August 26,1805
On this day Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery left America, crossing over into Hudson’s Bay Company territory, property of the British Crown.
The line of demarcation was the Continental Divide at Lehmi Pass, high in the Bitterroot Range of the Rockies. Lehmi Shoshone had used the pass extensively after acquiring horses. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, it marked the most-western border of the United States.
Lehmi Pass today
What lay beyond was known as the Oregon Country, Columbia District. The British organized a de facto government through royal charter in 1690. At the time of Lewis and Clark, HBC owned fully 15 percent of North America.
Meriwether Lewis and three other members of the Corps had scouted ahead, crossing the divide on August 12, and found a “large and plain Indian road.” The following day Lewis met Shoshone chief, Cameahwait, the leader of the first indigenous people of present-day Idaho to encounter Europeans.
Cameahwait (early depiction, right) returned with Lewis to the expedition’s main camp where Sacajawea recognized Cameahwait as her “brother.” The Shoshone word for brother and cousin are the same, however. It was unclear if Sacajawea and Cameahwait were actually siblings. Brother or cousin, Chief Cameahwait embraced Sacajawea as “sister” and donated horses to the Crop in gratitude for reuniting Sacajawea with her people. He had been captured and enslaved by the Hidatsa when she was just 12.
Taken by the Hidatsa to present-day North Dakota, she was sold to French-Canadian trapper Toussaint Charbonneau, at age 13. Lewis and Clark 
encountered Charbonneau (left) and Sacajawea at a Mandan settlement near present-day Bismarck. Charbonneau, who reportedly talked his way onto the expedition, also accompanied Lewis and Clark, getting less than luke warm reviews of his usefulness from Captain Clark.
Across the Continental Divide the land remained the exclusive property of the British for another eight years. The Treaty of 1818 gave both nations joint tenancy for a decade, plus the right to navigate freely within the territory. It created an uneasy peace, however, and a number of disputes arose between England and the U.S.
The squabbling was essentially put to rest in 1846 with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which established the 49th parallel as the boundary between the U.S. and what is now Canada. A tiny finger of Minnesota’s Lake of the Woods County is the only part of the Continental United States located above the 49th parallel.
The Lewis and Clark journals refer to the area as the “North Pass.” The name was changed following the founding of Fort Lehmi by Mormon missionaries in 1855. In use during much of the mining era in Idaho and Montana, it was largely replaced by the Gilmore and Pittsburgh Railroad’s route over Bannock Pass built in 1910. The railroad ceased operation entirely in 1939.
Most historians believe Sacajawea never saw her homeland again. She and Charbonneau did return to the Mandan settlement in North Dakota. At 
Captain Clark’s invitation, the couple traveled to St. Louis where Clark helped Charbonneau establish a farm. Six months, however, they returned to Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post in North Dakota. Sacajawea’s son, Jean Baptist (left), however, stayed with Clark, and was enrolled in a boarding school in 1809. Clark and is first wife later formally adopted Jean Baptist.
The entry of a clerk at Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post indicates that Sacajawea probably died there in 1812, noted as the “wife of Charbonneau, a Snake Squaw.” Charbonneau was known to have had five Native American wives, all aged 16 years old or younger, leaving some to speculate it may not have been Sacajawea.
The record adds that she left behind “a fine infant daughter.” Sacajawea was believed to have given birth to a daughter, Lizette, sometime after 1810. The child may have been taken to Clark following her mother’s death but no further record exists.
The rather sketchy account of her death, however, fueled the Native American oral tradition that Sacajawea instead died on the Lehmi Shoshone Wind River Reservation in 1884. According to the story, an old woman named Porivo, (Chief Woman) married to a Comanche, spoke of a long journey with explorers and possessed a gold “Jefferson” medal like 
the one given to Corps of Discovery members. She would have been 96, an ancient age for the day
The theory was given some credence by early Santee Dakota physician, Charles Eastman (right). A majority of archeologists and historians, however, believe the 1812 death is likely.
Charbonneau died at Fort Lisa in 1843, having survived a deadly Hidatsa attack. Cameahwait is said to have died in a battle with the Blackfoot in Montana. No date of his death was ever recorded.
The Hudson’s Bay Company never died. It lives on as retail stores, largely in Canada. Currently it is the oldest commercial enterprise in North America and one of the oldest in the world.
The Sacajawea Interpretive and Cultural Center, Lehmi County, Idaho, is located on Highway 28, 2 miles east of Salmon. The Interpretive Center features exhibits on Sacajawea’s role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Agaidika Shoshone-Bannock tribal history and their expert beading and crafts. Admission to the Interpretive Center is $5 for adults, $12 for families and children 6 and younger are free.
Two walking trails are open dawn to dusk year round. Pet friendly, all animals must be leashed at all times and bikes are not allowed on the trails. The interpretive center is open summer months, Memorial Day to Labor, 9 to 5, Monday through Saturday and 23:30 to 5 Sunday. Off season tours can be pre-arranged. For more information go to sacajaweacenter.org, call the Interpretive Center at (208) 756-1222 or park offices at (208) 756-1188.
© Text Only – 2018 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.