Other Native Americans called the Shoshone "Snakes," associating them with the Snake River of their homeland. The Shoshone believed wolves, not snakes, were their ancestors and claimed a close association with coyotes and dogs. The Shoshone tribes called themselves Nermenuh, or "People." In her native language, Sacagawea's name means "boat pusher" or "boat launcher." Not much is known of her personal life until shereached her early teens and became a popular figure in the history of the American West.
Around the year 1800, Sacagawea traveled eastward across the Rockies with her family and tribe to the Three Forks area of the Missouri River in Montana. Sacagawea's band was camped between the present-day town locations of Butte and Bozeman, Montana, when they encountered a group of Hidatsa warriors. The Shoshone were outnumbered, and Sacagawea was among those captured. She was taken to live with the Hidatsa in their Knife River village near what is now Bismarck, North Dakota. In the Hidatsa language, Sacagawea's name means "Bird Woman." Sacagawea's name has alternately been spelled Sakakawea and Sacajawea.
Toussaint Charbonneau (1758–1843) was a French Canadian fur trader who had been living with the Hidatsa in their earthen lodges along the Knife River for about eight years.
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