Closed Captions

Ken Thomas, a historian and author from Wyoming, recounts the life story of Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman who served as interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806). He details her capture at age eleven, her role carrying her infant son Pompy across nearly 5,000 miles, her critical contributions to horse trading with the Shoshone, and her later recognition on the U.S. dollar coin. Thomas draws from Lewis and Clark's original journals to document her indispensable service.

Transcript

0:05 good afternoon how's everyone doing today that was pretty wimpy let's try that one more time for a full house how's everyone doing today that's more like it I hope you're all surviving the heat it is getting a little bit warmer out there isn't it well we we might find if there's some extra seats up here in the front row might be a little bit
0:27 cooler I'm not a politician well welcome to the tent of many voices part of the lisis and Clark traveling exhibit core Discovery 2 200 years to the Future inside this tent we have many presentations if you have not received a um schedule to printed on yellow pieces of paper I come see one of the Rangers or myself and I can grab one of those
0:50 performances for you today at this hour we have a special guest Ken Thomas Ma and he'll be talking about sacka Joi and with saying that he wanted to give his own introduction so let's give him a round of applause and welcome here to the Tent today here you go Ken thank
1:11 you all right from Jackson Hole Wyoming live on the south border of Grand Teton National Park lived there for 28 years Liv my first 47 years in Grand Rapids Michigan I've been a teacher and a school principal for over 50 years I'm still a teacher traveling all over the country doing storytelling and writing workshops and schools for children and
1:36 adults I've written 10 books nine of them historic fiction about Indian children for children help to enjoy one book nonfiction The Amazing Story for this afternoon let's go back in our imagination 216 years 1789 we have a new constitution George Washington becomes our first president
2:00 president the very same year thousands of miles to the West in a mountain valley in a place we now call Idaho a tiny baby girl is born Shon Indian mother holding little baby in her hands the first time never dreamed she'll grow up to be one of America's most famous women ever known worldwide Indian girl born to a tribe then faced with a life of work and
2:24 hardship the men were the Warriors and the hunters the women and children did all the rest of the work little girl at age three would get training from her mother the berries to pick the seeds to gather the roots to dig how to cut meat in thin strips hang it over racks in the sun to dry had to help her mother fill baskets with food for winter without it they wouldn't make it through a mountain winner little girl will be taught how to
2:49 cut up any size animal and use every valuable part she'd learned how to take the hides of large animals and scrape them clean soften and tan the hides to make clothing and shelter she'd learn how to carry red hot coals from one campfire miles away to the next camp or the new Fire she'd learn how to care for children she would have to learn everything by age 14 that's when she'd
3:12 start having her own babies an Indian girl could not wait only plan on 25 30 years of life average any kind of disease or childbirth problems no medical help no one lasted long little girl and her people were being held hostage in the valley where they live afraid to come out on the Prairie and hunt the Buffalo which they had to do afraid because on the Prairie First
3:37 Trade had begun hundreds of European Trappers came for every fur bearing animal they could get the best price then would come from the beaver pelt stack up the beaver hides by his Camp take him to the Rendevous in the summer and the Trapper Cashes in Indian men catch on fast they know they can go get a stack of these hides and take them to that Old Trapper for the one thing the
4:01 Indian wants most of all rifle gunpowder and bullets what a h that Prairie Indian was with his rifle he had a special horse he called his Buffalo horse one that he could ride into a stamp heed and HT a buffalo the horse would not spook or shy let him sit there with that rifle and drop any animal usually one shot faster easier and safer than a bow and arrow you know what else he can do with
4:25 his rifle come out here to the mountains where the Shon only had a bow and arrow shoot the Shoni men steal their horses capture their children and take them to sell them into slavery slavery common most everywhere they especially wanted to capture the girls the girl would bring the best price every Trapper was in the market for at least two Indian girls to be his slaves and his wives the
4:49 Trapper wasn't going to do the work the girls will do all his work and he needs two of them one of them's going to die and have to be replaced and he never wants to be without help that little girl and her people had to come out of the mountains once every summer there was no choice because out on the Prairie where the grasses grew there were 60 million Buffalo grazing
5:12 like cattle an Indian man drops one Buffalo he has hundreds of pounds of meat for his family he has bones for tools he can melt the hoes down and make glue and boy they wouldn't make it without the old Buffalo robe you take a look at a buffalo robe fur is soft and curly and comfortable you take a look at an elk his is long and coarse and rough the Buffalo hide
5:37 three times the thickness of any elk hiide they wrapped it around them and it broke the wind they rolled up and knees at night and slept they took the fur off of a bunch of hides and built sturdy tepes withstand tremendous wind no other hide would do what that old Buffalo hide could do the Buffalo Food clothing and shelter little girl grows up she she's
6:00 11 years old she comes out with her people right through here on the way to the buffalo hunt they're getting near where the great Missouri River begins we call it Three Forks Montana today there they were attacked by hadu Warriors many Shoni men shot and killed horses stolen this 11-year-old captured and hauled hundreds of miles east to be held until she could bring a good price year she
6:24 was captured 18800 the year Thomas Jefferson became president is number three of our tiny little country 15 states now in the Atlantic Ocean struggling to keep going and Thomas Jefferson one of the greatest minds of all the founding fathers one of the few who was a college graduate could read and write well was a man of action
6:47 and a man of vision Jefferson had a dream for our country one day our country would go from that Old Atlantic Ocean across this continent to the Pacific Ocean and be a vast land of many states where there would be peace freedom and democracy greatest experiment ever tried on the face of the Earth wasn't happening Spain controlled all the south in California British and
7:12 the Russians were in the Northwest France claimed all the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains this was all foreign land out here but Jefferson knew Napoleon was in trouble and needed money to fight England so Jefferson started working on a little real estate deal with Napoleon Jefferson wants to buy all the land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky
7:34 Mountains and tooon wants to sell it and neither Jefferson or Napoleon knows what's out there no one has ever seen the land a blind deal the Louisiana Purchase almost a million square miles double the size of the country in one deal for $15 million 4 cents an acre anybody want to
7:56 buy Iowa for 4 cents an acre I'll take hire Jefferson to be a real estate man he said to his private secretary Mr Lewis we will soon own all the land drained by the Missouri River and that expedition you and I have been planning has to go now we need to know where that River comes from when you're in the little settlement of St Louis I want you to head up that River find out where the
8:20 Missouri comes from we have rumors there are mountains out there somewhere you find some mountains get over them and find the best water route onto the Pacific Ocean Mr Lewis you have to make it your president your country counts on you 29y old Maryweather Lewis being asked to go where no man has ever gone he has no idea how far it is how long it'll take how many men he'll need tools
8:44 supplies equipment gunpowder medicine gifts for Indian people it's a Monumental job and Maryweather Lewis was the man to do it he made long lists of everything he could possibly think of they might need for years even needles needed to sew new clothing because their clothing had wear out president said to him now Merryweather you will be the captain of this Army Expedition I want you to pick
9:09 a co- Captain one of you men dies or gets killed the other man can continue the leadership we must make it Jefferson building in some leadership insurance so Maryweather Lewis picks his old army buddy 33 year-old redhead freckleface William Clark living in that Kentucky Indiana country William Clark the right man for the job cuz he knew how to pick
9:34 people for the Expedition William Clark rounded up nine Kentucky back woodsmen good hunters and great shots one was a blacksmith one was a carpenter those two men could make and fix anything out of wood or metal the heart of the Lewis and Clark expedition nine young men from Kentucky now Maryweather Lewis has only one more thing to figure out how will he get tons of tools supplies equipment
9:59 gunpowder medicine gifts for Indian people all the way to the Pacific Ocean ah he has that all planned going to have a boat built a river boat 55 ft long and 8 ft wide it's going to be so large if you stood it up on end to be as high as a fivestory building he has it built in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania beginning of the Ohio River
10:23 all he's going to do is float her right down the Ohio River there to tip Illinois make a right turn on the Mississippi and head Upstream to St Louis make a left turn on the Missouri and head West he doesn't even need a map the road has been there for centuries left August 31st 1803 the Keel boat we think going 13 ton Ohio at low water mud flats everywhere they had to
10:47 practically drag that thing through the mud to Louisville Kentucky it took them a month and a half gets there he picks up William Clark and the nine Kentucky back wisman they get to the tip of Illinois now they can hardly get the K booat up stream on the Mississippi against a 3 mph current they get to that St Louis area take one look at the mighty Missouri coming out of the high plains 6 miles an
11:11 hour Lewis knows he'll never make it up that River with 15 or 20 men so he goes into the little settlement of St Louis surrounding area starts recruiting men of the United States Army going to have captains and sergeants and privates he recruits enough men he has almost 50 and he marches them and they stand inspection they take turns on guard Duty Around the Clock 24 hours a day Lewis
11:35 says men this is military we have discipline or we don't make it left May 14 1804 out of that St Louis area headed up the old Missouri at high water snow melting in the mountains and plains banks of the river caving in they had to row that keelboat until their backs ACH they walked along the deck with poles pushing off the bottom of the river they had to get out with ropes and pull off
12:00 the snags and sandb bars they had two 35- ft boats they were rowing Upstream at the big boat more men more tools supplies equipment more boats Captain Lewis wanted to be the mountains by winter ice on the edge of the river last week of October they're only halfway in what we call North Dakota today average a little more than 10 miles a day of back breaking work
12:24 they came to the largest permanent Indian settlement on the continent over 4,000 th Indian people living in one place Hada and Mandan tribes Trappers living with them Captain Lewis says men this is it Rivers freezing Friendly Indians we stay here for the winter we'll start out again the spring and Men we're going to freeze to death if we don't have a shelter start
12:47 splitting those cottonwood trees and build us a fort gave that order the first part of November November 4 up walks Tucan shano French Canadian Living with the Indian people a deer dealer shano wants to make some money he says to the two captains better hire me you start up that River next spring get out on the Prairie and meet some Indian people I'll help you get along with them I know how
13:12 to do it I live with Indian people he said see what I have standing over there there's my woman if I go she goes I don't go without her she does my work and she's Shoni and you're going to get out to the shining mountains and the Indian people in these Villages tell me you are going to hit a a lot of mountains you'll never get hundreds of pounds of baggage and gunpowder over the mountains without horses and my woman
13:36 speaks Shon they have hundreds of horses she'll be a big help captains look that over okay sharbono you're hired we'll pay you $500 you get 320 Acres of free land when we get back the woman can go not a woman standing there it's a 15-year-old girl it's the 11-year-old who was captured shano won her gambling
14:00 when she was 14 three times her age what was happening to her then could not happen today she would be protected by our child laws back then she was nothing three strikes against her Indian woman slave going to do what she's told and never make a sound three months she'll have her first baby that won't make any difference she'll pack the baby with her now
14:25 president Jefferson's great Army expedition to the Pacific Ocean takes on a new human feature to be assisted by a teenage girl carrying a tiny baby you check out your history books and see where that's happened in the United States Army before or since it's a unique feature of this Expedition next time you hear about the girl we call saaka she's in the fort February
14:48 11 the girl is crying out all day in pain on one of these Buffalo robes she's trying to deliver her first baby and the men said the pains were terrible and they went on all day she cried out for help there is no help there's no doctor late afternoon Captain Lewis is worried he's going to lose the girl and the baby this could be very messy finally one of the men living with the Indians comes up
15:12 to him and says hey Captain Lewis why don't you just do what Indian people do to help her they just take the rattle of a rattlesnake and grind it up put it in a little water have her drink it that'll do it Louis says I have a rattle I going to send back to Jefferson let's try it they grind up the rattle mix it in some water says the drink this she drinks the rattlesnake juice 10 minutes later Jean Baptist sharo is born beautiful black
15:37 hair and sparkling brown eyes named after John the Baptist nickname in Shoni pump meaning leader or firstborn and all a men would call a little baby pompy tiniest member of President Jefferson's Great Expedition to the Pacific Ocean quite a beginning for that youngster's life and can't you see Captain Lewis standing there thinking boy I can't believe what just happened we get back
16:01 to Virginia we'll just get a bunch of rattle we'll grind them up mix them in some water we'll bottle that stuff up and we'll sell it out of every drug store in Virginia no OBG YNS needed anymore ladies are laughing louder than you men next time you hear about little pompy he's an eight-week old bundle his teenage mother straps him on her back
16:23 sack steps into a boat on April 7 1805 and starts up the Missouri River with 31 men for the Pacific Ocean the teenager will carry the tiny baby almost 5,000 m round trip a year and a half and keep him clean and warm and well fed every day the men will have great respect for the girl and the care she gives the child they learned about her skills right away couple of days on the river
16:47 and they camped out Saka sees a pile of Driftwood on the ground tracks made by mice she knows what the mice did in that wood pile pulls the wood apart takes out a big pile of wild drw AR choke roots theice put in there for winter food roast them up they're sweet and delicious and good for you wild onions wild carrots Roots berries stems seeds they said that girl could find food all over the mountains all through the
17:10 Prairie even in drifted piles they watched her make her own fishing tackle get her own bait take fish out of every Lake and stream provided all the food she needed for herself and her baby and extra for the men they wrote more in their journals about her ability to find food than anything else they wrote about her found out something else about her on May 14th they're now in what we call
17:33 eastern Montana going up the river where the Missouri was a mile wide captains walking along the bank looking out at their little flotilla men rowing through 35- ft boats upstream and six canoes they sent the old Keel boat back to St Louis in the spring weren't going to drag it another mile 6:00 p.m. a Micro Burst of wind hit that River ched up waves three and four
17:56 feet high every boat and canoe started to go over The Boatman know what to do you get your bow into the wave so you don't get him broadside and head for Shore every boat and canoe turned except the captain's main 35-footer didn't turn shano had the tiller panicked screaming and French to God to save his life Pierre crad a man in the front of the boat picked up a rifle and pointed it at him and said shano you turn this thing
18:21 or I'll shoot you he finally made the turn but Lewis on the riverbank looked out in horror all of his valuables washed overboard a bundle like this wrapped in hide had the journals and the maps he and Clark had prepared for the president of United States losing their Irreplaceable documentation over went to Medical bundle they couldn't get along without over went to tools reading latitude and longitude and making Maps Captain leou
18:44 said he was ripping off his jacket going to dive in the river and swim 300 yards out there to save his precious items 300 yards of ice cold Missouri he never would have made it he stayed on the river bank and I'm sure he smiled as he sees out on the back of the boat the teenager watching it all happen the journals came first and she reached out and grabbed that bundle and pulled it back on board then she grabbed the
19:08 medicine and pulled it back and saved it then she grabbed the tools for making the maps and saved them Captain Lewis wrote in his journal later that girl saved all my valuables and he added these words of High Praise on the stricken craft the young woman showed as much fortitude and resolution as any man on the boat good as any man were the marks the president secretary gave her 6
19:32 days later Lewis named a river coming from the north sack his River to honor her they knew they were going to come to a waterfall Indian people in the village during the winter told Captain Lewis you're going to hit a waterfall get your boat down go around a he think she can do that in a day or two they could hear the Great Falls of the Missouri roaring in the distance they weren't coming to
19:54 one waterfall they were coming to 15 miles of waterfall deep catara in the river with water going over rock 5 10 15 20 one Falls they measured 87 ft High Captain Lewis described it as the most spectacular feature he had ever seen on earth going to cost him more than a day or two he says to Clark wait here I'm going to go take a look be back in a few
20:19 days he left June 13 with Saka seriously ill terrible pain in her lower stomach she's burning with fever pulse is weak no doctor to call but they have Dr Benjamin Russia's medicine Captain Lewis went to Philadelphia to get medicine from Dr Benjamin Rush for the Expedition primitive Medicine Dr Rush probably says something
20:43 like this here it is Captain Lewis I got the box right here all the bottles in here labeled so you know what everything is he explains what each thing is he says now Captain Lewis don't worry nothing in here can hurt anybody try whatever you think might work if it doesn't work try something else something works pretty good keep giving it to him nothing works cut him and bleed them and expunge the Bad Blood ladies and gentlemen we're going
21:08 to give you an IV today to strengthen your blood we're not going to take it away from you you need it Captain Clark tried all the medicine two days later sagage way is on her back refusing medicine wanting to Die the medicine didn't work so Clark cut her and bled her and the next day she was worse he cut her and he bled her a second time Captain Lewis said he came back on Sunday June 16th he said what he saw was
21:32 pitiful the girl lying on the bottom of the boat on her back her body twitching uncontrollably he couldn't find her pulse knew she was near death he said to Clark if that girl dies what happens to four-month old pompy and how do we get horses we can't let her die Clark said I tried everything including bleeding and Louis says well I went by a mineral hot spring there's bubbling hot water coming
21:57 out of the ground smells like it has suer in it back in Virginia Doctors claim mineral water has healing power let's try some they get some of that hot water and cool it down Sunday June 16th 3 p.m. he says I could to drink this she drinks some mineral water he says okay drink some more she drinks it he says keep drinking it after drinking large quantities of mineral water all afternoon the miracle happened that
22:19 night the fever broke less pain in the lower stomach strong pulse strength enough to sit up and hold pompy the first time in days little boy happy to have his mother back modern-day doctors who read the symptoms in the treatment are absolutely sure she was dying of severe dehydration they believe caused by a common lower body veneral infection
22:42 given to her by sharbono the fever going 104 five and then Clark drains away the blood needed to fight the infection and makes her worse the Journal Record says she was up walking around 2 Days Later the journal also indicates the girl and the baby nearly died four different times serving the United States Army to get around the Great Falls was
23:05 Agony they had to drag their canoes even bigger than Steve's out there up a steep Bank canoes made out of trees weighing hundreds of pounds get them up on the bank build wheels and axles out of cottonwood trees put the canoes across the axles load them with hundreds of pounds of baggage and gunpowder and push and pull and drag them for 18 miles none of it left
23:29 wheels and axles breaking mosquitoes eating them alive prickly pair of cactus puncturing their moccasins and their feet a hail storm hit them on June 29th with ice so big cut the men's heads open cut their arms they had to dive under the canoes to escape the falling ice that storm caused a flash blood nearly washed Captain Clark sharbono sag way and the baby right out of a ravine into the river and over the 87t falls to
23:53 their death June 29 not what you would call a good day middle of July one month of back breaking work and swollen feet have paid off they're around the Great Falls and headed up the Missouri again July 22nd saak Jo looks around realizes where they are let's Captain Lewis know he's almost the beginning of the mighty Missouri River she said it's made by three small
24:18 rivers coming together in exactly the same place Lewis announced that to his men and he said they began hooping and hollering and dancing with a Sage Brush two two long years of battling the old Missouri River and success is theirs they're finding the source of the great Missour trouble is when they get there July 25 which river do they take they
24:42 all three look exactly alike do they take the left one the middle one or the right hand one they're going to take three days to try and figure this out send men up all three streams to check them out for Miles while they're doing that s joa says to Captain Lewis I was captured on this River the one you named for President Jefferson it's my people's River they took the Jefferson they taken
25:07 the Gallatin River or the Madison River they would have had to pay $20 to get in the elone national park that's where they come from and nobody had a golden age pass one week on the Jefferson and all of a sudden it's made by three small streams right over there by Twin Bridges is now what do they do they're going to
25:31 spend three more trying to figure this one out Lewis is going to try the big hole even those know the Middle River is or people's River and there's a good horse Ro next to it somehow they ended up on the Middle River surprisingly enough it wasn't long after that a little more than a day that Sak is pointing at a rock up ahead goes up to the river almost 200 ft high and she said I know that rock I've gone by
25:56 it many times when I was a little girl my people call that rock the beaver's head because it looks like that animal to my people she said beaver's head on August 8 and named everything in southwest Montana I tell this story all over about Dylan you go there Beaver beaverhead River beaverhead National Force beaverhead mountain range beaverhead electric beaverhead meets beaverhead Historical Society the phone book is full of beaver
26:21 heads just beage away a said it on August 8 that's why you're beaverhead and then she left Captain Le know that her people are either on this River or at the source he goes to the Setting Sun he find her people and horses Lewis looked at Clark and he said that's all I need to know we haven't seen an Indian in a thousand miles dring our canoes over gravel and rock hundreds
26:45 of pounds of baggage and gunpowder last us more than a year we're all done right here if we don't get horses and get them now you said Captain Clark my friend we're not going to fail he said I'm taking three men I'm going to leave at daylight and I'll walk a month if I have to but I will find the Indian people with the horses have them come back here we'll trade goods out of canoes for horses he walked all day August 9 and
27:09 camped right near Dylan August 10 August 11 August 12 almost 90 miles and he said stop Man Standing on the High Ridge Lewis says men this is the top of the continent the water in the valley we came from close to the Missouri River and the water in that Valley down there goes to the Pacific Ocean this is the top of the continent exactly right
27:34 Continental Divide border Montana Idaho today lmh high pass a road is up there hope to stand up there and look down and see a river that would take him all the way to the ocean no passable River down there we know which one it is you can't get down it and what he saw to the West shocked him for hundreds of miles Nothing But The Bitter Root mountains higher mountains seen in his
27:59 life he's faing an unbelievable barrier and failure rolled and tossed on the ground that night could hardly sleep next morning Valley and there they were 500 Shoni Indian people over 700 beautiful horses he gave them beads and mirrors and ribbon and an American flag and he said to them if you Indian people come
28:22 back the river with me we have wonderful things in our canoes we're going to give you if you just let us choose some of your horses to get over these mountains and he said if you help me father in Washington who loves all of his red children will come out here and Stop The Killing and the kidnapping and the stealing we're all going to live in a great land and Peace and Freedom as brothers and sisters all you have to do is help me that's a basic speech Captain
28:47 Lewis gave to 40 Indian tribes begging for their help for three years the Shon are suspicious they'd come out a month before to hunt Buffalo were attacked by Warriors and many were shot and killed most of these people thought he was going to lead them out there to a trap so of the 500 people only 28 men and three women dare follow him for two days
29:12 scared to death of an attack came to the old beaverhead up there by Clark Port canoes and the men and in the water sag helping the men pull a canoe over some gravel she climbed out of the river that morning and started walking toward the engine people and suddenly sacka joa broke into a run and out of the crowd came a 15-year-old girl running toward
29:34 her they met threw their arms around each other jumping up and down laughing and dancing and crying sack let Captain Lewis know he found her people and this was her best friend said they both grew up together and when they were 11 years old were both captured in the same battle sag said I was one gambling by the man who owns me and my friend who escaped and came home alone
29:59 I read that living in Michigan and I said wait a minute here 11year old girl weighing 60 lb 1,000 miles through wild animals enemy Warriors bad weather Crossing wild rivers going where the Explorers didn't dare go alone because you can't kill a grizzly bear with one shot the 11-year-old girl was willing to face death for her Freedom think about that for an American them Americans still face death for
30:23 freedom I knew I had a great book to write didn't know the little girls so I gave her a name in Shon this is girl and this is ran little book's been out 22 years it's now going across the world it's in Danish and Dutch and Norwegian and Eskimo dialect for Greenland Bengali for Bangladesh in Korean in Japanese and we think going to be translated into
30:45 Russian an amazing little 11-year-old girl facing death for Freedom next person her own brother kamate took one look at him and began crying hand to him her head on his shoulder sobbing her brother had no hair on his head one month before i' cut it all off shony men and women don't cut their long
31:09 beautiful black hair they believe their creator in heaven allows their soul to live in their hair only when you're broken and saddened by death would you cut your soul off and throw it to the ground showing your creator your sorrow we know what he told her that day sister you're one month too late our family was killed at the bubble they said the girl cried most of that day a couple times tried to do some
31:33 interpreting would break down when she could speak she did the greatest thing for the country she would ever do she said to her brother these are good men I'm with save my life to my baby stop my owner from beating me help them they're good men wasn't speaking just one of the 500 Indian people of the tribe speaking to her brother the chief of the tribe Captain Lewis had the chief sister with
31:57 him I makers that told me for that to happen that moment in American history was Millions to one like winning the lottery Manifest Destiny and providential horse trading started right away but went slowly Captain Lewis would say something English leish he would translate to French for shano he would translate TOA for S
32:20 she for kamate would answer to his sister in Shoni she would translate Hada for sharo he would translate engl for leish and leish should translate or in the French for leish and leish should translate into English so in a week they only had 12 horses and they needed 30 and the Shoni children have no
32:44 buffalo meat to eat they were attacked a month before they're starving starving children are more important to Indian men than trading horses and the Indian men plan to leave in the middle of the night and go on the hunt Next Day Lewis wakes up no horses he's in big trouble saak joa knows what's going to happen she could understand Shon and went right to her owner and said tell Captain Lewis my people are leaving in the middle of night going on the hunt no more horses there's
33:09 trouble Caro hears him in the morning and waits all day late afternoon he comes over hey Captain Lewis my woman over there she says her people are leaving in the middle of the night they're going to go on the hunt Lewis says to shano when you tell you he said this morning and Lewis wrote in his journal that he reprimanded Sho sever something like this shano you knew this
33:33 this morning and waited all day to tell me don't you understand that these people have my expedition in their hands without the horses were finished why did you wait C down over to kit and said kit did you promise you would trade me the horses I need when I came here did you promise that K said yes and leou says come wait where I come from by what he says and come wa you think the great
33:57 father in Washington is going to be happy when I tell him you left he's not going to do anything for your people you're a good Chief and a good man you will stay and do the promise mark it Down August 25 saki joa did the greatest thing of all saved the day when the horse trading was going to fail and she was the only one that could do it indispensable Lewis called her well we know she uh did the job because
34:21 the horse trading started right away and it went fast and they soon had 29 didn't ride him load him with tons of bags and gunpowder give him Toby and his son to lead him through hundreds of miles of the bitteroot mountains over 200 miles up one Ridge and down the next slide rock climbing over dead trees on the low low Ridge in September with snow up to their knees ran out of food started killing young horses and eating
34:45 horse meat wormy and rancid and smelly they all came out of the mountain scurvy and dissenter open boils Soares all over their arms and legs starving to death and they met the finest Indian people they were ever meet the NES Pur tribe saw the starving people and brought them fish and berries and roots and seeds the NZ Pur tribe helped those men take giant
35:08 trees 40 and 50 feet long gouge and burn those trees out to make Dugout canoes so the men could Pile in their baggage all the way to the Pacific Ocean the na Pur agreed to take care of all their horses and have them fattened up and ready to go in the spring when they came back now heard 65 horses CU they kept trading for more all along the way Captain Lewis said we have met the
35:30 findest Indian people of our Expedition the net first tribe they can't do enough for us strangers middle of October they're floating that beautiful clear water river you can ride us2 right next to it it's beautiful it goes into the spectacular Snake River and the Snake River goes into Eastern Washington and hits the great Columbia River border of
35:53 Oregon and Washington headed for the Pacific Ocean it goes through a deep deep gorge with volcanoes on all sides November 7 Captain Clark shouts ocean and view all the joy made it to the Pacific Ocean November 7 spend three and a half months of misery on the Oregon
36:14 coast 130 days it rained 118 the clothes rotted on their bodies they hang their elk meet up with no freezing temperatures rancid and smelly in four or five days ate rancid elk and spoil fish washed it down with water filled up their fort with smoke every afternoon to get the fleas out so they could get night sleep all of them were sick when they
36:38 left March 23 headed home GL had to be rid of the Soggy Oregon coast first week of May back with the npers horses all fattened up and ready to go but that low Ridge came up out the clear water over the mountains not ready snow Banks 30 feet deep they sat there for six weeks watching snow
37:01 M I come from Jackson Wyoming we have some of the finest snow Banks you have ever seen and all of us locals Every Spring are sitting there in our lawn chairs watching them go it's really exciting you got to do it sometime while they're there little pompy is sick 15mon old boy throat up noral size they said he couldn't swallow anything and could hardly breathe and
37:25 they feared for his life the man men love him they don't want him to Die the two Captain take turns holding a little boy in their arms trying all Medicine Dr r two weeks near death and they barely pull pompy through riding the Prairie one day his little face Was Bitten so badly by mosquitoes his eyes were swollen shut not easy for a teenage girl
37:49 and a tiny baby to serve that expedition thousands of miles when they get back to North Dakota country to leave sakaj there head on to St Louis the two captains agree sack rendered great service to the United States of America they rote it right in their own and they said shano was a man of little Merit they paid him his 500 on
38:12 the spot he would come to St Louis later and get 320 Acres of fre land anything they gave SAA he'd take it from her as soon as they left they had to keep him from beating her Captain Clark loved bpy and said to P way and sharo let me adopt this beautiful promising little boy I'll give him a Wonderful Life Education many opportunities parents agreed the
38:36 adoption as soon as he was old enough to leave his mother Captain Clark's name is signed in the courthouse of St Louis he became pompy's father one month after death 22y old mother dying Fort Manuel South Dakota same put fever she had at the great fall left behind a tiny baby girl four-month old is it wrote about her death in the fort
38:58 wrote these words today the finest and best woman in our Fort died the wife of sharbono finest and best more High marks given her we don't know what happens the little liette we think she only lived six or eight months but pompy goes on to live a wonderful life he grows up well educated by Captain Clark becomes a hunting guide for weal men from one as a prince from Germany invites them to come
39:23 to Germany and live in a Royal Palace travel all over Europe for the prince does it for six or seven years he comes back and serves in a Catholic Mission outside of San Diego California he serves as a clerk in a hotel outside of Sacramento he's a magistrate in the courts of California settling legal issues and he dies at the age of 61 on the way to a gold Russian Montana dying
39:45 of pneumonia average age of a man then 45 years today we have three wonderful things going for us nutrition hygiene and Healthcare us are here lucky to be here and wasn't pompy fortunate his young mother carried and old Captain Clark fell in love with him and gave him a wonderful
40:09 opportunity for a great life St Louis was a dead end for Sak nobody wanted to hear about her or the naspers Europeans hated Indian they were killing Indian people Indian people were killing Europeans the tragedy would go on massacres genocide for almost 80 more years not a very nice chapter in the history of our country well we're in the bicentennial
40:32 now n started writing about secondy and they just wrote a some wrote dirty filthy pornography Hollywood made an awful movie we exploit I wanted you to know the truth about her so I picked out all the mention and Clark made of her in their two million words over 70 times and analyze it put the maps in so you know exactly what happened to her and the
40:56 baby book came out of 1997 the same year the United States decided to have a new dollar replaces Susan B Anthony gold color smooth edge new woman I got involved with the coin right away when there are hundreds of women sent this book to secretary of the treasur reuin told all the things that she did in the Expedition and nearly gave her life with her baby serving the Army and we ended
41:19 up getting s on the dollar coin then aishman wanted to take her off CU he thought she was some obscure Indian girl and we had to fight him in congress with the help of Senator enzy and Senator Doran of North Dakota we had to De beat legisl twice went to the White House where there was a huge out ceremony Indian drummers
41:40 and Mrs Clinton was the host of after an hour and 15 minutes of celebrating design of the new dollar coin she said I'm going to pull back the curtain to show you the design will'll be the new dollar coin you're going to be the first to see it she said to all of us sitting there pulled back the curtain every television camera the ferary network was running she unveiled the beautiful sideway a dollar
42:05 coin the congressman who didn't like it that she was going to be on there said nobody would like it was dead wrong came out January 2000 people lined up for blocks to get the first hours 600 million of them disappeared immediately lady in Idaho Falls has 2500 of these stashed away
42:29 she won't let loose of them and I'll tell you why for her it's greed sa them long enough sell them for a lot more to collectors later pompy 8 weeks old asleep on his mother's shoulder that's the only coin in the world with a baby sleeping on his mother's shoulder this is our only coin where the person on it is looking at you all the rest of profile and look at the
42:52 Gold tin so nobody's allowed to use it except the tooth fa ladies and gentlemen Senator eny tells me buying tons of paper and cottoned into linen and running through a printing press making dollar bills that don't even last a year and a half and it's costing us 700 million in tax dollars this is the first County ever to
43:16 declare itself the sagua dollar County your your Commissioners did that way back in 2000 these coins will last 40 or 50 years we used to only use dollar coins in Montana when I first came here in 59 we need to 700 million to help our troops folks we don't need to be wasteful Americans we could help our troops more
43:40 if we didn't waste we didn't have such a deficit and like there's no tomorrow so let's not just put a sticker on our car saying we support the troops let's do I have enough dollar coins in here to eliminate every dollar bill in the I'm going to go over to that little book store over here and sign books I want everybody who's got a good conscience to come over with your dollar
44:05 bills and start using these it would be wonderful if you did make happy I can't get Congress who elate to dollar bill Canada's done it Australia New Zealand pound England the Euro they're all coins no brainer except for Americans White House ceremony was over at 4:30 150 of us go to the treasury Department across the street for a happy
44:29 hour a ballroom full of goodies and I knew there would be a lot of small talk I didn't want to do small talk I wanted to say something uplifting about what we did that afternoon so this is what I said3 years ago two captains of the United States Army stood on the banks of the Missouri River looking at a teenage girl in her little saying goodbye to her
44:53 s gratitude for what s had done for them and the United States America they said their one great regret they couldn't do anything to show her their appreciation I said today we Americans on the banks of the pomac river in Washington DC and country is doing something wonderful for that girl and her little boy and it's the right thing
45:16 to do thank you thank you very much Ken [Applause] you're [Music] [Applause] folks all the boys and girls I got all the boys and girls are here I have a
45:40 special gift for them uh set t one of my books I've read aloud word for word and I'm celebrating the continual by giving children a little gift and I they can take me home with them so to speak on cassette tape I'll be over there by little book and you you come up and you'll get their facette tape Ken now go over to the bookstore to
46:05 meet Ken and he'll be signing books and invited all of you over there right now we have to get ready for our next presentation which is about rattlesnakes by Roger s I've said rattlesnakes from the East Coast all you women children will be up in the Raptors by now you all are tough out here in so stick stay tuned for that we we do have to rearrange some of the
46:28 chairs so in that meantime please go see Ken over there at the small um book store and he'll be

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Ken Thomas on Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Ken Thomas

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Ken Thomas on Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

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