The Lost Journals of Sacajewea
The story of Sacajewea is a legend that looms large in the history of the United States. But there is very little actually known about her life and her as an individual. Debra Magpie Earling brings Sacajewea, the young girl, woman, and mother, to life in this fictional tale of her youth. Reading her story is like reading poetry. The prose shifts and changes so that it feels like entering a space that is at once familiar and utterly strange.
The story begins when she is just seven years old, learning the old ways of survival from her elders in the land of the Lemhi Shoshone. After her village is attacked, she is among those stolen and taken to the Mandan trading settlement. There she and a friend are gambled away to the fur trapper Charbonneau. Life with him is a constant struggle for survival and made possible only with the help of the friendships she cultivates with others in the community. The majority of the book is focused on her life before the infamous expedition with Lewis and Clark. It has the effect of reclaiming her story from the realm of men and offering a new, powerful, almost dreamlike perspective.
Earling’s use of language is exquisite and exceptionally skillful. The language shifts and sharpens along with the moods and experiences of Sacajewea. Although she uses some non-standard grammatical structures, it in no way hindered my understanding. She does have a brief author’s note at the beginning that explains a few of her choices. This is a fantastic, raw, and utterly mesmerizing story. If you love to collect beautiful quotes as you read, this one will fill your notebook.
