Wonder Woman of the Week: Sacagawea

Sacagawea, a Lemhi Shoshone woman born around 1788, played a crucial role in the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), which explored the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. Kidnapped at a young age by Hidatsa raiders, she was later sold to or won by the French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, who became her husband. When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark hired Charbonneau as an interpreter, they recognized Sacagawea’s value not only for her linguistic skills but also for her deep knowledge of the terrain. Despite being just a teenager and pregnant at the time, she joined the Corps of Discovery, giving birth to her son Jean Baptiste shortly before the expedition set out into the vast and unknown West.