Sakakawea Country, New Town, North Dakota

Sakakawea, Sacajawea, Sacagawea--how do you spell her name? It depends on who’s doing it. In North Dakota, they spell it with two k’s. In the Hidatsa language, her name means "Bird Woman" and it is "Tsakaka-wias." The Hidatsa were the ones who kidnapped Sacagawea as a young girl from her Shoshone homelands in the area of Lemhi Pass (Salmon, Idaho and Dillon, Montana). At the time of Lewis and Clark, the Hidatsas lived with the Mandan Indians in the Knife River Indian Villages, northwest of Bismarck, North Dakota. Today, the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara live together on the Fort Berthold Reservation in the northwestern corner of North Dakota, and are known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, or MHA Nation.  New Town, the headquarters town for the reservation, is located on Lake Sakakawea. The annual New Town Pow Wow takes place on the second weekend in August. This photo was taken at the 14th Lewis and Clark National Signature Event, hosted by the Three Affiliated Tribes in August , 2006.

New Town’s Reunion Bay is the place where all the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition came together, after they split up to explore Montana on their return journey during the summer of 1806. This photo shows members of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles reenacting the journey at the New Town Signature Event. The expedition used dugout canoes joined together for traveling. This was the type of canoe they were making at Park City, Montana on the Yellowstone River, when the Crow Indians stole their horses.

 Accomodations at New Town are available at the 4 Bears Casino (motel and RV Park) and local motels. The Three Tribes Museum is located near the casino. Other attractions include Lewis & Clark Jet Boat rides, golfing, hiking, biking and horseback riding, fishing and hunting. Lodging includes cabins, ranch vacations, motels, RV and tent campgrounds in New Town and the surrounding area on the reservation.

To return to the matter of Sakakawea/Sacajawea/Sacagawea. The Shoshone spelling is "Sacajawea"  with a "j"; the name means "Boat Launcher"  in the Shoshone language. Two interpretive centers spell it with a "j": the Sacajewea Interpretive, Cultural and Education Center in Salmon, Idaho and the Sacajawea Interpretive Center in Pasco, Washington.  However, the most accepted spelling is "Sacagawea"  with a "g" which has been the choice of almost all contemporary writers and journal editors. William Clark spelled her name as "Sah-kah-gar-we-a" when the expedition departed from Fort Mandan on April 7, 1805; and as "Se car ja we au Dead" in noting the fate of expedition members in a journal entry made  sometime between 1825-28. 

Read more about Sacagawea and the New Town area in my Lewis and Clark Road Trips book. In the next blog, Best Books on Sacagawea, I recommend two books on Sacagawea for adults among my "Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books" and two books on Sacagawea written for young readers available through our Amazon Associate bookstore.

Posted by on 11/04/2006 at 02:32 PM

Comments

<< Back to main