Sacagawea Speaks
 Joyce Badgley Hunsaker
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 A TwoDot Book/Globe Pequot Press
  ISBN: 1585920797


Beyond the Shining Mountains with Lewis & Clark. An intimate portrayal of the mythic Bird Woman who accompanied those American explorers into history.

Written from Sacagawea's perspective, this non-fiction book weaves tribal oral traditions, scholarly research, historical anecdotes & a multitude of images into a classically told story, that sings with beauty & solemn endurance.

Complete with a Shoshoni vocabulary, quotations from the Lewis & Clark journals, interpretive notes, a timeline, biographical sketches of Sacagawea, her family & members of the Corps of Discovery, together with over 100 photographs & illustrations.

Come, sit down & listen to an impeccable storyteller from another time -- when ordinary people, our forefathers, set out from our nation's new capitol for the unexplored western reaches of our continent, there to discover new people, new animals & a wondrous topography.

Come follow in the footsteps of a young displaced Shoshoni woman & mother, with courage to spare, an inate knowledge of the land & particular powers of observation.

Come back into our past, where the game was plentiful, the rivers untouched & the First People lived their lives in productive respect for the land.

“Sacagawea was an ordinary tribal woman who led an extraordinary life, not only during her trek with the Corps of Discovery, but from the time when, as a young girl, she was taken from the Shoshoni by those Lewis and Clark called Minnetaree...Her life left its imprint on history. Her life leaves its imprint on us today.”

Imbued within a lyrical talking style, each page offers morsels of everyday tribal life, as Readers listen to Sacagawea's memories, stories, explanations & interpretations. From how the white men misunderstood the hand sign which described her tribal name to how the First People spoke to each other. From when Sacagawea is taken prisoner by a warring clan to when she, as wife to the expedition scout Charbonneau, is delivered of her son. From the contents of Thomas Jefferson's Medicine Chest to the animals they came upon on & the uses for their hides. From full page photographs of the daunting landscape over which they trod to the expedition's supply list.

Sacagawea Speaks is an awesome experience! Eloquent, elegant, filled with information & quirky historical footnotes, as well as mini-glossaries of all the new Shoshoni words given.

With photographs of the landscape, replicas of the tools & clothes of the time, it is a treasure trove -- like opening your great-grandmother's cedar chest & her being there to tell you of her adventures.

I sincerely hope that with its next printing, the author will cut a CD of her speaking the stories & the words of her tongue.

An enchanting, unique, & wonder-filled book for all ages, for all times. Destined to become a family heirloom.

Joyce Badgley Hunsaker is a living history researcher, performer, scriptor, writer & consultant. Since 1993, she has given over 2000 live performances nationwide of her costumed presentation, Sacagawea. She has appeared by invitation at the Smithsonian, the National Park Service, the U.S. Congress, & the National Geographic Society, as well as on television & radio. Hunsaker, a native Oregonian, grew up in the shadow of Sacajawea Peak.

More from Joyce Badgley Hunsaker: National Historic Oregon Trail Center: The Story Behind the Scenery.
(11/03/02)

Rebecca