Sacajawea Was Here

Sponsored by In Good Faith, Inc.

• Location: Montana
• Travel Type: Driving
• Tour Duration: 1 hour
• Language:

Welcome to the tour Sacajawea Was Here

From the remote Lemhi Pass, a mountain pass separating Idaho and Montana, you will travel east into Montana through areas familiar to the Northern Shoshone member of the Corps of Discovery, Sacajawea, whose role was critical to the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition of 1804-1806.

You will visit ancient landmarks such as Beaverhead Rock, Twin Buffalo Rocks, and the site where the twelve-year-old Sacajawea was captured by Hidatsa warriors in 1800. Northern Shoshone oral history offers fuller and richer accounts of familiar, historic sites largely described by non-Indians from non-Indian sources. Good as those are, they are more powerful after being repurposed by incorporating these oral history accounts that tie the topics and the sites more intimately to Sacajawea’s people. 

Travelers and online viewers will hear and see indigenous perspectives cloaked onto American frontier history at a time when these indigenous people were compelled to sign treaties that changed their ways of life forever. This tour includes rugged, storied mountain roads used by her people that are impassable in winter, and quaint and historic towns like Virginia City that are eager to share with tourists their connection to Sacajawea’s people. Extraordinary views await you on these roads that mingle historic, cultural, and geographic settings into a mosaic that pulls in additional color, texture, and humanity. For example, those who have driven north or south of Dillon, Montana, on Interstate 15 and have never taken note of the Twin Buffalo, their iconic image will remain with you after this tour.

For those who will linger on hiking and biking trails found in this area Sacajawea called home, recognize that they offer a setting that invites you to think about her capture, her return, and the subsequent role of her people in the country’s history—a history more meaningful when it is more inclusive.

As those people before us did, keep an eye out for wildlife, as this region is home to elk, deer, mountain lions and many other animals.