Sacagawea by Lise Erdrich, illustrated by Julie Buffalohead is an award winning children's biography of the Shoshone woman who acted as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark during their famous exploration of the west in 1804. The book received the Carter G. Woodson Award for social science book that depicts ethnicity in the United States as well as being an International Reading Association (IRA) teacher's choice and an International Reading Association (IRA)/Children's Book Council (CBC) children's choice. Eldrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain band of Plains-Ojibway and Buffalohead is of Ponca heritage. The book details a great deal of factual content concerning the time period and the geography of the area. The story tells of Sacagawea's life from age eleven when she was kidnapped by a Hidatsa raiding party when she was out gathering roots and berries and firewood along the riverbank and the men were out to a Frenchman named Charbonneau who was at least twenty years older than her. She was pregnant with her first child when the Corps of Discovery, headed by Lewis and Clark arrived in their village. It was her husband, Charbonneau, who proposed that the expedition hire…
The Shoshone bartered with them for horses which the team would need to cross the Rockies and for information relating to the pass routes used by the Nez Perce (Lewis and Clark). With this help, the expedition found a suitable pass in the fall of 1805 along the Montana/Idaho border. However, food was extremely scarce, the horses were not in great condition and the passing through the Rockies proved
Congress, under orders from President Jefferson, made the decision to send up to twelve men to explore the land all the way to the West coast, and provided a budget of $2,500. The group was going to need to study every detail about the land, including the Native American tribes which already resided on the land. Additionally, the group would need to have a working knowledge of botany, geology,
Lewis & Clark From the time the Mayflower arrived, Manifest Destiny was etched onto the consciousness of European settlers. An immutable sense of entitlement, coupled with a belief in the spiritual purpose of the mission, is what permeated every decision made by colonial and later, American officials with regards to settlement patterns, land acquisitions, and relations with Native Americans. Native Americans may have had their own "manifest destiny," which was unfortunately
Jefferson also wanted to know what animals Lewis and Clark would encounter, and he wanted a full accounting of the things in the natural world that the two observed or interacted with along the route, which was the Missouri River. Jefferson also wanted to make sure that there could be a trading port available to the young country in New Orleans, and Jefferson feared that residents of the western portion
For one thing, if the expedition failed, Lincoln knew that the effort could be justified on scientific grounds. A document was prepared on the various issues to be covered and with the questions to be asked. Jefferson delivered the plan to Congress on the basis of extending trade with the Indians, though clearly that was incidental to his main purpose. One of the theories to be tested was the
Lewis and Clark said to every tribe that President Thomas Jefferson was the new great father of the land and gave the Indians a peace medal "with Jefferson on one side and two hands clasping on the other" as well as some supplies ("The Native Americans," PBS.com, 2007). Then the Corps members would perform a kind of parade, marching in uniform and ritualistically firing their guns into the air
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