Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Bobebam here. Her image was immortalized on
Speaker 1: the Golden Dollar in the year two thousand and She's
Speaker 1: recognizable by her forward looking gaze and the baby she
Speaker 1: carries on her back. She's been described as an interpreter
Speaker 1: for the Lewis and Clark expedition, but relatively little is
Speaker 1: known about Chicago Weea, despite the fact that she's one
Speaker 1: of the few women ever depicted on US currency. And yes,
Speaker 1: that's closer to a correct pronunciation than saka Joweyah. Although
Speaker 1: Chicago Weea was from the Shoshone people, her name is
Speaker 1: given in the Hidatsa language and has been interpreted to
Speaker 1: mean bird woman or crow woman. We spoke with Caroline Gilman,
Speaker 1: author of Lewis and Clark Across the Divide. She said
Speaker 1: she was a native woman who was thrust into history
Speaker 1: when she accompanied Lewis and Clark. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of things that have been claimed for her that you
Speaker 1: really can't say. We do know that Chicago Wia crossed
Speaker 1: the continental divide at the age of seventeen while toting
Speaker 1: her infant son. She also crossed cultures and played a
Speaker 1: role in the success of the expedition and perhaps unknowingly,
Speaker 1: in manifest destiny. Blemisha Shone Icago Weoh was born around
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty eight in modern day Idaho. Twelve years later,
Speaker 1: she was captured by the gun possessing Hidatsa tribe took
Speaker 1: her to the Hidatsa man Dance settlement near what's now
Speaker 1: North Dakota. The settlement was an international trading center, and
Speaker 1: she lived with the Hidatsa, the reason her name is
Speaker 1: thought to be from that language, for a few years
Speaker 1: until a French Canadian fur trader by the name of
Speaker 1: Toussaint Charboneau took her as a wife. In this case,
Speaker 1: wife is a relative term, and she was one of two.
Speaker 1: According to James Ring Adams, senior historian at the History
Speaker 1: and Culture Unit at the National Museum of the American
Speaker 1: Indian Smithsonian, her role in the relationship was likely more
Speaker 1: as a consort a. Some accounts state that the marriage
Speaker 1: was an economic deal on behalf of her adoptive family,
Speaker 1: or even that she was one in a card game.
Speaker 1: Whatever the case, Charbonneau was about thirty seven years old
Speaker 1: to her sixteen, and Chicagoea was pregnant by the time
Speaker 1: Merywether Lewis and William Clark arrived in the area. The
Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark Expedition had begun in eighteen o three,
Speaker 1: when President Thomas Jefferson sent out the Cores of Discovery
Speaker 1: to explore the land that the US government gained from
Speaker 1: the Louisiana purchase. It's important to remember that the land
Speaker 1: deal with France included a lot more than today's eponymous state.
Speaker 1: The territory stretched from roughly the Canadian border to the
Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi River to Colorado,
Speaker 1: nearly doubling the size of the United States at the time.
Speaker 1: Charbonneau offered his services as interpreter to Lewis and Clark.
Speaker 1: For offering that he had two wives from near the
Speaker 1: Continental vide he got the job, and Chicago Weea was
Speaker 1: chosen to accompany him on the expedition. Gilman suggests that
Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark might have wanted to bring Chicago Wea
Speaker 1: more than her husband, because they were looking for a
Speaker 1: Shoshony translator. Sharboneau only spoke Hidatsa and French, but you
Speaker 1: couldn't hire a woman you had to hire her husband.
Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark had a generally low opinion of Charbonneau.
Speaker 1: In fact, Lewis later described him as a quote man
Speaker 1: of no peculiar merit. By contrast, Chicago Wea proved to
Speaker 1: be an advantageous member of the expedition. In the beginning,
Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark were interested in her tribal connections because
Speaker 1: her Shshony people straddled the continental divide and it was
Speaker 1: crucial for them to cross it. Adams said it turned
Speaker 1: out even better than they expected. When the expedition first
Speaker 1: encountered the Shohony, Lewis was leading, and after an initial
Speaker 1: contact with an older woman, was approached by a band
Speaker 1: of about sixty shoshone on horseback, who became friendly enough.
Speaker 1: But when Clark's group met up with him a day
Speaker 1: or so later, Chicago Weea was with him, and one
Speaker 1: of the Shoshonee women recognized her as the girl who
Speaker 1: had been kidnapped many years before. The leader of the
Speaker 1: band turned out to be her brother. An alliance was
Speaker 1: formed between the expedition and the band, which then provided
Speaker 1: horses and guides. Because of instance like this, Lewis and
Speaker 1: Clark developed more and more respect for Chicago Weea. Simply
Speaker 1: having a woman with an infant signaled to those who
Speaker 1: they encountered along the way that they were not a
Speaker 1: war party. Tellingly, by the time they reached the Pacific coast,
Speaker 1: she got a vote in deciding whether or not the
Speaker 1: expedition would stay there for the winter of eighteen o
Speaker 1: five into eighteen o six, and when the group returned
Speaker 1: to Fort Mandan and North Dakota, Lewis and Clark recorded
Speaker 1: paying both the interpreter Charbonneau and the interpretress Chicago Wea.
Speaker 1: Adams said her work to the expedition became more and
Speaker 1: more evident as it went on. Her role the success
Speaker 1: of the expedition deserves all the legendary status that it has.
Speaker 1: After the expedition, Chicago Wea remained with Charbonneau, but we
Speaker 1: don't know much else, and she may have traveled to St.
Speaker 1: Louis with Charbonneau to deliver her son, John Baptiste, to Clark,
Speaker 1: who had offered to raise him and provide him with
Speaker 1: an education. She had a second child, a daughter, who
Speaker 1: she named Lizette, just months later, though Chicago Wea died
Speaker 1: after suffering from what was recorded as a putrid fever.
Speaker 1: A popular myth of the Wind River Indian Reservation in
Speaker 1: Wyoming says that chicago Weea lived there into her nineties
Speaker 1: and was buried at Fort Washaki, but that's been debunked.
Speaker 1: According to adams A, most reports show that she died
Speaker 1: in eighteen twelve. There are few documentary mentions of Chicagoea,
Speaker 1: says Gilman. A traveler who met her, commented that she
Speaker 1: was a sweet person, but offers just one sentence. A
Speaker 1: fur trader recorded her death in eighteen twelve and said
Speaker 1: she was the best woman at the fort. Everyone who
Speaker 1: discussed her had something good to say about her. Adams
Speaker 1: describes the Lewis and Clark expedition as overly successful. It
Speaker 1: was billed as a scientific exploration to learn about the
Speaker 1: newly acquired territory, which was largely unknown to colonists from
Speaker 1: England at the time. Jefferson hypothesized that the expedition might
Speaker 1: encounter mammoths or mastodons. It served a political purpose to
Speaker 1: to solidify the U. S government's claim to the area. Clearly,
Speaker 1: the expedition had far reaching ramifications, and Kagoa played a
Speaker 1: part in its success. However, Lewis and Clark attached little
Speaker 1: importance to her role. It was Nicholas Biddle who edited
Speaker 1: their journals for publication and interviewed Clark. Much of what
Speaker 1: is known about Chicago Weah comes from the Biddle interview
Speaker 1: rather than the journals, and Skagoa has an enhanced role
Speaker 1: in the eighteen fourteen published version because Biddle immediately saw
Speaker 1: that the public would be interested in her. Gilman said
Speaker 1: She's been used to symbolize various things over the years.
Speaker 1: She explains that, for one, Chicago Wea has been adopted
Speaker 1: as Native American women like Pocahontas, have been as a
Speaker 1: symbol of the amity with which indigenous people's collaborated with
Speaker 1: European colonists, as a sort of justification for the colonizer's actions.
Speaker 1: Because Native people, and particularly women, collaborated with them, these
Speaker 1: figures symbolize the union of two different cultures and become
Speaker 1: symbolic founders. Gilman said, they all become mythic, and that's
Speaker 1: what's actually going on for Icagoa. She is for the
Speaker 1: West what Pocahontas is for the East, and Gilman points
Speaker 1: out she's not just a figurative mother, but a literal
Speaker 1: mother figure She may be seen by some as a
Speaker 1: Lama lynch A style collaborationist, someone who was a facilitator
Speaker 1: of an invasion. Lam lynch A was the Mexican woman
Speaker 1: who played a key role in the Spanish conquest of
Speaker 1: the Aztec Empire by her Non Cortez. But Gilman points
Speaker 1: out that Lewis and Clark were not on a military
Speaker 1: expedition in the way that Cortes was, so those accusations
Speaker 1: shouldn't be leveled against her. Gilman said, I would like
Speaker 1: people to empathize with her. She was a person who
Speaker 1: found herself in a situation where she could contribute to history,
Speaker 1: and she lived up to the expectations that were placed
Speaker 1: on her. She showed remarkable fortitude and perseverance throughout the
Speaker 1: whole experience. Today's episode was written by Carrie Whitney and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff
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