Toussaint Charbonneau Hired — Sacagawea Joins the Expedition

Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader living among the Hidatsa, presented himself to the captains as a potential interpreter. His primary value to the expedition, however, would be his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea.

“A Mr. Chaubonee interpreter for the Gross Ventre nation came to See us, and informed that he came Down with Several Indians from a Hunting expedition up the river.”

Sacagawea had been captured by a Hidatsa raiding party as a young girl and brought to the Mandan villages, where Charbonneau won her (or purchased her) in a gambling game. The captains recognized that a Shoshone speaker would be invaluable when they reached the Rocky Mountains and needed to obtain horses.

This seemingly routine personnel decision would prove to be one of the most consequential of the entire expedition.