The Story of Sacagawea - The Lewis and Clark Expeditions

The role of Sacagawea loomed large indeed. Lewis and Clark along with Sacagawea' help established friendly relations with the Shoshones. They shared food and presence with Chief Cameahweit, Sacagawea' brother.

The explorers were going to use the Salmon River to take them to the Columbia River but it ran much too wild and swift for that. They discussed with the chief, how best to cross the mountains to the land of the Nez Perce Indians.

Chief Cameahweit provided them a guide and horses. With this help from the Shoshone, The Corps of Discovery finally reached their destination.
The tribal people living in the Lemhi and Pahsimeroi Valleys along the Salmon River consisted of two groups of Indians. The two groups were in organized tribes that crossed the Bitterroots of Montana to hunt buffalo, in Yellowstone, Wyoming.

They were peaceful people.

Mormon Missionaries in 1855 were the first non-Indians to establish a relationship with the Shoshone tribe. Then came the series of treaties and executive orders, between the Federal Government and the Lemhi, Shoshone people. The failure of The United States Senate to ratify the Virginia City Treaty created uncertainty over the Lemhi' tie to their homeland.

In 1875 President Grant issued an executive order that created the Lemhi Valley Indian Reservation. The order created a tract containing 100 square miles for the "mixed tribes of the Shoshone". Opposition to the Lemhi' remaining in their homeland emerged almost before the ink dried on the executive order.

The policy makers in Washington, D.C. and local settlers thought the Shoshone Reservation seemed excessive. Local residents resented sharing what they perceived to be limited space in the Salmon River Area. The suggestions were to move the Indians to Fort Hall, Idaho or Crow Reservation, Montana. This alternative failed to win support. Many years after there were still unrest.

By 1907 more than 500 Lemhi' deported the Salmon area to Fort Hall, Idaho. They rode horses and wagons for the 200-mile overland journey.
This was a very sad time.

At Fort Hall Indian Reservation the Lemhi people faced a different adjustment. As minorities on a reservation where Great Basin Shoshone and the Bannocks outnumbered them, they quarreled with the government about the promised annuities from 1889. Banished from their homeland in 1907 and seeking to return ever since.

The United States needs to reassess its commitment to the Lemhi - Shoshones and Sacagawea' people. They were removed by force from their ancestral lands, stripped of Federal recognition and denied monetary compensation despite a treaty.
Sacagawea' people had their own "Trail of Tears".

• The Dominguez-Escalante Expeditions Journal:

Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776

• I Walked to Zion:
- Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail

• The Gathering of Zion:
- The Story of the Mormon Trail

• National Geographic's Guide to:
- Lewis and Clark Trail

• Hiking Historic Trails
- Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails

• Scenic Driving - Travel guides
- Scenic Driving in Utah

• Historical reading
- The Old Spanish Trail

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