![]() Each member of the Corps of Discovery was hired for a special skill such as hunting, woodworking, blacksmithing, and sailing. With her her baby on her back and her husband by her side, Sacagawea and the men left Fort Mandan on April 7 , 1805.Īt about 17 years of age, she was the only woman among 31 older men on this portion of the expedition. On February 11 , 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to a son, Jean -Baptiste Charbonneau, whom Clark later nicknamed "Pomp," meaning "first born" in Shoshone. The Americans stayed in their relatively safe and warm camp through the winter of 1804-05 and waited into the spring so that Sacagawea could accompany them west. L ew is and Clark hired Charbonneau as a member of their expedition, the Corps of Discovery, while Sacagawea was expecting her first child. Additionally, h is marriage to the Shoshone Sacagawea w ould be useful as they traveled west, where they would likely encounter and need to trade with the Shoshone. Charbonneau knew Hidatsa and the sign languages common among the river tribes. D uring the winter months, L ew is and Clark made the decision to build their encampment, Fort Mandan, near the Hidatsa -Mandan villages where Charbonneau and Sacagawea were living.Ĭharbonneau proposed that L ewi s and Clark hire him as a guide and interpreter. Lewis sought out frontiersman William Clark and together they led about 40 men in three boats up the Missouri River. Jefferson hired Virginia’s Meriwether Lewis to explore th e land. With the acquisition of so much land, it was necessary to determine the actual boundaries of the country. In 1803, t he Louisiana Purchase of western territory from France by President Thomas Jefferson nearly doubled the size of the United States. Following her capture, French -Canadian trader Toussaint Charbonneau, who was living among the Hidatsa, claimed Sacagawea as one of his wives. When she was approximately 12 years old, Sacagawea was captured by an enemy tribe, the Hidatsa, and taken from her Lemhi Shoshone people to the Hidatsa villages near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. Sacagawea was born circa 1788 in what is now the state of Idaho. However, many Shoshone Indians maintain that it is a Shoshone name meaning “boat launcher” and spell and pronounce it “Sacajawea.” In that case, the third syllable starts with a hard g, as there is no soft g in the Hidatsa language. “They preserve language and, in doing so, allow us to appreciate and understand the diversity and richness of our Native American languages.”Īgbayani said this is the first time that a number of students have accompanied the faculty members for indigenous language fieldwork.įor more information, contact Lisa Maria Boyles, communications specialist for the College of Arts and Humanities, at was an interpreter and guide for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition westward from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast. T hough spelled numerous ways in the journals of expedition members, Sacagawea is generally believed to be a Hidatsa name ( Sacaga means “bird” and wea means “woman”). Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “Our faculty in linguistics are world-renowned scholars who apply their knowledge for the greater good,” said Dr. It was broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. “So far, we’ve developed Chukchansi language learning apps for mobile devices, language teaching materials and an English-Chukchansi dictionary,” said Agbayani, chair of the Linguistics Department, which is part of the College of Arts and Humanities.īoyle was interviewed in a segment that Montana Public Radio did on the work done this summer. John Boyle, Chris Golston, Niken Adisasmito-Smith and Brian Agbayani have worked with native speakers from the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians locally to devise a writing system and start the process of developing a Chukchansi dictionary and grammar structure. Students have helped complete this work. Since 2009, linguistics faculty members Drs. Every 14 days a language is lost forever, according to The Language Conservancy website. Many tribes are in danger of losing their native language as only a few fluent speakers remain. Work done by the faculty and students from June 8 through July 30 will help in the documentation and revitalization of the Crow and Hidatsa languages. Several Fresno State linguistics faculty members and students have returned from doing fieldwork this summer with The Language Conservancy, a national organization that works to preserve indigenous languages.
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