DID YOU KNOW?
Painting depicting the 55-foot keelboat
Anyway, in early November, the Corps came across villages of friendly Mandan and Minitari Indians near present-day Washburn, North Dakota, and decided to set up camp downriver for the winter along the banks of the Missouri River. Within about four weeks they had built a triangular-shaped fort called Fort Mandan, which was surrounded by 16-foot pickets and contained quarters and storage rooms.
The Corps spent the next five months at Fort Mandan. While at Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French-Canadian trapper Toussaint Charbonneau and hired him as an interpreter. They allowed his pregnant Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, to join him on the expedition, who had been
and tried to stop the Corps’ boats and demanded a toll payment. But they were no match for the military weapons of the Corps and soon moved on.
Aerial view of Fort Mandan
Painting of Sacagawea with Lewis & Clark
kidnapped by Hidatsa Indians at age 12 and then sold to Charbonneau. Lewis and Clark hoped she could help them communicate with any Shoshone they would encounter on their journey. On February 11, 1805, Sacagawea gave birth to a son and named him Jean Baptiste. She became an invaluable and respected asset for Lewis and Clark.
On April 7, 1805, Lewis and Clark sent some of their crew and their keelboat loaded with zoological and botanical samplings, maps, reports, and letters back to St. Louis, while they and the rest of the Corps headed for the Pacific Ocean. They then crossed through Montana and made their way to the Continental Divide via Lemhi Pass where; they purchased horses from the Shoshone. While there, Sacagawea reunited with her brother Cameahwait, who had not seen her since she was kidnapped.
The group next headed out of Lemhi Pass and crossed the Bitterroot Mountain Range. Many of the parties suffered from frostbite, hunger, dehydration, bad weather, freezing temperatures, and exhaustion. After 11 days on the Lolo Trail, the Corps stumbled upon a tribe of friendly Nez Perce Indians along Idaho’s Clearwater River. The Indians took in the weary travelers, fed them, and helped them regain their health. As the Corps