Sacagawea was a young Shoshone woman living in what is now North Dakota when explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived in 1805. They needed someone who knew the mountains to the west - and could translate to her tribe, the Shoshone, whose horses they would need to cross the Rockies.
She agreed to come along, bringing her newborn son Jean Baptiste in a cradleboard on her back. Over the next 16 months, she helped find food, calmed nervous tribes by showing them a woman and baby (proving the group wasn’t a war party), and one day recognized landmarks from her childhood.
In an amazing twist, the Shoshone chief they finally met turned out to be her own brother, whom she hadn’t seen in years. He gave them horses and guides. Sacagawea finished the journey to the Pacific and back. Today her face appears on the U.S. one-dollar coin.
