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Summary: The story of the woman who is on the gold U.S. dollar
Review: When the US Mint came out with the Sacagawea Dollars (a.k.a. Golden Dollars, Sac Dollars or Goldies) but first thought two thoughts were that she was an interesting choice to honor on a coin and that bad blood between Democrats and Republicans probably means that they will never agree to put the face of a new president on an American coin. Most people with a rudimentary knowledge of American history may well know that Sacagawea was the Native American guide who helped Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition to explore a route to the Pacific Ocean. However, they might not know that Sacagawea carried her infant son and was accompanied by her French fur trader husband as she helped Lewis and Clark find the safest paths through the western region that President Thomas Jefferson had acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase. This volume for the Explorers of New Worlds series tells the story of "Sacagawea: Guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition."Hal Marcovitz begins with a photograph of the marker on the Wyoming prairie that is believe to be the grave of Sacagawea and the story of an old woman who died in 1884 who claimed to be the same woman who guided Lewis and Clark across North America. However, in 1812 a fur trader recorded the death of Sacagawea in his diary at Fort Manuel in South Dakota. Consequently, young readers are confronted first with a mystery, and then with the story of the woman who was considered a heroine even in the 19th century. Marcovitz tells what is known about the youth of Sacagawea, who was raised among the Shoshonis in what is now Idaho (Lewis and Clark translated her named as "Bird Woman" and used 14 different spellings for her name in their guide). When Jefferson ordered Lewis and Clark to explore the Missouri River and find a course to the Pacific, their Corps of Discovery would encounter Sacagawea when they reached Montana. Making excellent use of the actually diaries of Lewis and Clark, Marcovitz to tell of Sacagawea's contributions to the expedition and to show of their importance. For example, the Bozeman Pass that she showed the explorers would end up being the route the Northern Pacific Railroad would use years later. After the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis, Clark offered to help Sacagawea's son get an education as thanks for her help. Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the baby who appears on the dollar coin, lived with Clark who sent him to school where he learned to speak several languages and spent several years in Europe as the traveling companion of a German prince. Marcovitz returns to the mystery of what happened to Sacagawea, her husband, and her children, at the end of this book, where he covers the different legends and historical evidence regarding their fate. However, the final chapter explains the reasons why Sacagawea would be honored on the new dollar coin, listing all the places where plaques, tablets, and statues commemorating her can be found around the country. Marcovitz even talks about the other women considered for the coin to replace Susan B. Anthony (Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Betsy Ross--apparently the Mint was not aware Mother Parks was still alive). So this informative look at Sacagawea not only teaches young readers about her life, but also about how the government goes about honoring great Americans. "Sacagawea: Guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition" is illustrated with both historic drawings and photographs, as well as more contemporary paintings and photographs of the people and places covered in this book. The back of the book includes a Chronology, Glossary, a short list of books for Further Reading, and an Index. Other volumes in the Explorers of New World series look at not only those who sailed to the New World, such as Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, but also those who forged news routes around the world, such as Marco Polo and Daniel Boone, and those who met vertical challenges, both upward, in the case of Sir Edmund Hillary and the Apollo Astronauts, and downward, as with Jacques Cousteau.
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