Welcome to the home page for the birthplace of Sacajawea, Lemhi County, Idaho. Here you will find our archives filled with interpretations and stories of the journeys of Lewis and Clark, specifically, we are devoted to historically correct information concerning Sacajawea and the valley she was born in, Lemhi County, Idaho.
This page is grant funded and will be a continuing work in progress, so we hope you will check back often.  

The most prominent individual to ever come from Lemhi County was a Lemhi Shoshone Indian woman named Sacagawea (Sacajawea). Her fame and recognition for legendary accomplishments far exceed those of her actual role. Without this Shoshone woman, however, Lewis and Clark may never have accomplished the difficult task of getting to the Pacific Ocean and back. Very little is actually known of her real life, but a powerful mythology has grown concerning her accomplishments.  She was a Lemhi Shoshoni Indian born around 1788 between Kenney Creek and Agency Creek, near Tendoy, Idaho.  During the fall of 1800, while the Lemhi Indian tribe was wintering near the three forks of the Missouri River, in what is now Montana, they were attacked by a band of Minnetaree Indian raiders from the Hidatsa village.  Several Shoshoni prisoners were take, including Sacajawea.  Between 1800 and 1804, she and one other  Shoshoni captive were purshased by Toussaint Charbonneau.  He was a French Canadian fur trader, living among the Hidatsa and Mandan Indians. Charbonneau was a well established on the upper Missouri at the time Lewis and Clark arrived there on October 26, 1804.  To continue reading the story of Sacajawea's life as written by Richard M. Young, please visit our Archives.