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The Bird-woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Supplementary Reader for First and Second Grades

The Bird-woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Supplementary Reader for First and Second Grades

by Katherine Chandler

“The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition” by Katherine Chandler is a historical account written in the early 20th century. This book serves as a supplementary reader designed for first and second-grade students, recounting the journey of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with a focus on Sacajawea, an indigenous woman who played a crucial role in guiding the explorers through uncharted territory. The narrative is based on true events documented in the Lewis and Clark Journals, making it both educational and engaging for young readers. The story follows Sacajawea from her early life with the Snake Indians to her joining the expedition alongside Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. After being taken from her tribe, she marries a French trapper and eventually becomes an essential member of the expedition as they journey across the American wilderness. Sacajawea’s knowledge of the land and her ability to communicate with different tribes help the party navigate challenges and establish favorable relations with various Indigenous peoples they encounter. Her contributions range from logistical support to practical survival skills, such as finding food sources and medicine for her fellow travelers. Through her story, readers gain insight into the trials faced by the expedition and the significant impact of Sacajawea, often referred to as the “Bird-Woman,” on their successful journey.

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books, history, The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

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The Bird-woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: part 3

Vocabulary words

  • surprised
  • hair
  • painted
  • stranger
  • finger
  • water
  • helped
  • York

THE BLACK MAN

Captain Clark had his black man, York, with him.
The Indians were always surprised to see the black man.
They thought he was stranger than the white men.
One Mandan chief said, “This is a white man painted black.”
He wet his finger and tried to wash the black off York’s skin.
The black would not come off.
Then York took off his hat.
The chief had not seen such hair before.
Then the chief said, “You are not like a white man.
You are a black man.”
The Indians told each other of this black man.
They came from far to see him.
York helped make them friends with the whites.
The captains named a river for York.
The river had only a little water in it.
They named it York’s Dry River.

Vocabulary Words

  • basket
  • laugh
  • weeks
  • born
  • sugar

SACAJAWEA’S BABY.

At Fort Mandan, Sacajawea’s baby boy was born.
He was only eight weeks old when the white men began to go to the far West.
Sacajawea made a basket of skins for her baby.
She put it on her back.
The baby could sleep in the basket as Sacajawea walked.
The soldiers liked the baby.
They gave it sugar.
They made it playthings of wood.
They danced to make it laugh.
Indian babies do not laugh much and they do not cry much.
Once in the West the baby was ill.
Then the soldiers camped for some days.
They were very still.
Captain Lewis gave the baby medicine.
This made the baby well again.
Then the men laughed.
They said, “Let us sing and dance for the baby.”
The baby laughed as it looked at the men.

Vocabulary words

  • April
  • party
  • shot
  • broke
  • shoot
  • warm

The warm April sun broke up the ice in the Missouri River.
Then the party got into their boats and rowed on up the river.
From this time on, Sacajawea and her baby were a help to the soldiers.
When the Indians saw a woman and a baby with the men, they knew it was
not a war party.
Indians would not take a woman and baby to war.
Only men go to war.
The Indians did not shoot at the men.
They came up to see what they wanted.
If Sacajawea had not been there, they would have shot the white men.
The Indians thought that all strangers wanted war.
They thought this until the strangers showed that they were friends.

The Bird-woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Supplementary Reader for First and Second Grades

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THE BIRD-WOMAN OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION part 2

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.

The Bird-woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Supplementary Reader for First and Second Grades

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The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: First three sections

Vocabulary words:

  • ago              
  • hundred                  
  • Sacajawea              
  • years

THE BIRD-WOMAN

The Bird-Woman was an Indian.
She showed the white men the way into the West.
There were no roads to the West then.
That was one hundred years ago.
This Indian woman took the white men across streams.
She took them over hills.
She took them through bushes.
She seemed to find her way as a bird does.
The white men said, “She goes like a bird.
We will call her the Bird-Woman.”
Her Indian name was Sacajawea.

Vocabulary Words:

  • Clark
  • American                  
  • Lewis                  
  • met            
  • captains            
  • part                              
  • soldiers              
  • twenty-nine
  • people              
  • Missouri River

WHO THE WHITE MEN WERE.

The white men Sacajawea went with were soldiers.
There were twenty-nine soldiers.
There were two captains.
The name of one captain was Lewis.
The name of the other captain was Clark.
They were American soldiers.

1

They carried the American flag into the West.
No white men knew about that part of the West then.
The captains wished to learn all about the West.
They wished to tell the people in the East about it.
They had been going West a long time before they met Sacajawea.
They had rowed up the Missouri River.
They had come to many little streams.
They did not know what the Indians called these streams.
So they gave them new names for the white men.

Vocabulary Words:

  • camp
  • Fourth of July
  • Mandan
  • cheered
  • Frenchman
  • rested
  • ice
  • Independence Creek
  • husband
  • Kansas
  • snow

On Fourth of July they named one stream Fourth of July Creek.
They named another Independence Creek.
We still call this stream by that name.
You can find it on the map of Kansas.
On Fourth of July the men rested.
The soldier who woke first fired a gun.
Then they all woke up and cheered for the Fourth of July.
At night they fired another gun.
Then the soldiers danced around the camp fire.
After a time the ice and snow would not let them go on.
They made a winter camp near the Mandan Indians.
Here they met Sacajawea and her husband.
Her husband was a Frenchman who knew a little about the West.
Sacajawea was the only one there who had been to the far West.
Lewis and Clark told the Frenchman they would pay him to go with them.
He said he would go.
Then he and Sacajawea came to live at the soldiers’ camp.

The Bird-woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Supplementary Reader for First and Second Grades

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