Picture: Sacagawea & baby
I have been reading a historical novel about the life of Sacagawea, the Native Agaidika Shoshone woman who was an unlikely member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the North American continent.
Sacagawea was taken as a slave when the Shoshone were raided by another tribal nation. She was passed from owner to owner many times, usually she was lost by her owner when he was gambling. Eventually she became the property of a metis, a french Canadian trader; he already owned two other wives.
Sacagawea’s life was very hard, however wherever she went her character shone through. She was born the daughter of a chief of the Shoshone and she displayed in her many life’s roles bravery, industry, intelligence and resilience.
When Lewis and Clark hired her husband as a translator they met Sacagawea and recognized her intelligence and her usefulness in dealing with the Shoshone when they went up river and would abandon their canoes and need horses. Also, as a woman part of the expedition she was a symbol of peace to new Nations.
Time and again Sacagawea proved her usefulness and bravery. Today this girl/woman (she was just thirteen years old with a newborn when they took her on) is known far and wide for her role in the expedition.
She is such an unlikely heroine to be known about today. She was treated as property, was oftentimes abused and mistreated, a person of no account. Yet there are places named after her, she is written about and Sacajawea has become a symbol for the superior virtues of a woman.
There are many who live lives of quiet integrity. Perhaps no books will be written about them, they will not have statues in their image and they will not have places named after them, yet Sacagawea remains a symbol for the fact that forming a character of good qualities will win out in the end.
When we leave this life our character, those traits we have built through a lifetime of repeated effort and decision-making is what we take with us. Our position in life, wealth or lack of it, all of those things that seem so important to this world are all left behind when we leave this body. What we do take with us are those habits that make up our character. In that we may take inspiration from one small Shoshone woman whose character shone through difficult life experiences and is known far and wide for the vital role she played in exploring a vast continent.