Cameahwait was the brother of Sacagawea, and a Shoshone chief. He was the head of the first group of inhabitants of modern-day Idaho who were encountered by Europeans.
Cameahwait met Meriwether Lewis and three other members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition on August 13, 1805. [1] He then accompanied Lewis across the Lemhi Pass to meet Clark. Sacagawea was with Clark's party and recognized Cameahwait as her brother.
To the Shoshoni Cameahwait and Sacagawea were brother and sister. However, in Shoshoni language cousin and brother are the same word, indicating the tribe thinks of them as the same. Consequently, during the translation, when Sacagawea cried out that she recognized Cameahwait as her brother, that is what she meant, but whether they actually had the same father, let alone the same mother, is unclear. [2]
Cameahwait donated horses to Lewis and Clark to repay them for reuniting him with his long-lost sister. She and her friend Otter Woman had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa Tribe when Sacagawea was twelve years old and used as slaves for the Hidatsas. They were then sold to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trapper. Charbonneau and Sacagawea both accompanied Lewis and Clark on their western expedition in 1805. Earlier in the year in February, she gave birth to Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (Pompy) at Fort Mandan in present-day North Dakota.
Cameahwait was killed during a battle with the Blackfeet at Bloody Creek in Montana in April of 1812. It is believed he was buried on a butte between the towns of Lemhi and Tendoy, Idaho. [3]
There is a lake in the Wind River Indian Reservation near Shoshoni, Wyoming named Lake Cameahwait.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Clark, along with 30 others, set out from Camp Dubois, Illinois, on May 14, 1804, met Lewis and ten other members of the group in St. Charles, Missouri, then went up the Missouri River. The expedition crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas near the Lemhi Pass, eventually coming to the Columbia River, and the Pacific Ocean in 1805. The return voyage began on March 23, 1806, at Fort Clatsop, Oregon, ending six months later on September 23 of that year.
Lemhi County is a county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,974. The largest city and county seat is Salmon. The county was established in 1869 and named after Fort Lemhi, a remote Mormon missionary settlement from 1855 to 1858 in Bannock and Shoshone territory.
Toussaint Charbonneau was a French Canadian explorer, fur trapper and merchant who is best known for his role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition as the husband of Sacagawea.
The Corps of Discovery was a specially established unit of the United States Army which formed the nucleus of the Lewis and Clark Expedition that took place between May 1804 and September 1806. The Corps was led jointly by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, the Corps' objectives were scientific and commercial – to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and to learn how the Louisiana Purchase could be exploited economically. Aside from its military composition, the Corps' additional personnel included scouts, boatmen, and civilians.
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, sometimes known in childhood as Pompey or Little Pomp, was a Lemhi Shoshone-French Canadian explorer, guide, fur trapper, trader, military scout during the Mexican–American War, alcalde (mayor) of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia and a gold digger and hotel operator in Northern California. His mother was Sacagawea, a Shoshone who worked as a guide and interpreter for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Charbonneau spoke French and English and learned German and Spanish during his six years in Europe from 1823 to 1829. He spoke Shoshone and other western Native American languages, which he picked up during his years of trapping and guiding.
The Jefferson River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 83 miles (134 km) long, in the U.S. state of Montana. The Jefferson River and the Madison River form the official beginning of the Missouri at Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks. It is joined 0.6 miles (1.0 km) downstream (northeast) by the Gallatin.
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
Fort Mandan was the name of the encampment which the Lewis and Clark Expedition built for wintering over in 1804–1805. The encampment was located on the Missouri River approximately twelve miles (19 km) from the site of present-day Washburn, North Dakota, which developed later. The precise location is not known for certain. It is believed now to be under the water of the river. A replica of the fort has been constructed near the original site.
Lemhi Pass is a high mountain pass in the Beaverhead Mountains, part of the Bitterroot Range in the Rocky Mountains and within Salmon-Challis National Forest. The pass lies on the Montana-Idaho border on the Continental Divide, at an elevation of 7,373 feet (2,247 m) above sea level. It is accessed via Lemhi Pass Road in Montana, and the Lewis and Clark Highway in Idaho, both gravel roads. Warm Springs Road, which roughly follows the divide in Montana, passes just west of the pass's high point.
The Lemhi River is a 60-mile-long (97 km) river in Idaho in the United States. It is a tributary of the Salmon River, which in turn is a tributary to the Snake River and Columbia River.
Sacagawea was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, in her teens, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with Native American people and contributing to the expedition's knowledge of natural history in different regions.
The first Fort Lisa (1810-1812), also known as the Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post, Fort Manuel or Fort Mandan, was started by the notable fur trader Manuel Lisa of the Missouri Fur Company in 1809. This fort was likely where Sacagawea died; she had been the guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Fort Lisa superseded Fort Raymond as the uppermost post of the Missouri Fur Company on the Missouri River. In 1812 Lisa built a replacement fort downriver near present-day North Omaha, Nebraska, which he also named Fort Lisa.
The Far Horizons is a 1955 American historical western film directed by Rudolph Maté about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It is based on 1943 novel Sacajawea of the Shoshones by Della Gould Emmons and stars Fred MacMurray, Charlton Heston, Donna Reed and Barbara Hale.
The Lemhi Shoshone are a tribe of Northern Shoshone, also called the Akaitikka, Agaidika, or "Eaters of Salmon". The name "Lemhi" comes from Fort Lemhi, a Mormon mission to this group. They traditionally lived in the Lemhi River Valley and along the upper Salmon River in Idaho. Bands were very fluid and nomadic, and they often interacted with and intermarried other bands of Shoshone and other tribes, such as the Bannock. Today most of them are enrolled in the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation of Idaho.
The Lemhi Reservation was a United States Indian Reservation for the Lemhi Shoshone from 1875 to 1907. During almost all this time their main chief was Tendoy.
Northern Shoshone are Shoshone of the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho and the northeast of the Great Basin where Idaho, Wyoming and Utah meet. They are culturally affiliated with the Bannock people and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People.
The Lewis and Clark Exposition Gold dollar is a commemorative coin that was struck in 1904 and 1905 as part of the United States government's participation in the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, held in the latter year in Portland, Oregon. Designed by United States Bureau of the Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, the coin did not sell well and less than a tenth of the authorized mintage of 250,000 was issued.
Sacajawea and Jean-Baptiste is a bronze sculpture of Sacagawea and Jean Baptiste Charbonneau by American artist Alice Cooper, located in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, in the United States.
Otter Woman was a Shoshone woman who was the wife of Smoked Lodge. Otter Woman was likely kidnapped by the Hidatsa and purchased by Toussaint Charbonneau, who is best known as the husband of Sacagawea. At the time of Sacagawea's abduction and sale to Charbonneau, Otter Woman was already living with Charbonneau as his wife. Charbonneau and Sacagawea were to gain fame as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, supported by the Corps of Discovery.
Sakakawea is a monumental sized bronze sculpture created by Leonard Crunelle. It was dedicated on October 13, 1914 and stands on the grounds of the North Dakota State Capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota. A recasting was done in 2003 to place in the United States Capitol.