Sacagawea Timeline

After the expedition, Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau settled in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1809, where their son would later come under the care of William Clark.

A journal entry from 1811 by Henry Brackenridge, a fur trader at Fort Lisa Trading Post on the Missouri River, wrote that Sacagawea and Charbonneau were living at the fort. Brackenridge recorded that Sacagawea 'had become sickly and longed to revisit her native country.'

Image source: Manuel Lisa

Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette Charbonneau, about 1812.

According to Bonnie 'Spirit Wind-Walker' Butterfield, historical documents suggest that Sacagawea died in 1812 of an unknown sickness. John Luttig, a Fort Lisa clerk, recorded in his journal on December 20, 1812, that 'the wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw' had died. Neither Brackenridge nor Luttig identified the woman by name, however, and recent scholarship has identified significant problems with this documentary evidence.

In February 1813, a few months after Luttig's journal entry, 15 men were killed in a Native attack on Fort Lisa, located at the mouth of the Bighorn River. Lizette was identified as a year-old girl in adoption papers in 1813 recognizing William Clark, who also adopted her older brother that year.

On August 11, 1813, William Clark became the guardian of Tousant Charbonneau, a boy about ten years, and Lizette Charbonneau, a girl about one year old. For a Missouri State Court at the time to designate children as orphaned and allow adoption, both parents had to be confirmed dead in court papers.

Image source: William Clark

The last recorded document referring to Sacagawea's life appears in William Clark's original notes written between 1825 and 1826. Notably, Clark listed Patrick Gass as 'Dead' in the same document, but Gass outlived Clark by more than 30 years, living until 1870, illustrating problems with the documentary record.

According to the Wyoming oral tradition, a woman called Porivo, believed by some to be Sacagawea, was present for the negotiations for the 1868 treaty that created the Wind River Reservation and later helped her people transition to reservation life. She returned to the Lemhi Shoshone at the reservation, where she was recorded as 'Bazil's mother.'

Image source: Wind River Indian Reservation

The Hidatsa people maintain a detailed oral tradition that Sacagawea was a member of their tribe who lived until 1869, contradicting the widely accepted 1812 death date.

According to the Wyoming tradition, the woman known as Porivo, believed by some to have been Sacagawea, died on April 9, 1884, at the Wind River Reservation, where her alleged burial site bears a gravestone with that death date.

On Memorial Day 1923, Bulls Eye, who claimed to be Sacagawea's grandson, gave testimony to Major A.B. Welch formally documenting the Hidatsa narrative. His 1923 oral history was supported by contemporary elders in the tribe.

The Sacagawea Project Board conducted DNA testing showing a genetic link between Hidatsa descended from Cedar Woman, said to be Sacagawea's daughter born after her supposed 1812 death, and French Canadians with the name Charbonneau. Individuals claiming descent through Cedar Woman matched 74 different Charbonneaus in commercial DNA registries, supporting the Hidatsa account presented in the board's 2021 book Our Story of Eagle Woman.

The use of the 'Sacajawea' spelling almost certainly originated with Nicholas Biddle, who used the 'j' when he annotated the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition for publication in 1814, after William Clark and Private George Shannon explained how the 'tz' sound was more like a 'j'.

Image source: Nicholas Biddle

After his infant son died, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau returned from Europe in 1829 to the United States, where he continued a life as a guide and frontiersman.

In 1846, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau served as a guide for the Mormon Battalion during construction of the first wagon road to Southern California.

Image source: Mormon Battalion

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau became ill with pneumonia and died in a remote area near Danner, Oregon, on May 16, 1866.

The name 'Sacagawea' has been independently constructed from two Hidatsa words found in the dictionary Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians (1877), published by the Government Printing Office, supporting the Hidatsa derivation of her name.

Image source: Washington Matthews

Grace Raymond Hebard, professor of political economy at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and an active supporter of the Nineteenth Amendment, campaigned for federal legislation to erect an edifice honoring Sacajawea's alleged death in 1884.

Image source: Grace Raymond Hebard

The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark (1902), written by American suffragist Eva Emery Dye and published in anticipation of the expedition's centennial, made the 'Sacajawea' spelling more widespread and shaped much of the public perception of Sacagawea.

Image source: Sacagawea

Alice Cooper's bronze sculpture Sacagawea and Jean-Baptiste was unveiled in Portland, Oregon on July 6, 1905, and moved to Washington Park on April 6, 1906.

Image source: List of statues of Sacagawea

Leonard Crunelle's 1910 statue of Sacagawea, depicted with baby Pomp, was located on the grounds of the North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck. In 2003, the state gave a replica to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol.

Image source: North Dakota State Capitol

The spelling Sacagawea was established in 1910 by the Bureau of American Ethnology as the proper usage in government documents, though the spelling Sacajawea remained widely taught until the late 20th century.

Image source: Bureau of American Ethnology

Charles Keck's monument Their First View of the Pacific was erected in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1919. The Charlottesville City Council voted in November 2019 to remove it, a decision cheered by the local Monacan Indian Nation and descendants of Sacagawea's family in Idaho, and the city removed it on July 10, 2021.

Image source: Charlottesville, Virginia

The Daughters of the American Revolution created the memorial area in 1932 to honor Sacajawea for her role in the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Image source: Daughters of the American Revolution

Grace Raymond Hebard published Sacajawea: Guide and Interpreter of Lewis and Clark (1933) to great success, based on her 30 years of research. It widely disseminated the belief that Sacagawea lived to old age and died in Wyoming, though scholars such as Benjamin Capps and Albert Furtwangler argue Hebard identified the wrong woman.

The Western film The Far Horizons (1955) perpetuated fiction about Sacagawea's life, further shaping popular perceptions of her role in the expedition.

Image source: The Far Horizons

In 1959, Sacagawea was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Image source: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Harold Balazs' 1960 statue of Sacagawea is displayed in the rose garden in front of the President's House at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.

Image source: Eastern Washington University

In 1963, a monument to 'Sacajawea of the Shoshonis' was erected at Fort Washakie on the Wind River Reservation near Lander, Wyoming, on the basis of the claim that she lived there until her death in 1884.

It was republished in 1970 by the Lemhi County Historical Society as a pamphlet entitled 'Madame Charbonneau' and contains many of the arguments in favor of the Shoshone derivation of the name Sacagawea.

Image source: Lemhi County, Idaho

Sacagewea is referenced in Stevie Wonder's song 'Black Man' from the album Songs in the Key of Life (1976), celebrating figures from American history.

Image source: Man in Black (song)

In 1976, Sacagawea was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.

Image source: National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame

In her novel Sacajawea (1984), Anna Lee Waldo explored the story of Sacagawea returning to Wyoming 50 years after her departure. The author was well aware of the historical research supporting an 1812 death but chose to explore the oral tradition.

Tingstad & Rumbel's 1988 album Legends includes a piece entitled 'Sacajawea,' continuing the artistic legacy surrounding her story.

Image source: Eric Tingstad

In 1994, the United States Postal Service released a 29-cent stamp honoring Sacagawea.

In 2000, the United States Mint issued the Sacagawea dollar coin in her honor, depicting Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.

Image source: Sacagawea dollar

In 2001, Sacagawea was given the title of Honorary Sergeant, Regular Army, by President Bill Clinton.

Image source: Bill Clinton

Glenna Goodacre's 2001 statue of Sacagawea stands outside the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas.

Image source: Glenna Goodacre

In 2003, Sacagawea was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, recognizing her enduring significance in American history.

Image source: National Women's Hall of Fame

A statue of Sacagawea was installed in front of the Idaho History Museum in Boise, Idaho in July 2003.

Image source: Boise, Idaho

A 2005 bronze sculpture by Greeves, 72 inches tall, was placed in the Robbie Powwow Garden at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Image source: Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Agnes Vincen Talbot's August 2005 statue of Sacagawea and her son stands poised in front of the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural & Education Center in Salmon, Idaho, her reputed birthplace.

Image source: Salmon, Idaho

In Also Called Sacajawea: Chief Woman's Stolen Identity (2007), Johnson argues that Grace Raymond Hebard identified the wrong woman when she relied upon oral history that an old woman who died and is buried on the Wyoming Wind River Reservation was Sacajawea.

Commissioned by the Willows Theatre Company in northern California, the play premiered at the annual John Muir Festival in the summer of 2008 at the Alhambra Performing Arts Center in Martinez.

Image source: Martinez, California

Carol Grende's 2009 statue 'Arduous Journey' depicts Sacagawea near the entrance to the Historic Pathway in Dayton, Washington.

Image source: Dayton, Washington

In 2010, Italian pianist and composer Alessandra Celletti released Sketches of Sacagawea, a limited-edition tribute box set with an album and accompanying book, on Al-Kemi Lab.

Image source: Alessandra Celletti

Harry Weber's 2002 statue of Sacagawea with her baby in a cradleboard, part of a diorama of the Lewis & Clark expedition, was dedicated to The Missouri River Federal Courthouse in 2010.

Heather Söderberg's 2010 sculpture 'Sacagawea and Seaman' was installed in Cascade Locks, Oregon.

Image source: Cascade Locks, Oregon