Event/Person Highlight (Sacagawea) Newspaper Article

The Daily Times

There’s always something or someone that can change history. In 1798 a small child was born, her name was Sacagawea. Her father was the chief of her tribe. When she was about ten years old, she was kidnapped by the Hisatsa. Then in 1804 when she was about sixteen years old, she was purchased and wed by Toussaint Charbonneau. He was later hired by Lewis and Clark to guide and translate for them. Eight weeks before they left Sacagawea gave birth to a baby boy called, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. (Clark called him Pomp or Pompey) One of the worst parts about having Jean must have been she was coming on the expedition.
On their expedition she recognized a place that was not very far from her tribe’s (the Shoshone) summer retreat. She told them that they would either find the tribe on the river or on the river immediately west of its source. The only thing very important now was meeting the tribe as soon as possible. When they met a woman from the Shoshone pushed her way through the crowed and embraced Sacagawea. It turned out that they were long lost childhood friends, both taken during the same war. It was said to be a very touching moment. Later when they met with the chief, she was found embracing him to. This Indian chief turned out to be her brother. Although he was not as excited it was still a very nice moment for both of them. She found out that all her family except two brothers, one of whom was absent, and a son of her oldest sister, a small boy. She quickly adopted him. At this she had the chance of rejoining her tribe; this must have been one of the hardest decisions, because she chose to stay with the expedition.
Several years after her reunion with the Shoshone, she and her husband turned up at fort Manuel, a trading post. This is where Toussaint had found work, as an interpreter. Henry Brackenridge, a journalist wrote that she was ill “and longed to revisit her native country.” She never got the chance. On December20, 1812, John Lutting (the fort’s chief clerk) wrote in his logbook that Sacagawea “died of putrid fever she was a good and the best women in the fort” She was about 25 years old when she died. She left behind two biological children, 7 year old Jean Baptiste and 4 month old Lisette.
The next year Luttig representing William Clark petitioned the orphan court in St. Luis for custody of the kids. By then everyone thought Toussaint was dead for he had not been seen for six months. Eventually Luttig’s name was replaced with Clark’s. (Clark was very fond of the kids) At very least he would pay for Baptiste’s schooling. Later, Baptiste traveled to Europe, where he stayed for six years. When he came back he worked as a trapper. Baptiste’s sister Lisette and his cousin’s fate are unknown.