Lemhi-Shoshone - Sacagawea / Sacajawea's People







Have you ever wondered what happened to Sacajawea's people the Lemhi-Shoshone - after the Lewis & Clark expedition?
Sacagawea photos
This website will will inform you of actual facts (from Lemhi-Shoshone descendants and research conducted by Professor Orlan Svingen, John Mann and Shirley Stephens at the Washington State University Dept. of History) not mentioned on other Sacagawea - Sacajawea / Lewis & Clark / Idaho historical websites.
Almost two hundred years ago a young Lemhi-Shoshone girl, Sacajawea (Sacagawea - Sakakawea) walked onto the world stage and played a more important role than any other Native American, male or female. Without question, Sacajawea along with her people and their horses, were the key to the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the greatest exploration of the early American West ever undertaken by young and struggling country. Captain Meriwether Lewis, the personal Secretary of President Jefferson wrote in his journals that Sacajawea was indispensable in their successful attempt to reach the Pacific Ocean and return.
The story of Sacajawea is so appealing that it adds the unique charm of bravery and motherhood to this early American epic journey of the Lewis and Clark.The primary reason for the participation of Sacajawea as member of the Corps of Discovery was to facilitate the acquisition of horses (also known as spanish mustangs or the barb horse) from her people to cross the continental divide to the headwaters of the Pacific Ocean. Read more about Sacajawea >>Sacajawea (Sacagawea - Sakakawea)

Article Archives

National Geographic - Searching for Sacagawea

New York Times - Sacajawea's People seek a homecoming

Trail Tribes - Focus on Sacagawea's descendants, traditions, customs, photos, petroglyphs & more

Idaho Statesman Special Feature - Sacajawea, Her Story by Her People

Sacagawea descendants to help dedicate ship - Indianz.com
NAVY USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2)

Yellowstone - Park News/Blog - Lemhi-Shoshone's Sacajawea

The Lemhi-Shoshone Proudly supports the - Western Shoshone Defense Project

Lemhi County Historical Society & Museum

NCRSM Call To Action! - Salmon Savages High School, Salmon, ID

Prof. Orlan Svingen - WSU - Assisiting Lemhi-Shoshone to regain federal recognition

Idaho BLM - Native Voices - Legends of Creation and Place

Xenite - Mizuo Peck- is Sacagawea in "Night at the Museum"

Western Institute For Study of the Environment - The People Who Lived Among the Clouds

Sacagawea / Sacajawea Center - Interpretive, Cultural and Educational - The Lemhi Shoshone Home Page
The Agaidikas and Tukudikas (Lemhi-Shoshone) are considered the first residents of the upper Lemhi Valley, dating back 10,000 years or more. Archaeological research indicates that buffalo, were hunted throughout the 10,000+ years of Indian occupancy of the Lemhi Valley near present day Salmon, Idaho.

ID State Bar & Idaho Law Foundation - Environmental & Natural Resources Sections Legal Resources

Google Directory - Native American Tribes - Lemhi-Shoshone - Sacajawea's descendants

Bringing Awareness - Metis Society of Oregon

Sacajawea Tribes Seeks Recognition - Pullman, Washington

Prayer Ceremony at Chief Tendoy Monument - Sho-Ban News

Myths about Sacajawea troubling reality for tribe - Lemhi-Shoshone left out
Sacajawea's Peopllee

Please sign the online petition to help restore the Lemhi-Shoshone homelands, you can also read visitor comments.

Webshots - Salmon Eater Country (Sacajawea / Sacagawea descendant photos)

Northern Idaho - Salish Kootenai Tribes - Idaho's Forgotten War - Clip

Sacajawea's People: Who Are The Lemhi And Where Is Their Home?
By: Professor Orlan Svingen, History Department - Washington State University Sacajawea (Sacagawea - Sakakawea) (1)On February 12, 1875, President Grant established a 100 square mile executive order reservation for Sacagawea / Sacajawea's People the Lemhi-Shoshone in the Lemhi Valley. Known as the Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation, the executive order established the reserve for "the exclusive use of the mixed tribes of Shoshone, Bannock, and Sheapeater Indians. (2) Almost from the outset, however, the government and local residents began efforts to rescind the executive order reservation. They ultimately succeeded in 1905, and in 1907 the Lemhi began what many have called the "Lemhi Trail of Tears," which saw their forced removal from their ancestral homelands to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. (3) Banished from their homeland in 1907 and seeking to return ever since, the Lemhi-Shoshone people create a dilemma for the nation. As it *prepares to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, the United States needs to reassess its commitment to the Lemhi-Shoshone, to Sacagawea / Sacajawea's people. The obligation the nation acknowledges toward wolf and salmon recovery efforts is dwarfed by the responsibility it faces in treating fairly the people who played such a crucial role in advancing the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In August of 1805, Lewis and Clark and their Corp of Discovery approached the Three Forks of the Missouri River. At Fort Mandan in October of 1804, they had acquired the services of Toussaint Charbonneau and one of his wives, Sacajawea, a fifteen year old "Shoshone" woman who was six months pregnant. The expedition valued Charbonneau and Sacajawea for their skills as interpreters--he for his French and she for her Hidatsa and Shoshone. Sacajawea, along with several other Shoshone girls, had been captured by a Hidatsa raiding party near the Three Forks four years earlier. Living at Fort Mandan, Charbonneau won Sacajawea in a wager with Hidatsa warriors. Lewis and Clark recognized the importance of being accompanied by someone who spoke the language of one of the tribes living in the Rocky Mountains in the vicinity of the Three Forks. Read more from Prof. Orlan Svingen's research >>
Sacagawea coin history photos.
Sacajawea (Sacagawea - Sakakawea)
Sacajawea's descendants the Lemhi-Shoshone seek Salmon land reinstatement
The Agai'Dika (salmon-eater), Tuki'Dika (sheep-eater), Boshaun'Dika, and the Bannock (now known as Sacajawea's People the Lemhi-Shoshone) are looking to get their land reinstated
sacajawea sacagawea photo picture
3/06/2008 - Fort Hall - In 1875 President U.S. Grant established a 100 square mile (640,000 acres) reservation for the Sacajawea's people the Lemhi-Shoshone, near Salmon (Idaho). In 1889 the United State Congress ceded the reservation back to the United States. In 1905 Chief Tendoy reluctantly agreed to move the tribe to the Fort Hall reservation to live with the other bands Shoshone and Bannocks. The removal of Sacagawea's descendants happened two years later in 1907. View timeline and research from Washington State Univerity conducted by Prof. Orlan Svingen.
To return home to the land of their forefathers and raise their families in the place they call "home." A meeting of the Fort Lemhi Indian Reservation Land and Restoration and Development Committee was held to discuss plans for re-establishment of the Lemhi reservation in the Salmon settlement area.
It has been 101 hundred years since Sacajawea's People the Lemhi-Shoshone were stripped of Federal Recognition and exiled from the Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation near present day Salmon, Idaho, 200 miles south to the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation in Fort Hall. The research conducted by WSU in assisting the Fort Lemhi Indian Communiuty / Reservation Land and Restoration Committee to become federally recognized after being stripped of recognition and exiled in 1907.

Lemhi-Shoshone - Sacagawea / Sacajawea's People. Sacagawea coin history photos.
Letter published: July 22, 2008:
Fort Lemhi Indian Reservation Land and Restoration and Development Committee
ure

Lemhi-Shoshone - Sacagawea / Sacajawea's People. Sacagawea coin history photos.
Letter published: August 4, 2008:
Fort Lemhi Indian Reservation Land and Restoration and Development Committee

Sacajawea's People the Lemhi-Shoshones and the Salmon River Country

By: John W. Mann, WSU
Available online at University of Nebraska Press

On October 20, 2001, a crowd gathered just east of Salmon, Idaho, to dedicate the site of the Sacagawea / Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Education Center, in preparation for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.

In a bitter instance of irony, the American Indian peoples conducting the ceremony dedicating the land to the tribe, the city of Salmon, and the nation the Lemhi Shoshones, Sacagawea / Sacajawea's own people had been removed from their homeland nearly a hundred years earlier and had yet to regain official federal recognition as a tribe. John W. W. Mann's book at long last tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the Lemhi Shoshones, from their distant beginning to their present struggles.

You can also read an excerpt from the book here:

"The Lemhi-Shoshone, Federal Recognition and the Bicentennial of The Corps of Discovery"

The three articles in this row are from the Washington State University. (< | >)
...the approach of the bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition presents the federal government with a unique opportunity.

The Lemhis have been refugees for nearly a century.

"The primary reason for the participation of Sacajawea as member of the Corps of Discovery was to facilitate the acquisition of horses from her people (the Lemhi-Shoshone) to cross the continental divide to the headwaters of the Pacific Ocean.

As the oral history of the Lemhi Shoshoni is farther substantiated by the various journals of the Lewis and Clark party, the primary leader of the Lemhi-Shoshoni was Cameahwait the brother of Sacajawea...

Naya Nuki:
Excellent book for kids

Lemhi-Shoshoni Girl who escaped from the Mandan-Hidatsa after being kidnapped along with Sacajawea.

The night she escaped was her night for freedom and the beginnng of an exciting 1000-mile journey back to her homelands in the Lemhi Valley - present day Salmon, Idaho.

Reviews >>

Sacajawea spelling - Indianz.com

Bear River Massacre - Survivors, articles and photos

Sacagawea Biography

Rootsweb Sacajawea

Inside Sacagawea
Sacajawea (Sacagawea - Sakakawea)

Sacagawea coin history photos.Sacagawea coin history photos.
On the evening of June 24, 2006 the NAVY launched the new Navy ship, USNS Sacagawea - T-AKE 2, which is named after the young Lemhi-Shoshone woman Sacagawea / Sacajawea, who guided and saved the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806

Several Lemhi-Shoshone descendants of Sacagawea /Sacajawea were on-hand (or otherwise represented) for the ceremony and actually christened the ship. The United States Naval Ship SACAGAWEA is a Lewis and Clark class, dry cargo ship with a primary mission of re-supplying the U.S. Navy Fleet through Connected Replenishment (CONREPS) and Vertical Replenishments (VERTREPS) enabling the fleet to remain operational at sea. The crew consists of more than 100 Civilian Mariners (CIVMARS), and up to 47 Military Personnel. USNS SACAGAWEA is the second of 11 Lewis and Clark Class replinishment ships operated by Military Sealift Command. This class of ship is part of the MSC Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force of approximately 35 ships. * Mrs. Lucy Honena Diaz, Sponsor * Ms. Rachael Lynne Ariwite, Sponsor * Ms. Amy Mossett, Honorary Maiden Of Honor * Ms. Jeanette Wolfley, Maid Of Honor * Ms. Candice Watson, Matron Of Honor USNS Sacagawea (T0AKE 2) Official Page More photos and information about the event USNS Sacagawea.

Video from Youtube.com - 100 Year's Since the Lemhi-Shoshone were exiled from the Salmon River Valley, Idaho.
You Tube.com - Lemhi-Shoshone 100 Years after Exile from the Salmon, Idaho area

1875 - President Grant's signature - sealed in gold. 2000 - Sacajawea the face of gold.

Professor Orlan J. Svingen - Washington State University / Department of History:
On February 12, 1875, President Grant established a 100 square mile executive order reservation for Sacagawea / Sacajawea's People the Lemhi-Shoshone people in the Lemhi Valley. Known as the Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation, the executive order established the reserve for "the exclusive use of the mixed tribes of Salmon-Eater Shoshone, Sheep-Eater, and Northern Bannock Indians.

Almost from the outset, however, the government and local residents began efforts to rescind the executive order reservation. They ultimately succeeded in 1905, and in 1907 the Lemhi began what many have called the "Lemhi Trail of Tears," which saw their forced removal from their ancestral homelands to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, home of the much larger Shoshone-Bannock Indians (Snake River Shoshone).

Banished from their homelands in 1907 and seeking to return ever since, the Lemhi-Shoshone people create a dilemma for the nation. As it prepares to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, the United States needs to reassess its commitment to the Lemhi people, to Sacajawea's people. The obligation the nation acknowledges toward wolf and salmon recovery efforts is dwarfed by the responsibility it faces in treating fairly the people who played such a crucial role in advancing the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Read More about research conducted by WSU on Sacagawea's People and the Lemhi-Shoshone >>

View an html version of Washington State University's PowerPoint Presentation
of Lemhi-Shoshone / Lemhi Valley history >>

Please sign the online petition to help restore the Lemhi-Shoshone homelands, you can also read visitor comments.

From the Idaho Statesman
Sacagawea / Sacajawea: Her story, by her people

"As the nation commemorates the Lewis and Clark bicentennial with seemingly inexhaustible tributes to her, her people are living as an obscure and repressed minority on a desert reservation nothing like the beautiful mountains of their homeland.

The woman who appears on the Sacagawea / Sacajawea coin isn´t a Lemhi-Shoshone, and the tribe of the woman who contributed more than any other to the opening of the West isn´t recognized as a tribe by the federal government.
This is her story and theirs. The story of Sacajawea and her people - by her people."

Text version - Sacagawea / Sacajawea: Her story, by her people>>

Lifeling Learning Online the Lewis & Clark Rediscovery Project - Trail Tribes.org Explore the Past & Present

The website content was developed at the University of Montana in Missoula.

On these pages you will be introduced to the world of the various bands of the Northern Shoshone and Bannock tribes, with a focus on those groups who now live on the Fort Hall Reservation and an emphasis on the peoples who came to be known as the Lemhi - Shoshone, have focused, instead, on the people whose ancestors and relations met Lewis and Clark in the summer of 1805.

"The Lemhi People and Their Struggle to Retain a Homeland"
By: Shirley Stephens

"The Lemhi's traditional remote and isolated setting was a world apart, far removed, from the cultural crossroads of Pocatello, Fort Hall, the Snake River Plains, and Great Basin culture. The removal of the Lemhi to Fort Hall entailed far more than a geographic move of two hundred miles."

Almost two hundred years ago, Sacajawea walked onto the world stage and played a more important role than any other American Indian, male or female.

Without question, Sacajawea along with her people and their horses, were the key to the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the greatest exploration of the early American West ever undertaken by young and struggling country. Captain Meriwether Lewis, the personal Secretary of President Jefferson wrote in his journals that Sacajawea was indispensable in their successful attempt to reach the Pacific Ocean and return.
The story of Sacajawea is so appealing that it adds the unique charm of bravery and motherhood to this early American epic journey of the Lewis and Clark.

Searching for Sacagawea - National Geographic Magazine

Sacagawea / Sacajawea what we know about her: She was a teenage mother and a valued interpreter for Lewis and Clark. What we don't know about her: Almost everything else
May 14, 1805, started off auspiciously for the Lewis and Clark expedition, but by evening a gusty wind was blowing along the Missouri River, threatening disaster. It was late afternoon when a sudden squall nearly capsized one of the boats, the white pirogue that carried the most vital instruments, trade goods, and papers—"in short," wrote Meriwether Lewis, "almost every article indispensibly necessary to further the views, or insure the success of the enterprize."

At the helm of the pirogue, alas, was Toussaint Charbonneau, the French-Canadian fur trader who served as an interpreter for the expedition. Charbonneau had an unfortunate tendency to panic in a crisis, which, coupled with the fact that he couldn't swim, made him, in Lewis's estimaSearching for Sacagawea - National Geographic Magazine

Followed By Lewis & Clark
JOIN IN THE JOURNEY - SACAGAWEA / SACAJAWEA SCULPTURE

Since 1998 Tag Richards has committed his life to creating a sculpture of Sacagawea / Sacajawea. It is a nurturing, maternal pose that captures a quiet moment between Sacajawea and her nine-month old son in November of 1805.
The sculpture will be a monumental bronze study of Sacagawea / Sacajawea and Pomp. Its intended placement is Lake Sacajawea in Longview, Washington.

PowerPoint Presentation from Professor Orlan J. Svingen - Created by the Washington State University, Department of History

"Shoshone Country"
"Map of L&C Expedition's "Fortunate Camp"
"Sacajaweas Critics"

"Virginia City Treaty"
"Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation - Executive Order - Feb. 12, 1875: U.S. Grant

Map of Lemhi Country: Treaty Period
"The Lemhi continue to return after removal"
"Post 1970 Lemhi Politics"

"THE OLD INDIAN camp just outside Salmon on Highway 93, came down last week, leaving only a few buildings remaining. Some of the debris from the buildings are shown. - Dale Ford photo

Bulldozed by the people of Salmon, Idaho. (Local High School - Salmon Savages)

sacajawea sacagawea photo picture

How the Sacagawea / Sacajawea's descendants - the Agaidikas (Salmon
Eaters), and the Tukudikas (Sheep Eaters) became known as the "Lemhi"-Shoshone Tribe

Mormon missionaries who came to the Salmon River Valley in 1855 were the first non-Indians to establish a sustained relationship with the Salmon River Indian people. Approximately twenty-seven Mormon men left the Salt Lake Valley on May 18, 1855. The party reached Fort Lemhi on May 27, and they selected a permanent site for their mission on June 15, 1855. The mission, named Fort Lemhi, was located approximately two miles north of present-day Tendoy, Idaho.

The word "Lemhi" was associated with King Limhi who was one of the kings cited in the Book of Mormon. In Mormon scripture, King Limhi organized an expedition that lasted twenty- two days--the same duration it required the Mormon missionaries to reach the Salmon River Country. Lemhi Ventures County

Consequently, they named their mission after King Limhi, and, in time, Limhi became Lemhi. The Mormon mission enjoyed some success, especially after the Lemhi leader, Snag, became a convert to Mormonism, and his acceptance of Mormon doctrine sparked as many as 100 baptisms among the Sacagawea / Sacajawea's people the Lemhi-Shoshone people. (WSU Prof. O. Svingen)
Lewis Clark Shoshone Tendoy & Salmon Idaho

A-WITE-ETSE his + mark signer of the Fort Bridger Treaty

Special thanks to those donating the server space and domain name registration fees!

The Salmon, Idaho high School "Savages" nickname has been shelved after the threat of legal action. School officials decided to avoid a long court battle that might have cost as much as $250,000 by retiring the Salmon Savage name and mascot.

The University of Oklahoma was the first major school to dump its Native American mascot -- "Big Red," an Indian caricature -- back in 1970. Stanford, Dartmouth and Syracuse soon followed. More recently, schools such as St. John's and Miami of Ohio have dropped Native American references. More >>
Lemhi Ventures County Sacajawea Sacagawea photos

Western Shoshone Defense Project
"We are who we are because our nation survived here. It is written on our earth."

In Remembrance of the Bear River Massacre

The Annual (146th - Jan. 29, 2009) Anniversary Commemoration is at the site of the Bear River Massacre. U.S. soldiers attacked the Northwestern Band of Shoshones on Jan. 29, 1863, resulting in the deaths of more than 490 men, women and children and 14 soldiers based at Fort Douglas (then Camp Douglas).

The attack near Preston, Idaho, at the confluence of Bear River and Beaver Creek, is considered the largest single-incident massacre of Indians in the American West - larger than Wounded Knee and Sand Creek. It is often overlooked in history books because it occurred during the Civil War. Most descendants are spread out through Northern UT and Southeastern ID today. More articles, photos and video >>

Please sign the online petition to help restore the Lemhi-Shoshone homelands, you can also read visitor comments.

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Sacagawea / Sacajawea's People exiled in 1907.

On the evening of June 24, 2006 the NAVY launched the new Navy ship, USNS Sacagawea - T-AKE 2, which is named after the young Lemhi-Shoshone woman Sacagawea / Sacajawea, who guided and saved the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806

In Remembrance of the Bear River Massacre