HISTORY OF THE HIDATSA

[Koontz John E]

In regard to the the Lewis & Clark and Sacagawea discussion I'd like to
plump down on the side of the traditional view espoused by Alan Hartley.
I think the information in the journals that Sacagawea had been born among
the Shoshone, that she was able to speak Shoshone and that she and
Cameahwait recognized each other as kin are mutually consistent and
decisive.  Presumably the story of having been kidnapped is more or less
corrrect, too.

I hope we won't descend any furhter along the slippery slope to hell via a
debate as to whether Native Americans or Euro-Americans per se are better
qualified to judge and/or edit the assertions involved.  It is certainly
acceptable to discuss how and why L&C might have been confused or chosen
to misrepresent matters, but the argument should be specific, not based on
general propensities of Native Americans or Euro-Americans or on
irrelevancies such as who was subsequently wronged by the European
invasion.

In the face of these evidences of Sacagawea's Shoshone origins, it's
equally clear that the only name securely attested for her is Hidatsa, and
that she passed up the opportunity to remain with the Shoshone to return
to the Hidatsa the long way around.  You have to conclude that by her
logic she felt she belonged with the Hidatsa or perhaps we could phrase it
that she preferred to be there.  Given that, you have to assume that her
Hidatsa name is a natural consequence of Hidatsa residence, perhaps a
translation of her Shoshone name.

I don't see any reason to suppose that any of these bits of information
are fabricated or inconsistent, though clearly they don't follow modern
Euro-American logic.  As far as Hidatsa claims that Scagawea was of
Hidatsa origin, since the events in question happened 200 years ago, it's
easy to understand how modern Hidatsas might have come up with a different
analysis of matters, especially given the known circumtance of Sacagawea
returning to the Hidatsa.  But just as I'm not a primary source for what
my ancestors were doing 200 years ago, so I think that in this case the
recorded testimony of the expedition, incorporating their understanding of
the Hidatsa and Shoshone testimony at the time, has to be given priority
over any modern Hidatsa assertions to the contrary.

As far as Shoshone names for Sacagawea, if one accepts the accounts
offered by some subsequent Shoshone and non-Native American sources that
the report of Sacagawea's death a few years after her return was
incorrect, and that later in life she return to live with the Shoshone,
then I believe the woman who claimed to have been Sacagawea was named
Puhinaivi (a/k/a "Bowie Knife"), which is 'Grass Woman' in Shoshone.

Admittedly this story seems less likely, though it's possible that the
woman in question was a relative who had had a somewhat parallel history,
e.g., the other woman kidnapped with Sacagawea, who was her co-wife, also
married to Charbono.  Other women with similar histories may have existed.
Some confusion might naturally arise in such a case, and misrepresentation
for personal advantage or even merely for the sake of a good story might
figure.  One can hardly assume that Sacagawea, having walked halfway
across the continent and back, never said a thing about it to her co-wife
or anyone else.  People probably begged her to tell them about it.  Taking
this view, of course, involves taking Native American (Shoshone) sources
over non-Native American sources!  Unfortunately the sources in this case
are a bit tenuous.  This has been an area of wild speculation for years.