ABSTRACT
American Guide Clark, Ella E., and Margot Edmonds, Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Berkeley:
Waldo, Anna Lee, Sacajawea, New York: Avon, 1978 Sacagawea, according to legend and brief mention in records of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803-6, which explored the western lands newly purchased by the United States, was a young Shoshone woman who served as guide to the expedition, her infant son on her back. Sacagawea became a popular American cultural subject in both scholarly and popular writings and was elevated to heroic stature and legend during the Progressive Era. Her image has changed over time to reflect the shifting desires and interests of American culture, but her story has been consistently used to validate the U.S. policy of manifest destiny and to point up the dichotomy between “savagery” and “civilization” (although there have been dissenting portrayals since World War II that question frontier policy and the resultant myths). The most important literary treatments of Sacagawea concern the scope and value of her actual participation in the Lewis and Clark expedition, her autonomy during that period, her position between the white and the Native American worlds, and her life, its length, and its meaning after her death.
