Big Sky Blog

July 22, 1805

Sacagawea begins to recognize certain landmarks of the country that the Lewis and Clark expedition is entering. The explorers are near the Three Forks region. Sacagawea, a Shoshone, lives with her people in this area as a child. About six years prior to the time of the expedition, she is captured by a rival tribe and taken to the Great Plains to the east. Meriwether Lewis writes:

…the Indian woman recognizes the country and assures us that this is the river on which her relations live, and that the three forks are at no great distance.
Meriwether Lewis Journal, The Journals Of Lewis And Clark, Ed. Bernard DeVoto (Boston: Little Brown, 1953), P. 160.

From Montana Dateline by Ellis Roberts Parry.