In the exhibition hall at the US Capitol stands the statue of Sakakawea (also Sacagawea, Sacajawea), representing North Dakota to the National Statuary Hall Collection (NSHC).
In 1999 North Dakota state legislature approved the donation of the statue of Sakakawea to the NSHC. The statue committee decided to send a replica of the Sakakawea statue that has been standing on the North Dakota State Capitol grounds since 1910.
The State Historical Society and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of North Dakota worked for more than three years to raise $200,000 for the 1,200-pound bronze casting of the statue.
The Women’s Clubs of North Dakota, then called the North Dakota Federation of Women’s Clubs, also commissioned the original statue and chose Leonard Crunelle to sculpt it. That was one of the first sculptures that honored a woman in the nation. The North Dakota Federation of Women’s Clubs erected it in celebration of the contribution of North Dakotan women to the history of the US. To create an authentic depiction, Crunelle traveled to the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota to sketch Hidatsa figures, learn their costumes, and meet Sakakawea’s granddaughter, Hannah Levings Grant, also known as Mink Woman, who modeled for the statue.
Since each state can honor two figures and the Sakakawea statue also depict her son, only she appears on the plaque that reads:
“North Dakota
Sakakawea
A member of the Lewis and Clark expedition
1804-1806”
Still, North Dakota is the only state that presents three figures in the NSHC.
Her statue was the first nonwhite woman in the NSHC and the 7th of a woman. Two years later, Nevada donated Sarah Winnemucca’s statue to the NSHC. Sakakawea and Winnemucca, along with a depiction of Pocahontas in a painting, are the only Native-American women included in the US Capitol.
The statue’s dedication was part of the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Members from the Three Affiliated Tribes participated and performed in the dedication ceremony on October 16th, 2003.
Sakakawea(b.1788, death unknown) was a Native-American woman who was one of the members (and the only woman) of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean. She was born into the Shoshone tribe in what is now Idaho. Around the age of 12, Hidatsa Indians captured and took her to live with them in the area that is now North Dakota. Several years later, they sold her to marry a French-Canadian fur trader. In 1804, Lewis and Clark came to the area to prepare for the expedition to the wild west; they hired her husband and took her as an interpreter for the Shoshone people. She gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste, and carried him on her back on the journey. Sakakawea had a significant role in the expedition’s success, contributing as a diplomat, guide, and translator.
Sacagawea (Sacajawea): Teenage Mother Who Saved the Lewis and Clark Expedition | Biography
Kidnapped and sold into marriage to a man 20 years her senior, Sacagawea (with a newborn baby on her back) ended up playing a vital role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, where she acted as an interpreter, guide and “pilot,” and a symbol of peace to the natives who were wary of the gun-wielding white explorers. Sacagawea’s life story is full of triumph and tragedy.
In this video, I share a history of Sacagawea’s life (Sacajawea’s life), and how she became the heroine of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In the spring of 1788, Sacagawea was born into a clan of northern Shoshone known as the Agaidika, the salmon-eaters. When Sacagawea was twelve, one of the neighboring tribes, the gun-wielding Hidatsa, launched a sudden and violent raid. Killing a number of men, women and boys, but kidnapping the young girls, including Sacagawea.
The origin of the name Sacagawea appears to be Hidatsa, not Shoshone, meaning bird-woman in the language of her captors. When she was thirteen years old, she was sold as one of two wives to a French trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were tasked with exploring the recently purchased Louisiana Territory, and they hired Charbonneau so he would bring along his teenage wife (with their newborn baby) since she could function as an interpreter.
Sacagawea’s importance to the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is clear from the daily diaries the explorers kept. She not only acted as a guide and “pilot” through dangerous mountain passes, she also helped the explorers identify which native plants were edible when they were on the verge of starvation, and was a symbol of peace to the native tribes since war parties in their culture never traveled with women.
Sacagawea’s memory was revived a century after her death by the suffragette movement. The story of the crucial role she played in Lewis and Clark’s expedition, including voting on at least one important decision along with the men, became symbolic of female strength and influence.
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➡️ Acknowledgements
A huge “thank you” to Brenda Mickelson for the artwork used in our thumbnail.
For prints, contact brenda.mickelson@gmail.com
I Feel You by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100841
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
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