Why did sacagawea help lewis and clark

Within this vast wilderness he hoped would lie the rumored Northwest Passage a waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But Jefferson wanted more from the explorers who would search for the passage: He charged them with surveying the natural landscape, learning about the varied Native American tribes and making maps.

He turned to his secretary, Meriwether Lewis , to head the Corps of Discovery. Lewis, 29, chose his friend and former military superior, year-old William Clark , as his co-captain. After more than a year of planning and initial travel, Lewis and Clark and their men reached the Hidatsa-Mandan settlement—about 60 miles northwest of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota—on November 2, , when Sacagawea was about six months pregnant.

Charbonneau spoke French and Hidatsa; Sacagawea spoke Hidatsa and Shoshone two very different languages. Through this translation chain, communications with the Shoshone would be possible, and Lewis and Clark recognized that as crucial: the Shoshone had horses they would need to purchase.

On April 7, Sacagawea, the baby and Charbonneau headed west with the 31 other Corps members. Within a month, a near-tragedy earned Sacagawea particular respect. The boat in which she was sailing nearly capsized when a squall hit and Charbonneau, the navigator, panicked.

In appreciation, Lewis and Clark named a branch of the Missouri for Sacagawea several days later. Clark, in particular, developed a close bond with Sacagawea as she and Baptiste would often accompany him as he took his turn walking the shore, checking for obstacles in the river that could damage the boats. She could identify roots, plants and berries that were either edible or medicinal.

This eased tensions that might otherwise have resulted in uncooperativeness at best, violence at worst. After reaching the Pacific, Sacagawea returned with the rest of the Corps and her husband and son—having survived illness, flash floods, temperature extremes, food shortages, mosquito swarms and so much more—to their starting point, the Hidatsa-Mandan settlement, on August 14, Three years later, in fall , Sacagawea, Charbonneau and Baptiste ventured to St.

The importance of meeting with the Shosones was described by Lewis in this entry on August 8, For without horses we shall be obliged to leave a great part of our stores, of which , it appears to me that we have a stock already sufficiently small for the length of the voyage before us.

Thanks to Sacagawea and to her relation with her brother, Chief Cameahwait, the expedition was able to trade horses and borrow a guide to lead them through the mountains. Sacagawea proved to be a very resourceful traveler. Journal entries show that she introduced native roots and fruits to the members of the expedition.

One month after their departure from Fort Mandan Clark observed:. The day before this journal entry the expedition was hit by a wind storm which capsized the boat where Charbonneau was travelling.

The boat carried important scientific information gathered in journals as well as medicine and tools. Charbonneau, who did not know how to swim, panicked instead of collecting the goods while Sacagawea reached for them. Her level headed behavior saved documents and tools that would have been lost forever. As the expedition was approaching the Pacific coast they met a group of Chinook and as it was common they exchanged gifts.

At the initial meeting the locals gave the explorers two very much needed black bear fur coats for the upcoming winter. Captains Lewis and Clark gave the two chiefs, Comcommoly and Chillarlawil, medals and a flag. Lewis observed that one of the chiefs was wearing a robe made with the fur of two sea otters and referred to it as the most beautiful fur they have ever seen; they wanted it as a present for President Jefferson. Lewis and Clark tried to trade several items for it but they refused.

Old Indian traditions claim that the expedition left children behind as well. Jackson that he was William Clark's son. Puppy chops haven't made it into any of the recent cookbooks offering recipes from the Lewis and Clark expedition, but the Indians ate dogs and so did the members of the expedition when nothing else was available. In the dry areas of what is now eastern Washington, in fact, where there was little if any game and the only other choice was dried salmon, usually impregnated with sand, the men came to prefer dog.

Their favorite foods were always elk, beaver tail, and buffalo, and when they were struggling up the Missouri the men ate prodigious amounts of it, up to nine pounds of meat per man per day.

But dogs would do if dogs were all that they could get. Only Clark abstained. He couldn't bring himself to eat dog meat. Did you also know that there are reportedly more statues of Sacagawea in the United States than of any other woman? Everybody on the expedition apparently liked and admired her. She was cool in a crisis and helpful in identifying edible greens and roots in the High Plains.

They called her Janey, and Clark was so fond of her he offered to educate her little boy, and did. Sacagawea also knew her home grounds, the Shoshone country in western Montana. She was useful as a translator when they came upon her people, and her presence was a signal to other Indians that the expedition was peaceful—no Indian war party ever traveled with an Indian woman and her child.

After the Corps had spent the winter in the Mandan villages discipline problems more or less disappeared, but on the way up the lower Missouri during the expedition's first summer three men had to be punished—one for "mutinous expression," another for attempted desertion, and a third for sleeping on guard duty.

Regulation courts martial were convened on the spot, all three men were found guilty, and one had to endure lashes, dealt out over a period of four days. This was a military expedition, operating under military discipline. Except for the French engages, everyone on the expedition on the lower Missouri held military rank. Sleeping on guard duty was a capital offense. On one occasion some Indian chiefs present at one of these punishments objected to its severity, and Clark had to explain why it was necessary.

Plains Indians never subjected their malefactors to public punishment. Lewis and Clark had maps of the lower Missouri, drawn by earlier fur trading expeditions. But beyond the Mandan villages they had only information gleaned from Mandan informants who knew the country.

In June they came to a fork in the Missouri the Mandans had not mentioned. The Missouri was the route into the mountains, but which river was the Missouri?

It took more than a week and two separate reconnaissance expeditions for Lewis and Clark to make up their minds. The influence of the expedition is incalculable. The Lewis And Clark Expedition Begins Their mission was to explore the unknown territory, establish trade with the Natives and affirm the sovereignty of the United States in the region. Some of which were malaria, dysentery, mumps, rheumatism, and tonsillitis. The injuries were caused by the cold weather, lack of nutrition, and tools like guns, knives, and adzes.

The Lewis and Clark expedition did great things, while being involved in some awful business, which fits nicely into U. Clark brought along York, a person he owned through the slavery trade legal at that time. This included his plantation at Locust Hill in Albemarle County, Virginia about acres and other property, including 24 slaves. Lewis and Clark also discovered or carefully described for the first time at least seven Great Plains species of mammals, including the pronghorn, grizzly bear, swift fox, black-tailed prairie dog, white-tailed jackrabbit, bushy-tailed woodrat, and mule deer.

In the spring of , Lewis, Clark, and dozens of other men left St.