Sacajawea was a Shoshone Amerindian who served as a guide and interpreter on the Lewis and Clark expedition to the North American Pacific coast.
Sacajawea belonged to the Shoshone tribe, and its original name is thought to be Boinaiv. Around 1800, she was captured by a faction of Hidatsa Indians, enemies of her tribe, and taken to their villages near the modern city of Bismarck in North Dakota. These Indians gave her the name of Sacajawea, meaning "woman-bird".
Sacajawea and another Shoshone Indian would eventually be sold into slavery by French-Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau, who lived among the Hidatsas. In 1804 Charbonneau married the two women, following local customs.