Sacajawea

Waldo created a momentous novel of epic proportion. That it took ten years to complete is understandable. The historical aspect of the trials and tribulations suffered by the First Nations at the hands of the early pioneers was well researched and authentic. Sacajawea, feminist, wisewoman and healer is not a character you can dismiss or forget. Waldo's depiction of the abused child, battered wife and grief-stricken mother is a tragic tale of courage. The end of the novel tore at my heart, my old grandmother was leaving me. She will live on beside me as I marvel at the sunset, and as I stand still and listen.

This book is not for the faint of heart or those who want a quick read. At 1328 pages for just the story and an additional 61 pages of notes this is a titan of a read. But every page is well worth it.

It starts out when Sacajawea is a young girl and covers her capture and enslavement by the Mandan tribe. While with the Mandans she is subjected to rape at around age 11 (the book makes it somewhat hard to pinpoint her age at times), learns the art of glass making, and then is eventually sold off to another tribe. This tribe is a lot kinder to her and she has a few easy years until she is lost in a wager to her future husband (the perverted Toussaint Charbonneau).

We next see Sacajawea pregnant with her first child (John Baptiste also known show more as Pomp) when she attracts the attention of Lewis and Clark. As her man Charbonneau is to be an interpreter for the expedition, her wit and intelligence cause Clark to ask for her to come along as well. He also reasons that a party traveling with a woman and baby will not look like a war party.

Regarding her travels with Lewis and Clark, while the travel west was covered extensively, the return was not given as much detail. Upon their journey they meet several local Indian tribes and the author seems to really hone in that all these people are fond of the native salmon, rotting or fresh, and the character's disdain for the meal. In all, I expected this to be a large part of the book when in reality it was only 300-400 pages worth of the book. While the rest of her life was definitely worth writing about, it seems like the author could have spent more time on this subject as it is one of the more well known parts of her life. The return back east lasted only a couple of chapters and didn't seem to give as much depth as everything else.

Upon her return from the expedition they settle peacefully in St Louis where Clark's wife teaches her to sew and embroider and they have no worry of starving in the lean winter months (something that is shown quite prevalently in other parts of the books when she is with her native Indian tribes).

One day, when the beatings from Charbonneau finally push her to the breaking point, she packs up her belongings and leaves and her ten year old son Baptiste stays with his father. She is taken in by a tribe of Comanche and remarries. Over the course of 26 years she has an additional five children, but only two out of them survive childhood.

When her husband dies she leaves and seeks out the white man, hoping to find her first born son. The rest of the book follows this journey until she's well into her eighties and has settled down with her daughters and grandchildren.

Sacajawea faced many hardships and Waldo's book explores many of them. It also faces her triumphs and her sorrows and really makes you believe you know everything she went through and can take a real peek at her life. Waldo also did a wonderful job of incorporating quotes and citations from numerous journals of the time at the beginning of each chapter. It provides factual background that helps make this fictional telling more believable. Each chapter starts out with an excerpt and she bases the next chapter loosely upon that excerpt, creating a story line for each chapter within the story itself. Her writing itself is very detailed and she seems to put a lot of emotion behind her words. show less

I have never read a book over a thousand pages long, but I could not put this one down.
Waldo not only introduces Sacajawea as the Indian woman who goes with Lewis and Clark expedition, but as the girl who almost dies herself going back to where they left her grandma, finding her dead and making sure the dead womans body is off the ground away from the hungry wolves. A girl who is captured by a different tribe of Indians that is foreign to her. A girl who grows into a strong woman and then a wise frail, old woman.
It was very interesting to learn about new tribes that are not often written about in the Historical Fiction genre. The Minnetares and Mandan were very interesting people. On the trip with Lewis and Clark several other new show more tribes were introduced. Learning about them was very interesting. The author regularly refers to actual, period writings. I felt a spoiler at times when a new chapter was introduced with the writings and I would get frustrated and not read them at all, perhaps if the author placed these at the end of the chapter it would have felt easier.
Also, there are clashing thoughts about when Sacajewea died. At that point in the book the author lists all of the reasons she was thought to have died young but instead would write on as if she had lived. At that point I almost wanted to stop reading, it felt like lies, but then she introduced new evidence that she may well have not been the indian woman who died years before.
I am glad that I continued on with the story and enjoyed reading about her time with the Comanche.
Sacajewa led a life of wonder, exploration, tragedy and triumph. The author melds her intense amount of research into a wonderfull story. The amount of notes at the end of the book is an incredible resource for the reader. I applaud Waldo for taking on this enormous task so that people like me could be entertained and educated at the same time. show less

I loved the first half of this book, the fictional account of Sacajawea's part in the Lewis & Clark expedition. It's a tremendous saga. The second half is more speculative, less exciting, but the first half is worth five stars. I later read a historical account of the expedition by Steven Ambrose, "Undaunted Courage," which was more about Lewis and Clark and less about Sacajawea. It gave me another picture of what the expedition was like. All in all, a fascinating subject.

I read this book many years ago and recently found it stored with other books. I remember being touched by the story and learning so much about a great woman. (If I didn't have so many books on my "to read" list, I would read it again.)

This is an amazing book. The author takes quotations from the Lewis and Clark diary for each chapter and then builds a fictional account of how this scene might have actually happened....amazing story.

It's a long read but you won't have any trouble picking the story back up again. We basically follow Sacajawea from birth to death.
Made an interesting tale.