Interpreters with Lewis and Clark: The Story of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau

Published: August, 2003  Pages: 192  Features: 22 illustrations. 2 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

When interpreter Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian fur trader living among the Hidatsas, and his Shoshone Indian wife, Sacagawea, joined the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, they headed into country largely unknown to them, as it was to Thomas Jefferson’s hand-picked explorers. There is little doubt as to the importance of Sacagawea’s presence on the journey. She has become a near-legendary figure for her role as interpreter, guide, and “token of peace.” Toussaint, however, has been maligned in both fiction and nonfiction alike—Lewis himself called him “a man of no peculiar merit.” more... about Interpreters with Lewis and Clark: The Story of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau

• Wyoming State Historical Society's Publications Award for Biography, 2004