Native American/First Nations History

» Jeffrey R Gudzune - Sacagawea and the Opening of the West

Who was Sacagawea? Why has so much been written about her, yet so little fact explored? Perhaps this is because the only evidence of her participation in the Corps of Discovery comes from Lewis and Clark. Some historians have dismssed thier first hand observations as embellishment by overzealous editors years after the fact. This is not so. The embellishment comes from the cult of personality around what she truly was. She was more than a guide...more than an interpretor. She was something that bound the group together. Her husband, Charbonneau, was more of source of constirnation among the leadership of the expedition and the natural and human dangers that they faced proved equally vexing. Her stength of will, her abaptability to the perplexing situations that arose, provided a release from their anxieties. For Lewis and Clark, and indeed for the men of the Corps of Discovery, Sacagawea became a symbol. She has thus become a symbol for others; more than a person, she embodied the new west. This will be her legacy. Not a bad legacy to have.

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