# Did The Native Americans Travel A Lot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-native-americans-travel-a-lot/201702 "2003-09-15T10:34:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-native-americans-travel-a-lot/201702/1 "2003-09-15T10:34:21Z")
Just wondering…wasit common for an east-coast indian/native american to pack up and travle to Florida,or kansas? Reading about Louis and Clark, their indian guide (Sacajawea) was fromthe Cherokee tribe. Yet, somehow she was able to convers with the tribes of the pacific Northwest-wereindian languages sufficiently similar such that anindian from the east coast could converse witha west coast tribe? Just wondering! ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-native-americans-travel-a-lot/201702/2 "2003-09-15T11:39:53Z")
> [@](#): > > was fromthe Cherokee tribe ummm, Sacagawea was Shoshone (from current Idaho) who had been kidnapped in her early teens by Hidatsa (current North Dakota), where she encountered Lewis and Clark. Both the Shoshone and Hidatsa would have had some familiarity with the hand languages that served as the _lingua franca_ of trade and treaties on the Northern Plains (as would the other Indian nations that Lewis and Clark would encounter), so Sacagawea would have been ideally suited as a translator for peoples along the upper Missouri and to the West–exactly along the trails of Lewis and Clark. I am sure that _some_ adventurous spirits roamed among the nations, just as other people throughout the history of the world travelled, but I doubt that it was a common experience and Sacagawea does not provide an example of independent roaming, as her travels East were determined by slavery. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-native-americans-travel-a-lot/201702/3 "2003-09-15T11:59:28Z")
Some people evidently traveled a lot – trade goods traveled astonishing distances, with shells from the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, showing up way in the north. I’ve read about that sort of thing. My uninformed guess about you average person is that he or she traveled a bit further than the average European of the time, but still not terribly far from home.