Sacagawea, Merriwether Lewis and 19th century intrique

Dear Editor,

A special one-dollar gold coin was produced by the U.S. mint in 2000. It had Sacagawea and her baby son on it.

I bought a beautiful pendant with that coin and put it on a gold chain.

When I wear it, I think of Sacagawea and Merriwether Lewis, who was born in 1774 in Albermarle, Va.

My great-great-grandmother, Vilena Lewis, was his second cousin.

Thomas Jefferson sent William Clark and Merriwether Lewis on an expedition to the Pacific Northwest. He asked them to explore the land included in the Louisiana Purchase.

The winter of 1804-1805 Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery built Fort Mandan in North Dakota.

They needed a guide and an interpreter to talk to the Indians. Toussaint Charbonneau, a French fur trader, and his young pregnant wife, Sacagawea, applied for the job.

She was bought from the Hadatsa Indians by Charboneau when she was 13 years old. At age 12, she was taken captive from a Shoshone Indian village.

Sacagawea longed to see her family. Traveling with Lewis and Clark might provide her with that opportunity.

Lewis and Clark chose her for their interpreter and guide.

Feb. 11, 1805, she gave birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.

By August 1805, Lewis and Clark's expedition had traveled for four months and encountered a Shoshone Village. They obtained horses from them. Comeahwait was their chief. He was Sacagawea's older brother. it was a happy reunion.

Climbing over the rugged Rocky Mountains was difficult. They ran out of food and ate candle tallow. Sacagawea found camas roots and they cooked them to keep from starving.

Lewis and Clark returned to Missouri, which was still part of the Louisiana Territory. Briefly, Lewis served as a governor there.

Unfortunately, he was plagued by personal problems including being jilted by his fiance. In addition to that, he was addicted to Laomedon, a narcotic used to treat a temperate-type of malaria caused by mosquitoes. (Quinine was hard to obtain from South America in the 1800s.)

Funds were missing from the Missouri treasury. Lewis was blamed.

He decided to go to Washington D.C. to clear his name. He journeyed with some very questionable companions along a route known as the Tennessee Trace.

While staying in a cabin which was part of a business that lodged travelers, he was robbed and murdered.

After Sacagawea died at age 24 on Dec. 30, 1812, William Clark and his wife adopted 7-year-old Jean Baptiste and his one-year-old sister Lizette.

In 1846, Jean Baptiste was a guide for some Mormons going to California. Brigham Young asked him to be a guide for Mormon pioneers traveling to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847-1848.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Neb.