I first came across Sacajawea living in Washington state. Of course it was her name in a textbook, but I thought it was intriguing that a woman would be willing to travel with a group of men to places she had never been. And not only was she the only woman, she was the only Native American in that group too. Sadly, I never encountered her again outside of textbooks and museums. Living in the Northwest you come across a lot of Lewis and Clark (in fact, they even have towns named after them). So in part to read some new literature in preparation for the upcoming school and in part to keep my cannonball read list growing, I picked up this book by an author I’ve read before, Joseph Bruchac.
I didn’t enjoy the first book I read of his, so I didn’t have high hopes for this one either, but I’m not sorry I gave Sacajawea a chance. As I’ve explained in my previous reviews this has been my summer to find some good literature to bolster my American Literature course’s reading list. And I’m particularly looking for some good Native American literature, written by Native Americans. So this is how I arrived at finding a book on Sacajawea. I was looking for something that was historical but also literary so historical fiction is where I was looking. Plus my childhood interest in her were calling and I wanted to scratch that itch.
Bruchac does a good job of telling the account from both Sacajawea’s and William Clark’s points of view. I think it fleshes out the narrative and it also gives perspectives on similar events. Sacajawea brings not only a more feminine view but a perspective that Lewis and Clark didn’t always think about. I enjoyed the times Sacajawea is confused why Lewis and Clark are nami
ng rivers, flowers, Native Americans, and mountains when the Native Americans have had names for them for centuries! This just reveals the European-ness of Lewis and Clark’s journey. Just like Columbus, Lewis and Clark must’ve thought, since no one has written it done, it must not have a name and since I’m the “first” to be here, I get to name it.
But Clark’s voice is important too. I can’t imagine the intense courage it took to set out into literal no man’s land where the only people are Native Americans and French and British trappers. What’s interesting is that Clark brings up the point that the French were more apt to assist the expedition since they didn’t have any claims to the territory, but the British trappers stirred up several of the Native American tribes, because England was still wanting to claim much of North America. It dawned on my too. They must’ve been pretty angry too. The Revolutionary War had just been fought about 15 years earlier so for many of them it was fresh in their minds.
I’m also inspired by the story of Lewis and Clark because in spite of their renamings, they didn’t set out to conquer the Native Americans. Instead they tried to be respectful to them and recruit them as allies against the British. And they were amazed at the different cultures, languages, and customs. I’m said that as a nation we moved from respecting the Native Americans to seeing them more as bothersome and a nuisance. After all, if it wasn’t for Sacajawea, the U.S. might only have moved as far west as the Dakotas. I hope that as we progress as a nation we can be more respecting and less hostile towards those cultures around us that we don’t know. We are all here and frankly, we’ll be better off learning from one another rather than fighting against each other.
