This cache was inspired by a challenge posted by meandmydogs to hide a Women in History (WIH) cache. When I was in 4th grade living in Idaho, I especially enjoyed our lessons in Idaho history. We learned about a Shoshone Indian squaw named Sacagawea who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition through the yet unexplored Northwest. I considered her one of my heroines, and still have a huge admiration for what she had done.
This cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. The final location of the cache must be calculated using the information on the cache page. The biographical information is taken mostly from Wikipedia. Instructions to calculate the calculated coordinates are given at the end of the page.
Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who is known for her help to the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their mission by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Not much is known about her history as a child. She was born in May 1788. When she was 12 years old, she and several other girls were kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa Sioux and kept captive in North Dakota. At age 13, she was sold into marriage to Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebecois trapper living in the village.
Sacagawea was pregnant with her first child when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived in her Hidatsa village in the winter of 1804-05. The explorers needed guides and interpreters. After interviewing several other trappers, they agreed to hire Charbonneau and Sacagawea. Since Sacagawea spoke Shoshone as well as knowing many of the local rivers and trails, she was going to be indeed an asset to the expedition. On February 11, 1805, she gave birth to a son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.
Sacagawea continually proved herself invaluable to Lewis and Clark. She rescued their journals from a capsized boat, negotiated with the Shoshone to trade for horses, and cooked camas roots to nourish them. Nearing the end of the excursion at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, she gave up her beaded belt to trade for a fur robe to be given to President Thomas Jefferson. The group wintered at Fort Clatsop, and Sacagawea was able to see her first whale carcass. In the summer of 1806, she helped expedite their return by telling of them of gaps across the mountains in Idaho and Montana. Later this became the optimal route for the Northern Pacific Railway.
After the expedition, Sacagawea and Charbonneau spent three years with the Hidatsa before settling in St. Louis, Missouri. Clark paid for education at a boarding school for son Jean-Baptiste. Later, Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette. It’s not clear to historians exactly when Sacagawea died, but records suggest that she passed away in December of 1812 of typhus fever. Although Charbonneau was still alive, he signed over custody of Jean Baptiste and Lizette to William Clark.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early twentieth century adopted Sacagawea as a symbol of woman’s worth and independence, erecting several statues and paques in her memory, and doing much to spread the story of her accomplishments. In 1977, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. In 2001, President Bill Clinton gave her the title of Honorary Sergeant, Regular Army.
The final cache is located at N 43 10.XXX W071 48.YYY, where
XXX = age Sacagawea was sold into marriage + 580
YYY = year she gave birth to Jean Baptiste - 1010