The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Excerpt

THE BIRD-WOMAN.

The Bird-Woman was an Indian.
She showed the white men the way into the West.
There were no roads to the West then.
That was one hundred years ago.
This Indian woman took the white men across streams.
She took them over hills.
She took them through bushes.
She seemed to find her way as a bird does.
The white men said, "She goes like a bird.
We will call her the Bird-Woman."
Her Indian name was Sacajawea.

Clark A mer i can Lew is met cap tains part sol diers twen ty nine peo pie Mis sou ri Riv er

WHO THE WHITE MEN WERE.

The white men Sacajawea went with were soldiers.
There were twenty-nine soldiers.
There were two captains.
The name of one captain was Lewis.
The name of the other captain was Clark.
They were American soldiers.

[Illustration: CAPTAIN CLARK.]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN LEWIS.]

They carried the American flag into the West.
No white men knew about that part of the West then.
The captains wished to learn all about the West.
They wished to tell the people in the East about it.
They had been going West a long time before they met Sacajawea.
They had rowed up the Missouri River.
They had come to many little streams.
They did not know what the Indians called these streams.
So they gave them new names for the white men.

camp Fourth of Ju ly Man dan cheered French man rest ed ice In de pend ence creek hus band Kan sas snow

On Fourth of July they named one stream Fourth of July Creek.
They named another Independence Creek.
We still call this stream by that name.
You can find it on the map of Kansas.
On Fourth of July the men rested.
The soldier who woke first fired a gun.
Then they all woke up and cheered for the Fourth of July.
At night they fired another gun.
Then the soldiers danced around the camp fire.
After a time the ice and snow would not let them go on.
They made a winter camp near the Mandan Indians.
Here they met Sacajawea and her husband.
Her husband was a Frenchman who knew a little about the West.
Sacajawea was the only one there who had been to the far West.
Lewis and Clark told the Frenchman they would pay him to go with them.
He said he would go.
Then he and Sacajawea came to live at the soldiers' camp.

be longed roots tribe mar ried Snake twelve Rocky Mountains thought war

WHY SACAJAWEA WENT WEST.

Sacajawea belonged in the West.
Her tribe was called the Snake Indians.
They lived in the Rocky Mountains.
Sacajawea lived in the Mountains until she was twelve years old.
Then her tribe went to war with the Mandans from the East.
One day Sacajawea and some other girls were getting roots.
They were down by a stream.
Some Mandans came upon them.
The girls ran fast to get away.

[Illustration: MANDAN DRAWING ON A BUFFALO ROBE]

Sacajawea ran into the stream.
An Indian caught her.
He took her up on his horse.
He carried her away to the East, to the country of the Mandans.
There she married the Frenchman.
There the Americans found her.
She was glad when her husband said he would go West with Lewis and
Clark.
She thought she would see her own tribe again....