# Sacagawea **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 3, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190 "2017-01-03T01:15:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/1 "2017-01-03T01:15:24Z")
[Link to Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2148/whats-the-real-story-on-sacagawea) I dunno if **Bibliophage** is still around, but I enjoyed this staff report. Well done. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/2 "2017-01-03T01:33:24Z")
Thanks. I’m still alive the last time I checked. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/3 "2017-01-03T01:49:59Z")
🙂 Good to know. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/4 "2017-01-03T03:50:39Z")
The last paragraph was a topper. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/5 "2017-01-03T04:17:00Z")
Came here to say the very same thing. What a well-written, informative and thoroughly entertaining report! ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/6 "2017-01-03T04:53:04Z")
Thanks for the link. That was a great read. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/7 "2017-01-04T16:03:58Z")
I want to point out that Sacajawea did much more. She also had a desire for exploration and had a thirst for knowledge. Thing is she really felt like she was a part of the expedition and like Lewis and Clark and after coming part of the way and seeing all their scientific instruments like microscopes, wanted to see the rest of the country all the way to the Pacific ocean so when they were about to leave her with her home village she refused and demanded to continue. So they took her all the way to the Pacific. During the winter when the group stayed on the Oregon coast the word came out that a dead beached whale had been found and they made plans to go and see it. But poor Sac, being the only woman, was told to stay at home but she insisted on seeing it too so she got to go along. Once they got back to “civilization” Sac again turned down returning to her home village and went to live in white society. They even paid her for her services. She was a remarkable woman. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/8 "2017-01-04T16:40:15Z")
**Urbanredneck** , from what source are you deriving those conclusions? I don’t think the journals of the expedition said much about how she was feeling, and I can’t imagine what other source would be available. I mean, maybe she did have a love of discovery and a thirst for knowledge, but I don’t see how we, over a century later, would know. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/9 "2017-01-04T18:25:00Z")
Her son Jean-Baptiste, nicknamed Pomp by Lewis, had a very interesting life as well, touring Europe and living for a while as an honored guest-employee-resident in [this little place](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Ludwigsburg%2C_November_2006%2C_44.jpg). About his father I don’t think I’ve ever read anything nicer than he wasn’t an asshole all the time. He had a history of abusing native women before Sacagawea and Otter Woman (his other wife when he was married to Sacagawea) and kept doing so after she was dead or otherwise out of the picture. He was husband-owner to a young wife he’d somehow aquired when he died as an old man. Luckily for Pomp he had little to nothing to do with the raising of his children. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/10 "2017-01-05T23:23:32Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Her son Jean-Baptiste, nicknamed Pomp by Lewis, had a very interesting life as well, touring Europe and living for a while as an honored guest-employee-resident in [this little place](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Ludwigsburg%2C_November_2006%2C_44.jpg). > > About his father I don’t think I’ve ever read anything nicer than he wasn’t an asshole all the time. He had a history of abusing native women before Sacagawea and Otter Woman (his other wife when he was married to Sacagawea) and kept doing so after she was dead or otherwise out of the picture. He was husband-owner to a young wife he’d somehow aquired when he died as an old man. Luckily for Pomp he had little to nothing to do with the raising of his children. Well from what I read he had one redeaming quality. He was good at making sausage. A skill good for persons needing to have a way to preserving and transporting meat. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/11 "2017-01-05T23:25:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Urbanredneck** , from what source are you deriving those conclusions? I don’t think the journals of the expedition said much about how she was feeling, and I can’t imagine what other source would be available. I mean, maybe she did have a love of discovery and a thirst for knowledge, but I don’t see how we, over a century later, would know. I would have to look around but its in a book I had. Thing is much of what we were taught was IMO, designed for kids in school so they leave a LOT out - like sexual behaviors. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/12 "2017-01-06T01:13:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Urbanredneck** , from what source are you deriving those conclusions? I don’t think the journals of the expedition said much about how she was feeling, and I can’t imagine what other source would be available. I mean, maybe she did have a love of discovery and a thirst for knowledge, but I don’t see how we, over a century later, would know. > [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I would have to look around but its in a book I had. > > Thing is much of what we were taught was IMO, designed for kids in school so they leave a LOT out - like sexual behaviors. My guess is that not only do they leave thing out, they stick in lots of made up things. What kind of school text was this? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/13 "2017-01-06T02:27:33Z")
I also did think that it was a great report, only nit is that there was something of symbolical importance that took place in the Pacific: > **[Lewis and Clark | Ken Burns | PBS | Watch Lewis and Clark Documentary | Ken...](https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/lewis-clark/)** > > Enter the world of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the rest of the Corps of Discovery. Full film now streaming. > [@](#): > > On November 24, 1805, when the expedition reached the place where the Columbia River emptied into the Pacific Ocean, the captains held a vote among all the members to decide where to settle for the winter. Sacagawea’s vote, as well as the vote of Clark’s “manservant” York, were counted equally with those of the captains and the men. As a result of the election, the Corps stayed at a site near present-day Astoria, Oregon, in Fort Clatsop, which they constructed and inhabited during the winter of 1805-1806. I remember historians pointing out that having agents of the government recording a vote that, while it was not about government representation, it was nevertheless a powerful symbol for women and black people that would not get the right to vote until many decades into the future. I wonder if the suffragists also looked at that vote when they pointed at Sacagawea as important for their movement. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/14 "2017-01-06T05:27:56Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I also did think that it was a great report, only nit is that there was something of symbolical importance that took place in the Pacific: > > [Watch Lewis and Clark Documentary | Ken Burns | PBS](http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/saca.html) > I remember historians pointing out that having agents of the government recording a vote that, while it was not about government representation, it was nevertheless a powerful symbol for women and black people that would not get the right to vote until many decades into the future. > > I wonder if the suffragists also looked at that vote when they pointed at Sacagawea as important for their movement. I think that unless the vote was well known to the public it would have very little symbolic value, no? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/15 "2017-01-06T05:58:48Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > I think that unless the vote was well known to the public it would have very little symbolic value, no? Of course, not well known then, but by I’m talking about the time of the suffragists and beyond. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/16 "2017-01-11T19:50:54Z")
Ok, found the book: Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, by Duncan and Burns,[LINK](https://www.amazon.com/Lewis-Clark-Journey-Corps-Discovery/dp/0679454500/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1484164019&sr=8-3&keywords=lewis+and+clark+books) The whale is mentioned on page 170. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacagawea/776190/17 "2025-07-23T17:10:01Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > [Link to Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2148/whats-the-real-story-on-sacagawea) > > I dunno if **Bibliophage** is still around, but I enjoyed this staff report. Well done. And this staff report says “but manuscript evidence has turned up since that indicates she really died in South Dakota in 1812 of “putrid fever” at about age 25.” But according to a recent New York Times article [perhaps someone can give a gift link] > **[What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong?](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/magazine/sacagawea-biography-history.html)** > > A growing body of evidence suggests she might have survived into old age — which would entirely change the story of America’s most iconic Native forebear.