Sacagawea was born in 1788. Although the exact date is not given, this is based on how old she was during the Expedition. She was born in what is now Tendoy, Idaho, around Salmon city to the Lemhi Shoshone Indians. Although we are not sure of her childhood, based on the Lemhi Shoshone Indians we know how she lived. Sacagawea’s people grew up hearing about how the coyote had found a woman and had children with her. The coyote had washed some of the many babies with his own hands. These babies would become the Shoshone people while the others washed by the mother and daughter became the other American Indian people. The mothers were valued and respected and did many home chores and gathered for their family. The women were very caring and protective of their children and would carry their babies on a cradle board strapped to their back while working. Sacagawea must have carried her Shoshone beliefs with her, because she also carried her son on her back while traveling with the Corps of Discovery (Summit, 2008).
The Shoshone Indians were nomadic and traveled to hunt. While in what is now known as Three Forks, Montana, around the year 1800, Hidatsa warriors, around the age of twelve, captured Sacagawea. The Hidatsa warriors took her east to North Dakota, to the Hidatsa and Mandan community, along with another young girl. The village she was taken to was much different than where she lived as a Shoshone Indian; there were large walls around the village and their dwellings were spacious, lighted, clean, and furniture covered in buffalo fur, whereas the Shoshone Indians lived in teepees. Sacagawea was given to a family who had lost a daughter about the same age; this was not uncommon for the Hidatsa Indians. Sacagawea was never a slave. She was loved as a family and a tribe member with celebration welcoming her to the tribe. She adapted to a new culture and was taught to be nurturing, resourceful, a caregiver and learned about medicine from the ground and the earth (Joyce et al., 2003).
Six months to two years after she was captured, she married Toussaint Charbonneau. Toussaint was a Canadian French fur trader, born in 1759, living among the Hidatsa Indians (Summit, 2008). It is unknown whether she was given from her family to Charbonneau, traded for horses, sold, or won in a gambling game (Joyce et al., 2003). Sacagawea, like many American Indian women, did not have a choice on who the married or where they lived (Marks, 1998). She moved with Charbonneau to his lodge and did wife-like duties such as cooking, cleaning, and sewing his clothes (Joyce et al., 2003).
The Shoshone Indians were nomadic and traveled to hunt. While in what is now known as Three Forks, Montana, around the year 1800, Hidatsa warriors, around the age of twelve, captured Sacagawea. The Hidatsa warriors took her east to North Dakota, to the Hidatsa and Mandan community, along with another young girl. The village she was taken to was much different than where she lived as a Shoshone Indian; there were large walls around the village and their dwellings were spacious, lighted, clean, and furniture covered in buffalo fur, whereas the Shoshone Indians lived in teepees. Sacagawea was given to a family who had lost a daughter about the same age; this was not uncommon for the Hidatsa Indians. Sacagawea was never a slave. She was loved as a family and a tribe member with celebration welcoming her to the tribe. She adapted to a new culture and was taught to be nurturing, resourceful, a caregiver and learned about medicine from the ground and the earth (Joyce et al., 2003).
Six months to two years after she was captured, she married Toussaint Charbonneau. Toussaint was a Canadian French fur trader, born in 1759, living among the Hidatsa Indians (Summit, 2008). It is unknown whether she was given from her family to Charbonneau, traded for horses, sold, or won in a gambling game (Joyce et al., 2003). Sacagawea, like many American Indian women, did not have a choice on who the married or where they lived (Marks, 1998). She moved with Charbonneau to his lodge and did wife-like duties such as cooking, cleaning, and sewing his clothes (Joyce et al., 2003).