Sacagawea
Interpreter & Guide
c. 1788–1812/1884 · Lemhi Shoshone
Her language skills, knowledge, and presence aided the Lewis and Clark expedition across Indigenous homelands.
The Full Profile
Sacagawea, Interpreter & Guide, used her language skills, knowledge, and presence to aid the Lewis and Clark expedition across Indigenous homelands. Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who traveled with the Corps of Discovery while still a teenager and carrying her infant son. She assisted through translation, geographic knowledge, and diplomatic encounters. Historical sources disagree about details of her later life, so her story is best understood with attention to both documentary evidence and Indigenous traditions. Carrying her infant son, she guided the expedition through her homeland, where the Shoshone chief whose horses they needed proved to be her own brother; in 2000 her face was placed on the golden dollar coin.