Sacagawea

Expedition journals record Sacagawea recognizing landmarks and note that a woman traveling with the party helped signal peaceful intentions. They offer little evidence that she led the expedition across the plains, a role often given to her later. Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara historians also preserve accounts that differ from the journals, which makes whose record survives part of the story. The image is a detail from Edgar S. Paxson’s 1912 mural, painted more than a century after the expedition.