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The true story of Sacajawea - Karen Mensing

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In the early 19th century, a young Agaidika teenager named Sacajawea was enlisted by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to aid her husband Toussaint Charbonneau as a guide to the Western United States. Karen Mensing debunks some of the myths that surround the familiar image of the heroic woman with a baby strapped to her back and a vast knowledge of the American wilderness.

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Reliable historical information about Sacajawea is very limited. More information about the Lewis and Clark Expedition can be found in this video.
Sacagawea, the daughter of a Shoshone chief, was born circa 1788 in Lemhi County, Idaho. At around age 12, she was captured by an enemy tribe and sold to a French-Canadian trapper who made her his wife. In November 1804, she was invited to join the Lewis and Clark expedition as a Shoshone interpreter. After leaving the expedition, she died at Fort Manuel in what is now Kenel, South Dakota, circa 1812.
The Shoshone are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern. They traditionally spoke the Shoshoni language, a part of the Numic languages branch of the large Uto-Aztecan language family. The Shoshone were sometimes called the Snake Indians by early ethnic European trappers, travelers, and settlers.
More about Toussaint Charbonneau.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Karen Mensing
  • Director Darcy Vorhees
  • Artist Tom Beuerlein, Marissa Hutchins, Sarah Johnson, Stephen Brooks
  • Narrator Jim Sharpe

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