9. Sacagawea was an interpreter, but not a guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Sacagawea joined the Corps of Discovery when Meriwether Lewis learned of her ability to speak the language of the tribes they expected to encounter near the Columbia River. She was one of two “wives” of French Canadian trapper Philippe Charbonneau, and her help to the expedition was noted by both Lewis and Clark in their journals, though neither indicated that she served as a guide as legend attests. The myth of her leading the Corps of Discovery to the safe completion of its mission emerged during the peak of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States, and was reinforced through romantic films and literature.