The beautiful and moving story of a Shoshone Indian girl whose winged moccasins carried her over the shining mountains, the first woman to cross the Rockies, as interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Sacajawea was only ten when her father, a Shoshone Chief, was killed by a hostile tribe. She was taken prisoner and sold into slavery. During the next several years she was traded from one tribe to another until, while a slave of the Mandans and still not twenty, she attracted the attention of Toussaint Charbonneau, a trapper, and became his wife.

When the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the headwaters of the Missouri, they needed a guide who knew the country and the language of the western tribes. Charbonneau told the explorers about his young wife, and although they did not favor taking a woman on such a dangerous trip, they were so impressed by her bearing, her knowledge of the region and the dialects of the Indians, they decided to take both of them along.

Sacajawea proved an excellent guide—faithful, loyal and indispensable. She secured the friendship of unfriendly Indians, and reunited with her brother, now a Chief of the Shoshones, she was able to secure horses and provisions for the expedition. With her little son Baptiste strapped to her back, she endured the severe hardships of the journey and gained the respect of every man on the expedition. She never complained, for she worshiped Clark who seemed to understand the restlessness within her, the desire for knowledge, the yearning for new places.

When the expedition was over, Sacajawea settled in St. Louis so that Baptiste could attend school, and here she learned French and English, both of which proved valuable later in life when she returned to her own people and became active in Indian affairs.

Throughout the great change when the Indian hunting and camping grounds grew smaller, Sacajawea was an ambassador without portfolio for the white man among her own people to whom she gave wise advice and good counsel. A brave, noble, proud and intelligent woman, she was highly honored by the white man as well as by the Indians, at a time when a squaw had no voice in the Council of Chiefs.

Her winged moccasins finally came to rest when Sacajawea died in her late nineties. Mrs. Farnsworth has written a poignant story that will stir the heart and the emotion of every reader. The beautiful illustrations by Lorence Bjorklund capture the mood and the dramatic impact of the book.

From the book