When we set out on our own expedition to find out how and why Lewis and Clark treated Sacagawea as they did, we expected to find a lot of usuable resources concerning both Sacagawea and the American culture of which Lewis and Clark were a part.  We wrongly assumed that this information would be easily accessible.
 
    The relative lack of portrayals from the turn of the nineteenth century speaks to the lack of significant interaction between the two American cultures at that time: the American Indian nations and the inhabitants of the East Coast.  Most Easterners were ignorant of the cultural complexities of the Indian peoples. When they did interact, the majority of the contact was between men.  Within their own cultures, Indian women were oppressed, and deemed inferior. Rarely were they permitted to engage with the outside world. This made it very difficult for artists or writers to experience the woman's aspect of American Indian culture and portray it accurately.

    Because there was very little exploration of the depths of the Indian woman's character, many authors of the time took artistic license and created for themselves their own versions of American Indian women. These shallow stereotypes fell into two categories:  an idealized and romanticized version  -- the "noble savagress," and one of the brutish animal incapable of human sensitivity. We found that some artists were able to rise above these two categories and remain unbiased.  Those with unbiased views were the artists who experienced or understood more fully the intricacies of Indian culture. Again the lack of resources inhibited us -- we could not determine some artists' perceptions of American Indian women. Included in this "unknown" category are Lewis and Clark.

    Although Sacagawea was mentioned infrequently in Lewis and Clark's journals, she has, ironically, become a national icon. Today many Americans hold her up as a symbol of all American women, and all American Indians.  Just as some artists of the nineteenth century idealized Indian women, the tendency today is to glorify Sacagawea.  Because there is so little written or known about any American Indian women of her day, Sacagawea has become a -- or even "the" -- quintessential American heroine.