Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

The Lewis and Clark Expedition offers students a great opportunity to study Native American cultures. Chairman Michael Farris explores the contributions of one Native American woman on today's Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Farris:


Growing up in South Eastern Washington state, my family enjoyed many picnics and swimming expeditions at nearby Sacagawea State Park. Sacagawea was the Shoshoni Indian wife of the French-Canadian interpreter, Toussaint Charbonneau. She was captured by the Hidatsa tribe around age eleven, taken from her home at the headwaters of the Missouri River, to the Knife River village, near Fort Mandan, where the Lewis and Clark team spent the winter of 1804. Though she had a young infant son when the journey west continued in the spring, they knew she could still provide valuable help as guide and interpreter.


The familiar story of her amazing encounter with the chief of the Shoshoni's runs like a Hollywood script. As the group searched for the Shoshoni, hoping to acquire horses to make the passage over the Rockies, they came upon Sacagawea's own brother, who was the chief of the tribe. The Shoshone's provided invaluable assistance to the party.


Lewis and Clark met 47 different Indian tribes along their route. Strict instructions were given by Jefferson that all their interactions with the natives must be friendly and conciliatory, showing America's wish to be neighborly and peaceful.


During the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, try using their journals as a springboard for the discussion of Native American peoples. For the more advanced student, let the journals be the start of a study of the issues that affect our Native American populations yet today. I'm Mike Farris.