articlesforchristians

Vocabulary

• belonged
• roots tribe
• married
• Snake
• twelve
• Rocky Mountains
• thought
• war

WHY SACAJAWEA WENT WEST.

Sacajawea belonged in the West.
Her tribe was called the Snake Indians.
They lived in the Rocky Mountains.
Sacajawea lived in the Mountains until she was twelve years old.
Then her tribe went to war with the Mandans from the East.
One day Sacajawea and some other girls were getting roots.
They were down by a stream.
Some Mandans came upon them.
The girls ran fast to get away.

Sacajawea ran into the stream.
An Indian caught her.
He took her up on his horse.
He carried her away to the East, to the country of the Mandans.
There she married the Frenchman.
There the Americans found her.
She was glad when her husband said he would go West with Lewis and Clark.
She thought she would see her own tribe again.

Vocabulary words

• animals
• country
• friends
• medicine
• ready
• chiefs
• frozen
• plants
• wrote
• fort
• sweat house

AT FORT MANDAN

The soldiers called their winter camp Fort Mandan. They had a hard winter there.
It was so cold that many men were ill.
They had no time to be ill.
They had to work to be ready to go West when Spring opened.
The captains wrote in their books about the Indians and animals and plants they had seen.
They made maps of the country they had come through.
They had long talks with the Indian chiefs.
They made friends with the Indians by giving them medicine.
An Indian boy had his feet frozen near the soldiers’ camp.
The captains kept him until his feet were well again.
His people all came and thanked the captains.

The Indians told each other about the white men’s medicine.
They said, “The white men’s medicine is better than our sweat-house.”
So they came for miles to the white camp to get the medicine.
They gave the captains food.
They wanted to be friends with them.

Vocabulary Words

• arrows
• dinner
• hunted
• money
• beads
• fiddle
• knives
• pieces
• blankets
• gallons
• medals
• stove

The soldiers hunted animals for food and for their skins.
One soldier cut an old stove into pieces.
The Indians wanted these pieces to make arrows and knives.
They would give eight gallons of corn for one piece.
The Indians did not know what money was.
The captains did not carry money with them.
They took flags and medals, knives and blankets, looking-glasses and beads, and many other things.
With these they could get food from the Indians.
On Christmas Day, 1804, the soldiers put the American flag up over the fort.
They told the Indians not to come to see them on that day.
They said it was the best day of their year.
It was a cold day, with much ice and snow.
They had a good dinner and after dinner the soldiers danced.
On New Year’s Day, 1805, they fired off all their guns.
The captains let the soldiers go to the Mandan camp.
They took their fiddle and danced for the Indians.
One soldier danced on his hands with his head down.
The Indians liked this dancing very much.
They gave the soldiers some corn and some skins.