A Montana Soap Opera

Site of the Moment - Going by at 80MPH

While driving around Montana, almost every historic landmark records the location’s importance to one of three events in the state’s history:

• The Lewis and Clark Expedition
• The Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer’s curtain call)
• Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce’s exodus across the state as they tried to escape the US Calvary and flee to Canada

I grew up in the south central part of the state in Billings.  Billings had all three of these historical events happen in close proximity to it. Custer and his cavalry were wiped out about 50 miles to the southeast. Chief Joseph and his tribe had a minor skirmish near the town of Laurel, about 20 miles west. William Clark, Sacagawea, and a portion of the Corp of Discovery came down the Yellowstone River that flows along the south side of the city on their way back east.

Of all three, I’ve studied the Lewis and Clark expedition the most and feel a deep sense of pride of living in the area they explored. Their mission was to explore the Louisiana Purchase and find a Northwest water passage from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. While everyone on the entire trip is worth learning about, my hero of the expedition was Sacagawea and I want to write about her today.

Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who was kidnapped as a child by the Sioux Indians. When she was a young teenager, a French trapper named Charbonneau won her in a game of chance.  By the time she was fifteen, she had married him and was pregnant when they met Lewis and Clark in current North Dakota during the first winter of their expedition.

Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as a guide for the next year’s trek to the Pacific. Charbonneau was a lousy guide and worthless to the expedition.  Sacagawea became a leader, guide, naturalist, interpreter and many-time savior of the expedition while taking care of her newborn son.

One of Sacagawea’s first heroic actions was when she calmly rescued the provisions, scientific equipment, journals and other essential items that had fallen into the Missouri River after her husband’s boat had tipped. Without her quiet determination, much of the important information of the trip would have floated away.

The expedition met other Indian tribes along the trail. Almost all of these interactions were peaceful due to the fact that the local tribes felt the group must be peaceful since they brought a woman along and that she was the interpreter.

While every day was part of the soap opera, the story grew more and more intense as they tried to find a water way over the Rocky Mountains of current Montana. They kept going up the Missouri to its headwaters and then up the rivers that joined to create that river at current Three Forks. They were running out of summer days and knew the winter snows were coming soon. If they did not get over the mountains before the snow fell, they would have to survive the winter in Montana. They did not have the provisions, lodging or other key items to do it though.

At the most desperate moment when they were at the end of the one of the tributaries, they saw some Shoshone braves on a hill. The braves reluctantly invited the explorers back to their camp. As the expedition and the tribal leaders sat around a fire, Lewis and Clark tried requesting help getting more supplies and information about getting over the mountains. Even with Sacagawea’s interpretive help, things weren’t going well.

At one point, Sacagawea became quiet, started shaking and crying as she looked at the Shoshone chief Cameahwait.  She suddenly sprang up, calling his name, hugging him and crying. He looked at her and started crying and hugging her. She had found her brother… the only surviving member of her family from the time she was kidnapped.

With that warm bond restored, the Shoshone offered horses, supplies and a guide for trade to help them get over the mountains. Due to this help, the expedition barely made it to the Pacific before winter.

Now is that the ultimate soap opera moment or what? All was about to be lost and through the love of brother and sister reunited, all was saved. Every time I think of that moment, I imagine being there and witnessing how the moment changed history in the instant.

Sacagawea helped the expedition the whole way. While Lewis and Clark loved and respected her and often treated her as an equal, it was not easy for the fifteen year old woman. At the end of the trip, she and Charbonneau were released from their contract. Sadly, she died almost a decade later.

The location of the family reunion is now under the Clark Reservoir in southwestern Montana. I drove by it on Sunday and remembered the history lesson this place held. Never underestimate the importance of anyone. She or he may become the most important person instantly.

If you want to learn more about the Lewis and Clark expedition, I suggest watching Ken Burn’s excellent documentary about them. Much of it was beautifully filmed in Montana and the story he shares is well worth it.