Sacagawea is known as an American heroine because of her help in the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the West. No other American woman has more statues, rivers, and mountains in her honor than Sacagawea (Idaho Public Television, 2011; Richards, 2009). Sacagawea has more memorials than any other Native American Indian. Sacagawea is lauded as an important role model for American Women, a valuable asset in the Expedition, and a key figure in American History (Summit, 2008). As part of the Corps of Discovery, she was meant to be an Indian interpreter for the Shoshone Indians they would come across, but was much more than that; she provided direction, food, bargaining, and a sense of family and safety. There is not much known on Sacagawea before and after the Expedition; most of our knowledge comes from Lewis and Clark and what they wrote in their journals throughout the Expedition between 1804 and 1806 (Pillow, 2007; Summit, 2008).
Sacagawea, Sacajawea, or Sakakawea?
There are many different spellings and pronunciations of the American heroine’s name: Sacagawea, Sacajawea, and Sakakawea. According to the Shoshone Indians, she was known as Sacajawea meaning boat launcher. To the Hidatsa Indians, she was known as Sakakawea, meaning bird woman. Although, in the journals of the Corps of Discovery, they wrote her name how they thought it sounded: Sah-cah-gar-we-ah. The American spelling of her name is based on the journals and we refer to her as Sacagawea (Idaho Public Television, 2011). The journals also refer to her as Squaw, Squar, Indian woman, Toussaint’s wife, Charbonneau’s wife, and Janey. Janey is the name William Clark referred to her as in his later journals and a letter to Toussaint Charbonneau. It is thought that Clark’s use of Janey derived from the name Jane, colloquial army slang for the word girl (Joyce, Moreno, & Coolidge, 2005).