HIDATSA

[Alan H. Hartley]

Jimm GoodTracks wrote:

>Interestingly, I learned during the interrim of the final services, that the
>reknown L&C "Bird Woman", Sakakawea [Chagaa'ga + Mia via A.W.Jones' lexicon]
>is/ was indeed Hidatsa language as is/ was the woman.  This is the claim by
>a number of Hidatsa informants in the 1920s/ 1930s, and further attested to
>by Bull Eye [Gidabi Isda], her grandson and only living decendent in 1930s.
>Her confusion as a Lehmi Shoshone, as per the L&C journal came about as a
>result of her marriage to T.Charboneau and his trading espeditions to the
>mountain areas, where Saka'gaMia (as per the pronunciation of the 3Tribes
>Museum staffer and another speaker--a grandson of Walter YoungBear.  Wolf
>Chief in a statement in the 1920s indicated that the Hidatsa would not have
>ventured that far because of respect to their enemies.  He suggested that
>perhaps the Crow went to Shoshone land and captured someone, but the L&C
>accepted history was incorrect.  And I bet noone is willing to bet on the
>present day liklihood of the US Historians rewritting their version of
>history and the events even though the Hidatsa informants and other early
>century documentation tends to collaborate the Native version of the
>accounts.
>
>
There are several references in the L & C journals to Sacagawea's
Shoshone origins (including her recognition of landmarks in the
Shoshones' country and her reunion with her brother) and to her capture
by Hidatsas. L & C had no apparent reason to misrepresent her ethnic
origin, and it seems to me very unlikely that they did.

Here's the Sacagawea entry from my Lewis and Clark Lexicon that's to be
published this Fall. (I hope the HTML comes through OK.)

Sacagawea  {s at -cah-gah-wee-@} A teenaged Shoshone Indian (sister of
Cameahwait) who had been captured by the Hidatsa in a raid and was
living with her husband Toussaint Charbonneau when the expedition
arrived. Carrying her infant son Pomp, she accompanied Lewis and Clark
to the Pacific and back and was a valuable interpreter with the Snakes,
a guide (in the vicinity of her home), and a gatherer of wild plants.

Sacagawea's fate after the expedition is uncertain, but Clark notes her
as deceased by the late 1820s, and John Luttig, a fur-trader, says in
his journal entry for December 20, 1812, "this Evening the Wife of
Charbonneau a Snake Squaw, died of a putrid fever she was a good and the
best Women in the fort, aged abt 25 years she left a fine infant girl".
The death by what was perhaps typhus or typhoid fever of this unnamed
wife of Chabonneau occurred at Fort Manuel on the Missouri, near the
border between North and South Dakota.

Sâh-câh-gâh, we â, our Indian woman is very sick this evening; Capt. C.
blead her. [10 Jun 05  ML  4.276]

Sah-cah-gar-we-ah...was one of the female prisoners taken...tho' I
cannot discover that she shews any immotion of sorrow in recollecting
this event, or of joy in being again restored to her native country [28
Jul 05  ML  5.009]

The wife of Shabono our interpetr we find reconsiles all the Indians, as
to our friendly intentions[.] a woman with a party of men is a token of
peace [13 Oct 05  WC  5.268]

In the expedition journals, Sacagawea is often called simply the Indian
woman, the squaw, or Charbonneau's wife, and the captains apparently
nicknamed her Janey. See potato.

The indian woman...has been of great Service to me as a pilot through
this Country [13 Jul 06  WC  8.180]

The form of her name in the following quotation (referring to the
present-day Sacagawea River), is an example of  the use of m for w in
careful speech in the Hidatsa language. (This variation also occurs in
Ahwahaway and in Hidatsa a-wah-tee 'river, Missouri River' which Lewis
[4.246] writes Amahte.) This characteristic alternation, along with
Lewis's translation and his division of the name into two words, as well
as the close similarity of the name to the Hidatsa words for 'bird'
(tsah-kah-kah) and 'woman' (wee-ah / mee-ah), support the traditional
interpretation of Sacagawea's name as Bird Woman in Hidatsa, the
language of her captor-adopters, and its pronunciation with a hard g
rather than the j sound that later became popular.

this stream we called Sâh-câ-gar me-âh or bird woman's River, after our
interpreter the Snake woman. [20 May 05  ML  4.171]

Ordway writes her name as though he knew that wea meant simply 'woman'
and so omitted it.

Sahcahgah our Indian woman verry Sick & was bled. [10 Jun 05  JO  9.165]
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