In April of 1805, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their expedition to find a route across western America to the Pacific Ocean. A young Shoshone Indian woman, Sacagawea, along with her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, joined the expedition as interpreters. The Charbonneaus' infant son, Jean Baptiste, accompanied them on the trek west.

Sacagawea was born sometime around 1787 near what is now Three Forks, Montana. The daughter of a Shoshone chief, the name she was given means "Bird Woman" and memorializes the fact that a flock of white birds were seen flying overhead just after her birth.

While many written accounts have used the name Sacajawea, most modern historians now believe Sacagawea to be a more accurate spelling.

In 1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were given a mandate by President Thomas Jefferson to find a route west to the Pacific Ocean. In preparation for their expedition, Lewis and Clark moved into Fort Mandan. They soon hired Charbonneau as an interpreter for their expedition and as a bonus, Charbonneau's Shoshone/Hidatsa wife, Sacagawea, would accompany the expedition west.

On February 11, 1805, shortly before the expedition was to set out, Sacagawea gave birth to her first son. The child was named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau and though not quite two months old at the onset of the expedition, he accompanied the group the entire way to the Pacific and back.

While Sacagawea became known as the Corps of Discovery's guide in many history books, in actuality she was part interpreter, part peacekeeper, and part horse trader. Since Sacagawea knew both the Shoshone and Hidatsa languages, she translated the Shoshone into Hidatsa by speaking to her husband. He in turn translated the Hidatsa into French for the rest of the expedition.

Riding on his mother's back strapped into a cradle board, little Jean Baptiste offered insurance of safe passage for the group through Indian lands. Any native Americans Lewis and Clark's expedition encountered would quickly realize they were not a war party since a woman with an infant were part of their number.

And when it came time to leave water travel behind and go across the land, Sacagawea was able to negotiate the purchase of horses from local Indian tribes, enabling the expedition to continue its journey westward.

After the return of the expedition, Sacagawea and her family lived at the Fort Manual Lisa Trading Post. Probably in early 1812, Sacagawea gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Lizette.

It is believed that Sacagawea died shortly after her daughter's birth while living at Fort Manual in December of 1812. She would have been around 25 years of age at the time. Her cause of death was listed by John Luttig, a clerk at the fort as "putrid fever" which is now believed to have been diphtheria.

Both of Sacagawea's children were adopted by William Clark on August 11, 1813. It was his desire to see that Jean Baptiste, or Pomp as Clark called him, was educated properly. While this was apparently accomplished, it is believed that little Lizette didn't live past childhood since there is no further mention of her in any of Clark's later writings.

During her short life, Sacagawea made a noteworthy contribution to the westward movement of America. In spite of being kidnapped, beaten and treated like a slave, and eventually being won in a card game by the man who would become her tyrannical husband, Sacagawea carved a name for herself in the history of the United States.