sacagawea

noun

1. Bird Woman, 1787?–1812?, Shoshone guide and interpreter: accompanied Lewis and Clark expedition 1804–05.

also Sacajawea, name of the Shoshoni woman who accompanied the Lewis & Clark expedition. She had been a captive among the Hidatsas (a Siouan people), and her Hidatsa name was tsaka’aka wi’a, lit. ‘bird woman’ (Hartley, 2002). Her Shoshoni name, rendered as Sacajawea and translated ‘boat launcher,’ may have been a folk-etymological transformation of the Hidatsa term (Shaul, 1972). [Bright] Her image appeared on U.S. dollar coins from 2000. A young Native American woman who guided Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition to explore territory gained through the Louisiana Purchase. (See Lewis and Clark expedition.)