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When Sacagawea was born, George Washington was president, and the country was just 13 states along the Atlantic Coast. But all that would soon change, and quickly.
In 1801, Thomas Jefferson became president. He dreamed of a nation that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He gave little thought to the Native Americans who had lived on this land for thousands of years. But the European nations that had claimed various parts of the West worried him. He was especially worried about France, which had recently bought from Spain a huge piece of land called Louisiana. The important port of New Orleans was at the southern tip of this land. Jefferson sent a representative to France to try to get the French leader, Napoléon, to sell New Orleans to the United States. Jefferson got way more than he bargained for.
▲ Napoléon wanted to build an empire in Europe and beyond. But he didn’t have the money to do battle in both Europe and America. To Jefferson’s surprise, Napoléon sold New Orleans. He also sold the U.S. all the rest of the Louisiana Territory for $15 million (about four cents per acre). This 1803 purchase doubled the size of the U.S.
◀ It wasn’t only France that worried Jefferson. Spain, Russia, and Britain all claimed territory in the U.S. and Canada. In the summer of 1793, Scotsman Alexander Mackenzie had traveled from central Canada all the way to the Pacific Coast. He claimed the Pacific Northwest for Britain. Jefferson needed to put a U.S. presence in the West, and fast!
▲ Jefferson chose his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to explore the new territory. Lewis picked William Clark as his co-captain. Lewis and Clark had served together in the army. They put together a group of volunteers and collected the necessary supplies. They planned to sail up the Missouri River as far as possible. Then they would search for a land route to the Pacific. They would make maps and create friendly relations with the Native Americans they met. They also would collect specimens of new animal and plant life, and record their observations.
◀ Lewis and Clark decided the expedition should spend the winter months near the friendly Mandan and Hidatsa villages. That is where Sacagawea and Charbonneau made their home.
▲ Corps of Discovery Expedition
On May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition set off from Wood River, Missouri. The expedition was officially known as the Corps of Discovery. It had about 40 members. They included Clark’s slave, York, and Lewis’s huge Newfoundland dog, Seaman.
