Sacagawea by Lise Erdrich, illustrated by Julie Buffalohead is an award winning children's biography of the Shoshone woman who acted as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark during their famous exploration of the west in 1804. The book received the Carter G. Woodson Award for social science book that depicts ethnicity in the United States as well as being an International Reading Association (IRA) teacher's choice and an International Reading Association (IRA)/Children's Book Council (CBC) children's choice. Eldrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain band of Plains-Ojibway and Buffalohead is of Ponca heritage.
The book details a great deal of factual content concerning the time period and the geography of the area. The story tells of Sacagawea's life from age eleven when she was kidnapped by a Hidatsa raiding party when she was out gathering roots and berries and firewood along the riverbank and the men were out marriage to a Frenchman named Charbonneau who was at least twenty years older than her. She was pregnant with her first child when the Corps of Discovery, headed by Lewis and Clark arrived in their village. It was her husband, Charbonneau, who proposed that the expedition hire…
