Aviation & Exploration
A legendary life
Sacagawea
c. 1788 – Traditionally 1812
Lemhi Shoshone woman whose knowledge and diplomacy supported the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Her story
A life that changed history
As a teenager, Sacagawea traveled thousands of miles with the Lewis and Clark Expedition from present-day North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. Her language skills, geographic knowledge, and presence helped the expedition establish contact with Native communities.
“She observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen, she thought it very hard she could not be permitted to see either.”
Reported indirectly by Meriwether Lewis in his expedition journal, 6 January 1806; her exact original-language wording was not preserved