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Sacagawea (also Sakakawea, Sacajawea) (c. 1788 – December 20, 1812; see below for other theories about her death) was a Shoshone woman who accompanied the Corps of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their exploration of the Western United States, traveling thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean between 1804 and 1806. She was nicknamed Janey by Clark.^[1]

Reliable historical information about Sacagawea is extremely limited, but she has become an important part of the Lewis and Clark mythology in the public imagination. The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early twentieth century adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to spread the story of her accomplishments.^[2]

The Sacagawea dollar coin issued by the United States Mint depicts Sacagawea and her son, Jean Baptiste. The face on the coin was modeled on a modern Shoshone-Bannock woman named Randy'L He-dow Teton; no contemporary image of Sacagawea exists.