:24.939 the Hidatsa for a few years. Her status there 00:04:24.939 --> 00:04:29.439 is debated. Was she a slave? Was she adopted 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:31.579 into the tribe? It was likely somewhere in between, 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:34.019 a captive with very few rights. And then things 00:04:34.019 --> 00:04:37.319 get worse for her. Then around age 13, maybe 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:40.300 14, the ownership of her, well... It changes 00:04:40.300 --> 00:04:43.079 hands again. She is either sold to or won in 00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:46.139 a gambling match by a man named Toussaint Charbonneau. 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:48.740 Charbonneau. The French -Canadian trapper. Every 00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:51.519 time he comes up in the sources, he seems, well, 00:04:51.620 --> 00:04:54.000 let's just say unimpressive is the polite term. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:55.920 That is a very, very polite way to put it. He 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:58.439 was a Kibbequah trapper living among the Hidatsa. 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.259 He was much older than her in his 40s. He actually 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:04.879 acquired two Shoshone wives, Sakagowea, and another 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:07.060 girl we only know as Otter Woman. I think we 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:08.939 need to be really clear about the dynamic here. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:12.720 This isn't a romance novel. She's 13, maybe 14. 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:16.000 She's been kidnapped from her home. And now she's 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.259 in a non -consensual marriage to a man three 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:20.839 times her age in a completely foreign culture. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.480 It frames everything that follows. She wasn't 00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:25.379 a volunteer who signed up for a fun road trip 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:28.399 to the Pacific. She was a survivor. She was navigating 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:31.399 a series of incredibly difficult, non -consensual 00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:33.779 circumstances. She did what she had to do to 00:05:33.779 --> 00:05:35.860 survive. But, and here's where it gets really 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:38.779 interesting, there's a curveball in the source 00:05:38.779 --> 00:05:41.279 material regarding her origins. We just laid 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:43.180 out the Shoshone story, which is the one everyone 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:46.079 knows, but there's another version. There is. 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:48.800 While the Shoshone origin is the dominant history, 00:05:49.139 --> 00:05:51.860 there is a very strong Hidatsa oral tradition 00:05:51.860 --> 00:05:55.639 that directly challenges it. In 2021, a group 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:57.939 called the Sakagawea Project Board published 00:05:57.939 --> 00:06:00.560 a book called Our Story of Eagle Woman. Eagle 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:02.300 Woman, that's a completely different name. What's 00:06:02.300 --> 00:06:04.850 their theory? They argue that she was actually 00:06:04.850 --> 00:06:07.889 Hadatsa by birth. The theory is that she was 00:06:07.889 --> 00:06:10.670 the daughter of a Hadatsa chief and that she 00:06:10.670 --> 00:06:13.810 was abducted by the Shoshone as a child. So the 00:06:13.810 --> 00:06:16.870 complete reverse of the standard story. Wow. 00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:19.110 And then the raid we just discussed was actually 00:06:19.110 --> 00:06:21.350 a rescue mission by the Hadatsa to bring her 00:06:21.350 --> 00:06:23.670 back home. That would completely flip the script 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:25.750 on the cultural dynamics of the expedition. I 00:06:25.750 --> 00:06:28.110 mean, it changes everything. Essentially, they 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:31.050 cite oral history from a man named Bullseye who 00:06:31.050 --> 00:06:33.519 claimed to be her grandson. He gave testimony 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:37.399 way back in 1923, stating very firmly that she 00:06:37.399 --> 00:06:39.860 was Hadatsa and lived out her days with them. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 That's a fascinating perspective. But does the 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 science back it up at all? Because usually when 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.259 we have these conflicting oral histories, modern 00:06:47.259 --> 00:06:49.540 DNA can sometimes act as the tiebreaker. Well, 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:51.420 that's where it gets complicated for this theory. 00:06:51.579 --> 00:06:54.040 The source material notes that DNA testing was 00:06:54.040 --> 00:06:57.000 conducted. They tested Hadassah individuals who 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.480 claimed descent from her supposed daughter, a 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:01.759 woman named Cedar Woman, who is part of that 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:04.160 Hadassah tradition. And the result? The result 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.680 showed no genetic link to the Charbonneau line. 00:07:07.019 --> 00:07:10.060 Ah, so the biology doesn't seem to support the 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:12.939 Eagle Woman theory. From a factual evidentiary 00:07:12.939 --> 00:07:16.199 standpoint, the DNA is a pretty significant counterpoint. 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:18.959 But the existence of this theory, you know, it 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:20.500 highlights something really important for us 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.139 to understand. Different tribes claim ownership 00:07:23.139 --> 00:07:26.000 of her legacy. She is a figure of immense pride 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.620 for both the Shoshone and the Hidatsa. And that 00:07:29.620 --> 00:07:32.279 struggle for who she belongs to is a huge part 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:34.879 of her story. She's a national icon, but she's 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:37.620 also a tribal icon. And those identities clash. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.579 OK, so regardless of exactly how she got there. 00:07:40.910 --> 00:07:43.430 whether by capture or by what they claim was 00:07:43.430 --> 00:07:46.870 a rescue by the winter of 1804. She's with Charbonneau 00:07:46.870 --> 00:07:49.389 in North Dakota. And this is when history comes 00:07:49.389 --> 00:07:51.490 knocking in the form of the Corps of Discovery. 00:07:51.670 --> 00:07:53.709 Lewis and Clark arrive. They've traveled up the 00:07:53.709 --> 00:07:55.829 Missouri River, and they stop near the Hidatsa 00:07:55.829 --> 00:07:58.610 and Mandan villages to build Fort Mandan. They 00:07:58.610 --> 00:08:00.709 need to survive the winter, which in North Dakota 00:08:00.709 --> 00:08:02.889 is no joke. No kidding. But they also have a 00:08:02.889 --> 00:08:05.009 massive strategic problem, a logistical nightmare, 00:08:05.089 --> 00:08:07.220 really. They need to go west. They need to go 00:08:07.220 --> 00:08:10.120 west, but specifically, they know they need to 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:11.680 cross the Rocky Mountains, they know the river 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:13.660 is going to run out, and to cross the mountains, 00:08:13.779 --> 00:08:17.279 they need horses. You simply cannot carry tons 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:19.959 of gear over the Rockies on your back. And who 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:22.839 has the horses? The Shoshone, the very people 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:26.459 Sacagawea came from. But Lewis and Clark don't 00:08:26.459 --> 00:08:28.339 speak Shoshone, they don't know the politics, 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:30.839 they are flying completely blind. So they go 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.379 headhunting for a translator. Exactly. They start 00:08:33.379 --> 00:08:35.899 asking around and they find Charbonneau, but... 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:38.840 And this is key. Clark's journals are pretty 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:40.899 clear that they weren't exactly impressed with 00:08:40.899 --> 00:08:42.960 Charbonneau's character or his skills. He was 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.340 kind of a bungler. So why hire him? They hire 00:08:45.340 --> 00:08:48.259 him specifically because his wife speaks Shoshone. 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:50.899 She was the asset. He was just the package deal 00:08:50.899 --> 00:08:53.360 they had to accept to get access to her language 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:56.200 skills. That is the reality of it. Without her, 00:08:56.340 --> 00:08:58.559 Charbonneau likely wouldn't have even been hired. 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:01.480 They saw her as the key to the next phase of 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:03.679 the journey. And at this point, she wasn't just 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:06.190 a teenager. She was pregnant. heavily pregnant. 00:09:06.370 --> 00:09:09.450 She moves into the fort in November 1804, and 00:09:09.450 --> 00:09:11.990 on February 11th, 1805, she goes into labor. 00:09:12.169 --> 00:09:15.070 And this gives us one of the weirdest, most specific 00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:18.029 details in the entire set of journals. The labor 00:09:18.029 --> 00:09:20.509 is difficult. It's not going well. It's not. 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:23.070 Lewis, who acted as the expedition's doctor, 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:26.309 mostly relying on, you know, basic field medicine, 00:09:26.529 --> 00:09:29.070 was getting worried. The labor was stalled. But 00:09:29.070 --> 00:09:31.850 then another interpreter, a Frenchman named René 00:09:31.850 --> 00:09:34.889 Jassome, suggests a remedy. I love this part 00:09:34.889 --> 00:09:36.970 because it is so bizarre. It sounds like something 00:09:36.970 --> 00:09:40.110 out of a folktale. It really does. He suggests 00:09:40.110 --> 00:09:43.230 crushed rattlesnake rattles mixed with water. 00:09:43.409 --> 00:09:45.590 A rattlesnake potion. Literally. He says he's 00:09:45.590 --> 00:09:48.649 seen it work before. Lewis is a man of the Enlightenment, 00:09:48.789 --> 00:09:51.970 a man of science, but he's desperate. He notes 00:09:51.970 --> 00:09:53.669 in the journal that he had the rattles broken 00:09:53.669 --> 00:09:56.610 into small pieces mixed with water and gave it 00:09:56.610 --> 00:09:59.629 to her. And did it work? And Lewis writes, essentially, 00:09:59.909 --> 00:10:02.110 I don't know if this is scientific, but it worked. 00:10:02.409 --> 00:10:05.230 She drank it, and within 10 minutes, Jean -Baptiste 00:10:05.230 --> 00:10:08.129 Charbonneau was born. The famous baby pomp. Nicknamed 00:10:08.129 --> 00:10:11.429 Pomp, or Pompey, by Clark, who took a real shine 00:10:11.429 --> 00:10:13.730 to the boy. And you have to think about the logistics 00:10:13.730 --> 00:10:16.570 of this. When the expedition sets off up the 00:10:16.570 --> 00:10:19.250 Missouri River in April, just two months later, 00:10:19.470 --> 00:10:22.710 she is carrying this newborn on her back in a 00:10:22.710 --> 00:10:25.529 cradleboard. I can't even imagine. I mean, I've 00:10:25.529 --> 00:10:27.409 gone hiking with a light backpack and complained. 00:10:28.289 --> 00:10:32.450 She is hiking, boating, starving, freezing with 00:10:32.450 --> 00:10:34.090 a two -month -old. And nursing him the whole 00:10:34.090 --> 00:10:36.309 way. It adds a layer of physical endurance to 00:10:36.309 --> 00:10:38.330 her story that often gets completely overlooked. 00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:41.210 She wasn't just walking. She was mothering in 00:10:41.210 --> 00:10:43.470 the absolute wilderness. So they hit the river. 00:10:44.029 --> 00:10:48.110 This brings us to the big myth, the guide. We 00:10:48.110 --> 00:10:50.049 see the statues of her pointing at the horizon 00:10:50.049 --> 00:10:52.509 leading the way. Was she actually the guide? 00:10:52.690 --> 00:10:55.750 Did she know the way? If by guide you mean someone 00:10:55.750 --> 00:10:58.710 who knew the terrain like a map and led the party 00:10:58.710 --> 00:11:00.870 point by point from North Dakota all the way 00:11:00.870 --> 00:11:03.350 to the ocean, then no, that is a myth. Right. 00:11:03.409 --> 00:11:05.129 I mean, she had been kidnapped as a child. She 00:11:05.129 --> 00:11:06.529 probably didn't remember the geography of the 00:11:06.529 --> 00:11:08.470 rub perfectly, especially not from North Dakota 00:11:08.470 --> 00:11:10.110 to the mountains, which she might never have 00:11:10.110 --> 00:11:12.610 even seen before the capture. Exactly. She had 00:11:12.610 --> 00:11:15.190 been taken from her home at 12. Her detailed 00:11:15.190 --> 00:11:17.570 memory of the landscape was really limited to 00:11:17.570 --> 00:11:20.419 her homeland in the mountains. She did provide 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:22.919 some directional advice a few times. The sources 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:25.320 mentioned she recognized Bozeman Pass and later 00:11:25.320 --> 00:11:27.740 Givens Pass on the return trip, which was genuinely 00:11:27.740 --> 00:11:30.480 helpful. So she helped, but she wasn't leading 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:33.240 the column with a pointed finger. No, that image 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:36.500 is a 20th century invention, really. So if she 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:39.419 wasn't the GPS, what was her actual value? Why 00:11:39.419 --> 00:11:41.919 is she so famous if she wasn't leading the way? 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:45.440 Her value was, well, it was diplomatic. And frankly, 00:11:45.700 --> 00:11:48.559 it was about optics. Optics, how so? William 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:50.679 Clark wrote something really profound in his 00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:54.019 journal. He said, A woman with a party of men 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:57.259 is a token of peace. That makes so much sense. 00:11:57.379 --> 00:12:00.080 A war party doesn't bring a teenage mother and 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:02.659 a nursing infant. Correct. Her very presence 00:12:02.659 --> 00:12:05.240 reconciled Native tribes to the expedition's 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:08.080 intentions. It signaled, we are not here to attack. 00:12:08.279 --> 00:12:10.440 If you're a Native group watching this boat come 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:12.500 up the river and you see 30 heavily armed men, 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:15.340 you prepare for war. Absolutely. You assume the 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:18.379 worst. But if you see 30 armed men and a woman 00:12:18.379 --> 00:12:20.960 with a baby, you assume it's a traveling party 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:25.470 or maybe traitors. arguably her presence saved 00:12:25.470 --> 00:12:28.049 them from being wiped out simply by her being 00:12:28.049 --> 00:12:30.950 visible on the boat that is a much more subtle 00:12:30.950 --> 00:12:33.730 but maybe even more powerful role than just pointing 00:12:33.730 --> 00:12:37.649 a finger she was a human shield in a way or or 00:12:37.649 --> 00:12:40.409 a human white flag And then there is the translation. 00:12:40.690 --> 00:12:43.309 We talked about how they needed horses. But have 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:45.250 you ever stopped to think about how the communication 00:12:45.250 --> 00:12:48.009 actually worked? It wasn't direct at all. I assume 00:12:48.009 --> 00:12:49.850 it was complicated. It was a game of telephone. 00:12:50.090 --> 00:12:53.009 A frustrating game of telephone. Let's say Louis 00:12:53.009 --> 00:12:55.669 wants to speak to a Shoshone chief. Louis speaks 00:12:55.669 --> 00:12:58.250 English. Okay, step one. He speaks to a Frenchman, 00:12:58.330 --> 00:13:01.090 usually Jussame or Charbonneau, who speaks French. 00:13:01.250 --> 00:13:04.259 Step two. English to French. Then Charbonneau 00:13:04.259 --> 00:13:06.960 speaks Hidatsa to Sacagawea. Because remember, 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:09.419 Charbonneau didn't speak Shoshone and Sacagawea 00:13:09.419 --> 00:13:11.799 didn't speak French or English. They communicated 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:14.179 in Hidatsa the language of her captivity. Step 00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:17.440 three, French to Hidatsa. Then Sacagawea speaks 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.899 Shoshone to the chief. Wow. And then the answer 00:13:19.899 --> 00:13:21.700 has to come all the way back down that same chain. 00:13:21.860 --> 00:13:25.049 Yes. Shoshone to Hidatsa, Hidatsa to French, 00:13:25.190 --> 00:13:28.169 French to English. Just to ask for a horse or 00:13:28.169 --> 00:13:30.870 negotiate a route, imagine the potential for 00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:33.169 miscommunication. The margin for error there 00:13:33.169 --> 00:13:37.389 is huge. One wrong word and you could start a 00:13:37.389 --> 00:13:40.460 conflict. It is, but she was the linchpin. She 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:42.759 was the only one who could bridge that final 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.700 crucial gap. Without her link in that chain, 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:48.879 the chain breaks. The extradition literally cannot 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:51.120 communicate with the people they need most to 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.399 help them. She also had some genuine action hero 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:55.679 moments, though. It wasn't just talking. I love 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:58.539 the story of the river rescue. May 14th, 1805. 00:13:59.149 --> 00:14:01.190 This is a defining moment for her in the journals. 00:14:01.529 --> 00:14:04.389 They're on the river, and a sudden squall hits. 00:14:04.850 --> 00:14:07.190 A pirogue, one of their boats, which Charbonneau 00:14:07.190 --> 00:14:08.730 is steering, because of course it's Charbonneau. 00:14:08.809 --> 00:14:10.750 Of course. It gets hit by the wind and capsizes. 00:14:10.809 --> 00:14:12.570 And Charbonneau panics, right. He completely 00:14:12.570 --> 00:14:15.129 freezes. The journals say he's crying out to 00:14:15.129 --> 00:14:18.190 God. He's useless. Meanwhile, the boat is filling 00:14:18.190 --> 00:14:20.450 with water, and this boat contains the journals, 00:14:20.610 --> 00:14:23.350 the scientific instruments, the medicines, everything 00:14:23.350 --> 00:14:26.190 essential to the mission. If those are lost... 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.399 The expedition is basically over, or at least 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:30.899 the entire record of it is gone. Yeah. We wouldn't 00:14:30.899 --> 00:14:33.440 be reading Lewis's journals today if they sank 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:35.320 to the bottom of the river. And while Charbonneau 00:14:35.320 --> 00:14:38.480 is panicking, Sacagawea, with her baby presumably 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:41.019 strapped to her back, just reaches into the water. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:44.899 She calmly fishes out the journals, the books, 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:48.230 the instruments as they float away. That is incredible 00:14:48.230 --> 00:14:51.629 composure under fire. Lewis and Clark were beyond 00:14:51.629 --> 00:14:55.250 grateful. They actually named a river after her, 00:14:55.350 --> 00:14:58.490 the Sacagawea River, specifically to honor that 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:01.509 act. It's one of the few times they name a geographical 00:15:01.509 --> 00:15:04.570 feature after a woman on the entire trip. There's 00:15:04.570 --> 00:15:07.269 another moment that shows her agency, too. Her 00:15:07.269 --> 00:15:10.350 determination. The whale. The whale, yes. This 00:15:10.350 --> 00:15:12.129 is when they finally reach the Pacific coast. 00:15:12.539 --> 00:15:14.519 A whale carcass washes up on the beach, but it's 00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:17.200 miles from their fort. Fort clats up. The men 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:19.399 are all getting ready to go see it. It's a spectacle. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:21.159 And she basically puts her foot down. She says, 00:15:21.220 --> 00:15:24.179 I'm going to. She insists. She makes a case for 00:15:24.179 --> 00:15:26.700 it. She says she has traveled a long, long way 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:28.899 to see the great waters, and she is not going 00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:31.480 to be left behind while they go see this monstrous 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:34.240 fish. And they listen. She goes. I love that. 00:15:34.340 --> 00:15:36.639 It shows she wasn't just a passive piece of cargo. 00:15:36.899 --> 00:15:40.120 She had curiosity. She had desires. She wanted 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:42.539 to see the world she was traveling through. And 00:15:42.539 --> 00:15:44.240 she was willing to sacrifice for the mission, 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:47.139 too. There's the story of the sea otter robe. 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:49.200 Right at the Pacific. This was a gift for the 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:51.700 president. The captains wanted a magnificent 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:54.539 sea otter fur robe to bring back to President 00:15:54.539 --> 00:15:57.860 Jefferson. It was a crucial diplomatic gift, 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:00.580 but they had run out of their good trade goods. 00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:03.320 The native owner just wouldn't sell it for anything 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:05.279 they offered. So what happened? How did they 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:07.980 get it? Sakawea took off her own beaded belt, 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:10.919 something personal and valuable to her, likely 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.360 made with blue beads, which were very prized, 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:16.620 and offered it. That selfless act secured the 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:19.039 robe. She literally gave the clothes off her 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:21.620 back for the success of these men who had essentially 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:24.299 hired her husband. It speaks volumes about her 00:16:24.299 --> 00:16:27.019 character or perhaps her pragmatism. She knew 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:29.759 the expedition had to succeed so she could survive 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.919 it and maybe, maybe get home. So we have the 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.399 travel, the translation, the rescue. But we have 00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:37.259 to talk about the reunion, because if this was 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:39.480 a movie, people would say it was too convenient, 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:42.279 too unbelievable. It is an absolutely cinematic 00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:45.840 moment. It's August 1805. The expedition is desperate. 00:16:46.299 --> 00:16:47.940 They're at the headwaters of the Missouri. They 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:50.460 found the Shoshone. But negotiations are tense. 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:53.720 They start that long, clumsy translation chain 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:56.620 we talked about. And Sakawea is there beginning 00:16:56.620 --> 00:16:59.179 to interpret for the tribal leader, a man named 00:16:59.179 --> 00:17:02.460 Kamehameha. And suddenly she stops. She recognizes 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:04.740 him. It's her brother. It's her brother. The 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:06.640 journals describe her jumping up, running to 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:09.019 him, throwing her blanket over him and just weeping. 00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:12.240 Clark wrote that she danced for the joyful sight. 00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:15.220 She sucked his fingers, which was a Shoshone 00:17:15.220 --> 00:17:17.839 sign of deep friendship and recognition. That 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:20.579 is just incredible. She was kidnapped five years 00:17:20.579 --> 00:17:23.400 earlier, dragged hundreds of miles away, and 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:25.819 by pure chance, the specific band they encounter 00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:28.160 is led by her own brother. And that emotional 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:31.640 connection sealed the deal. The tension was broken. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:34.460 The Shoshone provided the horses and the guides 00:17:34.460 --> 00:17:37.140 they needed to cross the Rockies. Without that 00:17:37.140 --> 00:17:39.339 family reunion, the core of discovery might have 00:17:39.339 --> 00:17:42.240 stalled out right there and failed. It really 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:45.220 emphasizes how precarious the whole expedition 00:17:45.220 --> 00:17:48.799 was. It relied on this one young woman's specific 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:52.259 personal connections. The fate of the American 00:17:52.259 --> 00:17:55.140 claim to the Pacific Northwest hinged in that 00:17:55.140 --> 00:17:57.859 moment on a brother and sister finding each other 00:17:57.859 --> 00:18:00.200 in the mountains. Now, before we get to the end 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.490 of her life. or lives, plural, which we will 00:18:03.490 --> 00:18:06.490 get to, we have to address the elephant in the 00:18:06.490 --> 00:18:09.529 room, or maybe the bird in the room. Her name. 00:18:09.630 --> 00:18:11.849 Oh, the name controversy. This is a minefield 00:18:11.849 --> 00:18:14.609 of linguistics and tribal politics. It's fascinating. 00:18:14.849 --> 00:18:16.730 So how do you say it? Is it Sacagawea with a 00:18:16.730 --> 00:18:19.849 G? Sacagawea with a J? I feel like I've heard 00:18:19.849 --> 00:18:22.190 both used with total confidence. Okay, let's 00:18:22.190 --> 00:18:23.710 break it down. The federal and academic standard 00:18:23.710 --> 00:18:26.569 is usually Sacagawea with a hard G. And that 00:18:26.569 --> 00:18:28.750 comes from where? It comes from the Hidatsa language. 00:18:29.250 --> 00:18:32.500 Sakaka means bird. And wea means woman, so bird 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:35.079 woman. In Hidatsa, there isn't really a soft 00:18:35.079 --> 00:18:38.920 J sound, like jaw. So linguists argue Sacagawea 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:41.339 is the most accurate phonetic reflection of the 00:18:41.339 --> 00:18:43.779 name she was given by her captors, the Hidatsa. 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:47.839 But I grew up hearing Sacagawea with a J. That's 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:50.019 the one I see everywhere. That is the Shoshone 00:18:50.019 --> 00:18:52.420 version. In Shoshone, it means... boat launcher 00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:54.960 or boat puller. And the Shoshone claimed that 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:57.200 the Hidatsa just mispronounced her Shoshone name. 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:00.420 Is that the argument? Exactly. The Lemai Shoshone, 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:02.839 her birth tribe, argued that Sacagawea is an 00:19:02.839 --> 00:19:05.740 incorrect Hidatsa butchering of her real Shoshone 00:19:05.740 --> 00:19:08.579 name. They prefer Sacagawea with the J. So the 00:19:08.579 --> 00:19:10.940 Shoshone used the J, but the academics used the 00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:12.700 G. And then, just to make it more complicated, 00:19:12.980 --> 00:19:14.799 you have the official spelling of North Dakota 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:17.700 and the three affiliated tribes, which is Sacagawea 00:19:17.700 --> 00:19:19.980 with a K. So where did the J come from in popular 00:19:19.980 --> 00:19:21.970 culture if the academics... dislike it so much. 00:19:22.089 --> 00:19:24.789 You can thank Nicholas Biddle for that. He edited 00:19:24.789 --> 00:19:27.829 the journals for publication back in 1814, and 00:19:27.829 --> 00:19:30.109 he's the one who first transcribed it with a 00:19:30.109 --> 00:19:34.569 J. Then a novelist named Eva Emery Dye published 00:19:34.569 --> 00:19:38.009 a massive bestselling book in 1902 called The 00:19:38.009 --> 00:19:41.170 Conquest, which completely popularized that spelling. 00:19:41.410 --> 00:19:43.630 So it's fascinating that the version considered 00:19:43.630 --> 00:19:46.549 incorrect by linguists is the version preferred 00:19:46.549 --> 00:19:48.690 by our own people. It creates a real tension 00:19:48.690 --> 00:19:52.500 between, you know, academic accuracy and cultural 00:19:52.500 --> 00:19:55.180 sovereignty. Who gets to name her? The people 00:19:55.180 --> 00:19:57.359 who captured her or the people she was born to? 00:19:57.519 --> 00:19:59.279 That is a great question. And it's one that doesn't 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:01.339 have an easy answer. Speaking of questions without 00:20:01.339 --> 00:20:04.259 easy answers. Yeah. When did she die? Because 00:20:04.259 --> 00:20:06.019 until I read these sources, I thought this was 00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:09.119 settled. But apparently there are, well, two 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:11.640 Sikagoyas. This is the biggest historical debate 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:14.579 surrounding her. There are two completely different 00:20:14.579 --> 00:20:16.740 timelines, two completely different life stories 00:20:16.740 --> 00:20:18.839 after the expedition. Let's start with theory 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:21.829 number one. This is the historian's view. The 00:20:21.829 --> 00:20:24.730 1812 death. This is the theory that is overwhelmingly 00:20:24.730 --> 00:20:27.670 supported by the documentary evidence. We have 00:20:27.670 --> 00:20:29.950 a journal entry from a clerk named John Luttig. 00:20:30.130 --> 00:20:32.809 He is at Fort Lisa, a trading post on the Missouri 00:20:32.809 --> 00:20:36.049 River, and the entry is dated December 20, 1812. 00:20:36.269 --> 00:20:39.490 What does it say? It reads very clearly, the 00:20:39.490 --> 00:20:42.890 wife of Charbonneau, a snake squaw, died of putrid 00:20:42.890 --> 00:20:46.390 fever. Snake being a common, if derogatory, term 00:20:46.390 --> 00:20:49.039 for the Shoshone at the time? Yes. Letting notes, 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:51.460 she was about 25 years old and left behind a 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:53.839 fine infant girl. This would be her daughter, 00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:56.599 Lisette. That sounds pretty definitive. It gets 00:20:56.599 --> 00:20:59.759 stronger. William Clark, years later, wrote a 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:01.859 list of all the expedition members sometime around 00:21:01.859 --> 00:21:05.700 1825. He lists everyone, Lewis, Ordway, the whole 00:21:05.700 --> 00:21:08.839 crew. Next to Sacagawea's name, he wrote one 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:11.480 single word, dead. Clark himself said she was 00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:13.519 dead. And there are adoption records, right? 00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:16.359 Yes. In 1813, Clark formally adopted her two 00:21:16.359 --> 00:21:18.619 children, Jean -Baptiste and the infant Lisette. 00:21:18.940 --> 00:21:21.160 In Missouri courts at the time, adoption usually 00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:23.259 required the parents to be confirmed dead or, 00:21:23.299 --> 00:21:25.980 you know, totally incapacitated. Clark became 00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:28.220 their legal guardian. So if you look at the paper 00:21:28.220 --> 00:21:31.839 trail, the journals, the legal documents, Clark's 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:34.900 own personal notes, she died young. A tragedy. 00:21:35.099 --> 00:21:38.660 End of story. But then, then comes theory number 00:21:38.660 --> 00:21:45.609 two. The legend of 1884. The story goes that 00:21:45.609 --> 00:21:48.809 she didn't die in 1812. Instead, she finally 00:21:48.809 --> 00:21:51.670 left the abusive Charbonneau, which... let's 00:21:51.670 --> 00:21:53.450 be honest, would be completely understandable. 00:21:53.490 --> 00:21:56.210 She wandered the plains, maybe went down to Comanche 00:21:56.210 --> 00:21:59.130 territory, married a Comanche man named Jerk 00:21:59.130 --> 00:22:01.990 Meat, and lived a long, long life. Jerk Meat? 00:22:02.210 --> 00:22:04.529 Yes, translated as Jerk Meat. And eventually 00:22:04.529 --> 00:22:07.069 she supposedly returned to her people, the Shoshone, 00:22:07.069 --> 00:22:09.549 at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. There 00:22:09.549 --> 00:22:11.769 was a woman there named Porivo, which means chief 00:22:11.769 --> 00:22:15.589 woman. This Porivo died in 1884. And people believe 00:22:15.589 --> 00:22:19.369 Porivo was Sacagawea. Dr. Grace Raymond Hepbard, 00:22:19.589 --> 00:22:21.589 a professor and a prominent suffragist, spent 00:22:21.589 --> 00:22:24.230 30 years promoting this theory in the early 20th 00:22:24.230 --> 00:22:26.950 century. She interviewed Comanches and Shoshones 00:22:26.950 --> 00:22:29.150 who said that Porivo had a peace medal from the 00:22:29.150 --> 00:22:31.309 president and would tell stories about the great 00:22:31.309 --> 00:22:34.509 water and the long knives, the term for the explorers. 00:22:34.730 --> 00:22:37.009 Why do you think this theory caught on so strongly? 00:22:37.269 --> 00:22:40.049 I think it's because we want it to be true. The 00:22:40.049 --> 00:22:43.869 1812 death is sad. It's tragic. She's a victim 00:22:43.869 --> 00:22:48.289 of disease and a hard life at only 25. The 1884 00:22:48.289 --> 00:22:51.109 theory gives her agency. She leaves her husband. 00:22:51.309 --> 00:22:54.109 She travels. She becomes a revered elder. It's 00:22:54.109 --> 00:22:56.390 a much more satisfying narrative arc. And the 00:22:56.390 --> 00:22:58.829 separatists you mentioned, they loved that story 00:22:58.829 --> 00:23:01.230 of independence. They did. They championed her 00:23:01.230 --> 00:23:03.950 as a symbol of women's strength and worth. But 00:23:03.950 --> 00:23:06.789 we have to be the voice of reason here. What 00:23:06.789 --> 00:23:09.700 does the expert analysis say today? Modern scholarship 00:23:09.700 --> 00:23:12.440 generally deems Hebbard's work long on romance 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:15.079 and short on hard evidence. The Ludwig Journal 00:23:15.079 --> 00:23:17.460 and the adoption papers are very, very difficult 00:23:17.460 --> 00:23:19.980 to explain away if she was still alive. It's 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:21.839 extremely unlikely Clark would have adopted her 00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:23.420 children if she were alive and well somewhere 00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:25.380 on the plains. And there's even a third variation, 00:23:25.579 --> 00:23:28.140 right? The Hidatsa oral tradition. Right. That 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:30.220 tradition, the one from Bullseye, says she lived 00:23:30.220 --> 00:23:32.940 until 1869 among the Hidatsa. So we have three 00:23:32.940 --> 00:23:36.500 potential death dates, 1812, 1869, and 1884. 00:23:37.019 --> 00:23:39.339 It shows that she became a folk hero. Different 00:23:39.339 --> 00:23:41.440 people needed her story to be different things. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:44.279 But if you are a betting person and you're betting 00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:47.500 on the documents, 1812 is the safest bet. Even 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:50.700 if she died in 1812, her legacy lived on through 00:23:50.700 --> 00:23:53.980 that baby on her back. We have to talk about 00:23:53.980 --> 00:23:57.059 Jean -Baptiste. Baby pomp. His life was arguably 00:23:57.059 --> 00:24:00.619 even crazier and more unbelievable than his mother's. 00:24:01.230 --> 00:24:03.210 I was blown away by this part of the notes. It 00:24:03.210 --> 00:24:06.049 really was an extraordinary life. So, as we said, 00:24:06.150 --> 00:24:08.470 William Clark adopts him. He gets a good boarding 00:24:08.470 --> 00:24:10.869 school education in St. Louis. He's raised with 00:24:10.869 --> 00:24:13.309 relative privilege, learns to read and write. 00:24:13.450 --> 00:24:15.430 Okay, standard enough for a ward of a famous 00:24:15.430 --> 00:24:18.309 explorer. But then, at age 18, he meets a German 00:24:18.309 --> 00:24:21.730 prince, Duke Paul Wilhelm of Württemberg. The 00:24:21.730 --> 00:24:23.869 Duke is on a grand tour of the American frontier. 00:24:24.049 --> 00:24:26.069 And they just become friends. A German prince 00:24:26.069 --> 00:24:28.130 and the son of a Shoshone guy. They hit it off. 00:24:28.190 --> 00:24:30.509 The Duke is fascinated by him. He invites him 00:24:30.509 --> 00:24:33.130 to Europe. So the baby from the canoe goes to 00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:35.509 Europe. He goes to castles. He meets royalty. 00:24:35.809 --> 00:24:38.210 He lives in a European court for six years. He 00:24:38.210 --> 00:24:40.609 learns four languages, German, French, Spanish, 00:24:40.809 --> 00:24:43.509 English. He learns defense. He learns classical 00:24:43.509 --> 00:24:47.230 music. He supposedly fathers a child in Germany 00:24:47.230 --> 00:24:50.660 named Anton. That is wild. From a cradleboard 00:24:50.660 --> 00:24:53.559 on the Missouri River to a German castle. And 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:55.740 then he comes back. He returns to the American 00:24:55.740 --> 00:24:58.779 West in his late 20s and becomes a mountain man, 00:24:58.900 --> 00:25:02.279 a guide, a trapper. He guides the Mormon battalion 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:04.859 during the Mexican -American War. He becomes 00:25:04.859 --> 00:25:07.440 a magistrate in California. He even works as 00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:09.539 a hotel clerk during the gold rush. From the 00:25:09.539 --> 00:25:11.500 cradleboard to the German courts to the gold 00:25:11.500 --> 00:25:14.119 rush. You can't make this stuff up. He died in 00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:17.700 Oregon in 1866 on his way to a new gold rush 00:25:17.700 --> 00:25:20.950 in Montana. He bridged the entire history of 00:25:20.950 --> 00:25:23.450 the American frontier from exploration to settlement 00:25:23.450 --> 00:25:26.170 to industrialization. If you want to understand 00:25:26.170 --> 00:25:28.589 the 19th century, just look at the life of Jean 00:25:28.589 --> 00:25:31.069 -Baptiste Charbonneau. That is a movie waiting 00:25:31.069 --> 00:25:33.210 to be made. I would watch that miniseries in 00:25:33.210 --> 00:25:35.190 a heartbeat. Truly, it's an incredible story. 00:25:35.490 --> 00:25:38.250 So let's zoom out to the big picture, her legacy. 00:25:38.470 --> 00:25:40.630 We mentioned the suffragists adopting her as 00:25:40.630 --> 00:25:43.799 a symbol. Yes. In the early 20th century, as 00:25:43.799 --> 00:25:46.039 women were fighting for the vote, Sacagawea became 00:25:46.039 --> 00:25:49.140 this potent symbol. The National American Woman 00:25:49.140 --> 00:25:52.279 Suffrage Association used her story to argue 00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:54.279 that women had been integral to the founding 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:56.900 and expansion of the nation. It's interesting 00:25:56.900 --> 00:25:58.839 how she goes from being barely mentioned in the 00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:00.619 early history books, often just called the Indian 00:26:00.619 --> 00:26:04.720 woman, to being this major icon. That 1902 novel 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:08.049 by Eva Emery Dye was pivotal there. It absolutely 00:26:08.049 --> 00:26:10.849 mythologized her. It turned her into the mother 00:26:10.849 --> 00:26:13.549 of the West. It gave her speeches she probably 00:26:13.549 --> 00:26:15.490 never made and feelings she might never have 00:26:15.490 --> 00:26:18.150 had. But it cemented her fame in the American 00:26:18.150 --> 00:26:21.130 imagination. And now she's on the coin. And the 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:23.470 source material says she has more statues erected 00:26:23.470 --> 00:26:26.130 in her honor than any other American woman. Which 00:26:26.130 --> 00:26:29.269 is a testament to her enduring appeal. But statues 00:26:29.269 --> 00:26:31.390 are static, you know. They freeze a person in 00:26:31.390 --> 00:26:34.430 one pose, and sometimes that pose is deeply problematic. 00:26:34.829 --> 00:26:36.309 You're thinking of the Charlottesville statue. 00:26:36.670 --> 00:26:39.170 Yes. There was a statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, 00:26:39.410 --> 00:26:42.750 erected in 1919. It depicted Lewis and Clark 00:26:42.750 --> 00:26:45.690 standing tall and gazing west, with Sacagawea 00:26:45.690 --> 00:26:48.829 crouching, really cowering, almost servilely 00:26:48.829 --> 00:26:52.799 at their feet. Oof. That sends a very clear and 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:55.640 very wrong message. It was finally removed in 00:26:55.640 --> 00:26:58.240 2021. The local Native American tribe and her 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.420 descendants criticized it heavily for years. 00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.920 They said it presented this weak, submissive 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:06.039 image of someone who was actually an essential 00:27:06.039 --> 00:27:09.160 diplomat and a survivor. It's a powerful reminder 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:13.000 that how we remember historical figures often 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:15.720 tells us more about us and our own biases than 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:18.319 it does about them. Precisely. Every generation 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:20.480 reinvents her to suit their own needs and their 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:22.519 own narratives. She's also a pop culture fixture. 00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:24.380 We've got Night at the Museum, where she's a 00:27:24.380 --> 00:27:26.740 major character. We've got The Simpsons, where 00:27:26.740 --> 00:27:28.859 Lisa Simpson plays her in a school play. She's 00:27:28.859 --> 00:27:31.099 transcended history to become a part of the cultural 00:27:31.099 --> 00:27:33.859 furniture. She's become shorthand for Native 00:27:33.859 --> 00:27:36.500 American Guide. So what does this all mean? We 00:27:36.500 --> 00:27:41.160 have the teenage captive, the mother, the diplomat. 00:27:41.609 --> 00:27:44.930 the disputed death, the pop culture icon. I think 00:27:44.930 --> 00:27:46.529 the biggest takeaway is that we need to allow 00:27:46.529 --> 00:27:49.049 her to be complex. She wasn't just a guide pointing 00:27:49.049 --> 00:27:51.309 a finger. She wasn't just a victim. She was a 00:27:51.309 --> 00:27:53.630 survivor navigating a world that was often incredibly 00:27:53.630 --> 00:27:56.849 hostile to her. She was a token of peace in a 00:27:56.849 --> 00:28:00.369 time of war, the calm center in a literal storm 00:28:00.369 --> 00:28:03.049 on the river. And whether she died at 24 or 95, 00:28:03.309 --> 00:28:06.410 her contribution is undeniable. She was the bridge 00:28:06.410 --> 00:28:08.750 between worlds. It brings me back to that final 00:28:08.750 --> 00:28:11.589 provocative thought for our listeners. We often 00:28:11.589 --> 00:28:14.029 celebrate her as the woman who opened the West. 00:28:14.289 --> 00:28:16.430 Right. That's the classic slogan. But I want 00:28:16.430 --> 00:28:18.809 you to consider the irony in that. The woman 00:28:18.809 --> 00:28:20.910 who helped open the West for the United States 00:28:20.910 --> 00:28:24.390 was herself a captive. Her image has been used 00:28:24.390 --> 00:28:27.369 for 200 years to tell a story of friendly cooperation. 00:28:27.890 --> 00:28:30.210 When the reality on the ground was often much 00:28:30.210 --> 00:28:33.349 harder, much more violent, and far more complicated 00:28:33.349 --> 00:28:36.049 than that simple story allows. So which version 00:28:36.049 --> 00:28:39.309 of her is the real one? The guide. The symbol. 00:28:39.899 --> 00:28:42.900 The diplomat or the captive? That is the question 00:28:42.900 --> 00:28:45.119 we are left with. And maybe the answer is that 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:47.180 she was all of them at once. Next time you see 00:28:47.180 --> 00:28:49.200 that golden dollar coin, maybe take a second 00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:51.460 look. Don't just see the icon. See the teenager 00:28:51.460 --> 00:28:53.519 with the weight of the world and a baby on her 00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:56.019 back. And remember that her story and the fight 00:28:56.019 --> 00:28:58.680 over how to tell it is still being written. Thanks 00:28:58.680 --> 00:29:01.019 for joining us on this deep dive. We'll catch 00:29:01.019 --> 00:29:01.740 you on the next one.