P
April
Sacagawea (Sacajawea) joins the Lewis
and Clark Expedition.
Spending the winter near the villages of the Hidatsa
on the Knife River, in present-day North Dakota,
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (see entry
for MAY 14, 1804) meet a young Shoshone woman
named Sacagawea (Sacajawea) and her French-Ca-
nadian husband Toussaint Charbonneau. When
the weather breaks, the explorers hire the couple
to serve as interpreters for the expedition as it con-
tinues west to the Pacific Ocean. Traveling with
Sacagawea is her two-month-old son Jean-Baptiste,
whom the explorers give the nickname “Pomp.”
In later accounts of the expedition, Sacagawea
will be hailed for guiding the expedition through the
Rocky Mountains. In fact, she plays only a small role
as a guide. She does, however, help the explorers sur-
vive by finding and cooking wild roots and berries.
Even more important, she persuades her Shoshone
relatives to help the expedition cross the Rocky Moun-
tains. Without their assistance, it is unlikely the Lewis
and Clark Expedition would have survived. (See also
entries for 1823, 1902, and MAY 4, 1999.)
“The Indians who visit us behave
with the greatest decorum....
We have again to admire the
perfect decency and propriety
of their conduct, for although so
numerous, they do not attempt
to crowd round our camp or
take anything which they see
lying about, and whenever they
borrow knives or kettles or any
other article from the men, they
return them with great fidelity.”
—explorer Meriwether Lewis on
his admiration for the Shoshone1806Office of Indian Trade is established.
The secretary of war creates the Office of Indian
Trade within the War Department. The new bureau
is charged with regulating the fur trade and overseeing
the federal employees of the government-run trading
houses (see entry for 1796) that dominate trade be-
tween Indians and whites. (See also entry for 1822).September 23The Lewis and Clark Expedition returns to
St. Louis.
After nearly 28 months of exploration, the Lewis
and Clark Expedition (see entries for MAY 14, 1804,
and for APRIL 1805) makes its way back to its origi-
nal starting point, St. Louis. The public, which had
given up the explorers as dead, widely celebrates the
event. Lewis and Clark’s maps, notes, and specimens
document a huge amount of information about In-
dian lands west of the Mississippi. As a result of their
expedition, non-Indian traders and trappers almost
immediately begin moving into this territory to take
advantage of the large beaver population the explorers
found along western waterways.1808April 6The Indian Princess premieres.
The first American play about an Indian subject,
James Nelson Barker’s The Indian Princess; or, La
Belle Sauvage, is performed at the Chestnut Theatre
in Philadelphia. Billed as “an operatic melodrama,”
the play tells the story of Pocahontas as presented in
John Smith’s General History of Virginia (see entry
for DECEMBER 1607). Its success helps propagate
the myth of Pocahontas as the savior of Jamestown.Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh establish
Prophet’s Town.
As a headquarters for their growing Indian confed-
eracy, Shawnee brothers Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh