SACAJAWEA 200 YEARS AGO

Much has been said about Sacajawea, the beautiful Indian, woman who helped Lewis and Clark get to Oregon.
If not for her they would have died along the trail of starvation and sickness.
Paying tribute to her now is the place where she was born, Salmon, Idaho.
Salmon, Idaho Lemhi Shoshone country. A beautiful statue with Mother and baby strapped on her back complements a new information center there. In her honor the mountains behind her statue also bares her name.
It was 200 years ago on Aug. 12 1805 that Lewis and Clark expedition left North Dakota for the trip to the Oregon Ocean.
Lewis and Clark hired her husband as a guide and interpreter; he took her along to help him. Her knowledge of roots and herbs for medicine and food was invaluable.
Captured at the age of 12 and taken to a hunting village of the Hidatsa Indians in North Dakota, she was still able to find her homeland of Idaho. Her brother now the chief of the Lemhi Shoshone loaned them horses and a guide to help them over the treacherous Bitterroot Mountains.
Sacajawea earned great respect with Lewis and Clark. In all of the writings of the explorers, there are no drawings, or pictures of Sacajawea. A picture of a beautiful young maiden is used in her likeness.
She died at a very young age in Fort Manuel, South Dakota.
Two different stories surround the death of Sacajawea, the only woman to accompany the Corps of Discovery.
While some say she died at an old age in Wyoming, many historians believe she died at Fort Manuel in present-day South Dakota.
Sacajawea untimely death of a putrid fever came just six years after the expedition ended. She was only 25 years old.