Kessler critically examines the historical record surrounding Sacagawea, the Lemhi Shoshone woman whose role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition has been both celebrated and mythologized. The article distinguishes between what the expedition journals actually document — her identification of landmarks, her gathering of edible plants, her crucial role in the encounter with the Shoshone, and her presence as a signal of the expedition’s peaceful intentions — and the romanticized narratives that grew up around her in the 19th and 20th centuries. Kessler addresses the longstanding debate over Sacagawea’s death, weighing the historical evidence for the 1812 death at Fort Manuel against the oral traditions supporting a longer life on the Wind River Reservation. The article also examines how Sacagawea has been used symbolically by various groups, from the women’s suffrage movement to Native sovereignty advocates, and how these appropriations have both elevated and distorted her historical significance.
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