she recognized as the one from which she had been taken captive years before and now she was among the haunts of her people. Later some squaws were brought in who, abandoned by the Indian men, had fallen into the hands of the explorers. As the poor creatures cowered before their captors, bending their heads as if to receive a death-blow, one, a young girl, suddenly caught sight of Sacajawea, and rushed toward her. She was of the same tribe and had been taken captive with Sacajawea, but made her escape and returned to her people. The two embraced tenderly. It was the very band of the Birdwoman (Shoshones) that had been sighted.
The Shoshone women, acting as guides and intercessors, brought the warriors to Lewis and Clark. At the council which soon followed, Sacajawea began to interpret the speech of the chief, and lo! to her joy, found that it was her own brother's words she was translating. The Indian girl had made further progress possible, as a firm friendship was at once established between the explorers and the Shoshones. Horses and guides were furnished; the Shoshones passed the white men on to the Flatheads, and they in turn to the Nez Perces.
In the councils Sacajawea was always the most important interpreter, but not solely as an interpreter was her presence invaluable. As the party passed from tribe to tribe the sight of Sacajawea with her pappoose riding with the Captains was an assurance that it was not a war party.
Of all the explorers Captain Clark seems to have engaged her especial preference. At Christmas time in the Clatsop camp she presented him with two dozen tails of the white weazel. It is pathetic to read how, at a time when starvation seemed near, with almost too great loyalty to her Captain, she gave him the piece of bread she had somehow kept for a long time, intending it for her baby in case of extremity.
On the return trip the explorers found that the friends made through Sacajawea had remained faithful. The party did not at all times follow the route first traveled; they took new paths and sometimes felt themselves hopelessly lost, but Sacajawea always proved their deliverer. As a little child she had come with her people through this country and with the keen sight of a migratory bird again and again pointed out the way.
When the expedition returned to the Mandan villages in the late summer Charboneau decided to again take up his abode among these people, and Sacajawea remained with her lord and master.
It is with a sense of burning injustice and a pang of regret one reads that Charboneau received for his services $500, and Sacajawea nothing, not even her freedom—a blot upon the memory of Lewis and Clark.
The last mention made of Sacajawea is in 1811, when the traveler, Breckinridge, sailing up the Missouri, records meeting with an old Frenchman and his Indian wife, who, he learns, had crossed the continent with Lewis and Clark. The woman seemed fond of white people, tried to imitate civilized ways in
