Our city park is named after Sacajawea.
The fact that she was very young at the time she traveled with the Corps of Discovery is not disputed. Just how young is a matter of some consternation among scholars.
In the words of P. R. Koch... "we have conflicting accounts of her birth, parentage, early life, the circumstances of her marriage, her life after the expedition returned, her children, the circumstances of her death, and the whereabouts of her remains."
What we do know is that several times she was of inestimable help to the success of the endeavor. She was able to persuade a Shoshoni chief (who turned out to be her brother) to sell horses to the group which allowed them to cross the Bitterroot Mountains. She showed them edible plants & remembered the country they traveled through from her very early childhood, so she was able to guide and interpret.
She was multi-lingual speaking Hidatsa (the language of the tribe that kidnapped her), Shoshone (her mother tongue), English (the expedition language), and probably French (the language of the French Canadian trapper who bought her from the Hidatsa to be one of his wives).
She was a bridge between cultures.
In their journals, Lewis and Clark express admiration and gratitude for her help. William Clark became a patron of her children both before and after her death.
I love living in a city where our beautiful park with its lagoon along the Yellowstone River is named for the intrepid, intelligent, resourceful Sacajawea.