Lewis and Clark Expedition: Did Sacajawea voluntarily donate her bead belt for a fur cape?

The place and the event.

Shortly after the Corps of Discovery arrived on the west coast of the Pacific, it was no coincidence that various members of the tribe appeared before Lewis and Clark wearing fine fur garments. These coastal tribes were knowledgeable about the trade. They had been trading with foreign sailors for years. They also knew what was on the explorer’s mind in addition to finding a trade route across the country.

Therefore, Lewis and Clark were in awe of one particular sea otter shoulder cloak worn by a member of a tribe. But, they did not have enough tradable goods available to obtain from him. The tribe member also wanted the blue beaded belt worn by the corps performer’s wife, Sacajawea. Did you voluntarily give it up for that purchase?

Sacajawea’s adolescence.

About five years earlier, Sacajawea’s early adolescence underwent a tumultuous change. As a 12-year-old Lemhi Shoshone girl who lived near the now Idaho-Montana border, she was captured by a group of Hidatsa warriors. From there, she was taken to a large Hidatsa-Mandan dual tribe village near the Knife and Missouri rivers in North Dakota, where she was adopted by a Hidatsa family. The practice of capturing children from different tribes was common among the plains tribes at that time.

For the next four years, in her new home, she learned the Hidatsa language and worked with the village women in their large gardens. The Hidatsa and Mandan tribes were matrilineal matriarchal agricultural tribes. That is, the women owned and inherited the 20-foot-wide dirt-covered huts and the huge gardens they maintained. They also led the great clans within these tribes, while men tended to the village defenses and hunting needs. In fact, the women of these two tribes grew so much food, which they stored underground during the winter months, that they easily exchanged portions for the necessary goods of various non-agricultural tribes and of the French and English trappers passing through the region.

During these four brief years leading up to the marriage before motherhood within her new tribe, Sacagawea, she must have made a favorable impression on the older women there. His foster mother might have been influential in his Hidatsa clan, but no one knows for sure how much. Still, Sacagawea was eventually awarded a blue bead belt by an influential women’s society there. According to tribal historians, these belts were awarded to those who were hard-working and perhaps sensitive and well-founded. The belt itself could have been three fingers wide, with an extended section hanging down at the attachment point.

This belt meant a lot to Sacajawea. It meant more to her than mere success through her work. For her, this belt signified acceptance and achievement outside of her own tribal bloodline. It was a visible sign of his worth as a person. This belt could have inspired her even more to become a well-grounded teenager. It was then that she married a French Canadian fur trader at the age of 16.

Lewis and Clark meeting

Shortly after that, in late 1804, they encountered the Corps of Discovery there in their dual village, where she gave birth to a baby boy on February 11, 1805. Captain Lewis assisted with the delivery. The captains also hired her trapper husband, Touissiant Charbonneau, as an interpreter. He spoke French, Hidatsa and Mandan and knew signs. As it also turned out, Sacagawea, who spoke Hidatsa and Shoshone, accompanied him and his son on this dangerous journey. Their son was less than two months old when they left their village to the west.

During the journey west, Sacajawea showed considerable maturity and ability. Lewis and Clark praised her in their journals as she calmly retrieved floating goods from the river as the boat she was in began to capsize in a windstorm. He also supplied the body with many wild edibles, and did not give it importance. Also, he remembered well the landmarks of the Shoshone country and its language.

Therefore, it helped immensely with the necessary interpretations when the body reached its native tribe before crossing the Rocky Mountains. Furthermore, when the body left this village to the west, she stayed with her fur-hunting husband to finish the journey. She and her son could have easily stayed there among their own people now that her brother was the head of that Shoshone tribe. Instead, she kept her husband and the body.

Returning to the question.

Now back to the question: Did Sacajawea voluntarily donate his belt for the purchase of that cape? Although it’s not known for sure, he definitely could have done so at the behest of the corps mission to find a trade route, which he understood. After all, she had been watching the body collect specimens of animals and plants, hides and skins for several months by then.

So during that fascinating moment of selling splendid furs, you could have given Lewis and Clark the go-ahead to add your belt to the business package. In silence and with tears in his eyes, perhaps? However, he also knew that the coastal tribes knew that the body had a vested interest in the fur industry back then. That’s why these tribes might demand the highly prized chieftain beads, like the blue ones on their belt, for quality furs.

Furthermore, the day after purchasing that fur cape, on November 21, 1805, Clark noted in his journal that Sacajawea had been given a “blue cloth cape” to compensate for the exchanged belt. That blue coat could have been a very ornate one made of very fine fabric from a military uniform. For more information on Sacagawea, see the Lewis clarkandbeyond bicentennial presentations by Dr. Amy Mossett and the following sites.