That lady

The State Historical Society of North Dakota now has an exhibit detailing the history of the 100-year-old statue out front of its Heritage Center. The statue is of the  Indian woman who helped Lewis & Clark.

There are two things about the exhibit that stand out for me:

First, there is the story of Mink, the granddaughter of Sakakawea, who modeled for the statue.  I think this is Mink in this photo.  Clearly the artist confused Mink with the Land O’ Lakes Indian girl. That’s nice, but I think Mink would have made for a more artistic and interesting beauty had the sculpture been a little truer to the actual model.

Second, there is, as always, a long discussion of the proper way to pronounce Sakakawea’s name. Several spellings exist in the L&C journals. Clark just called her Janie–no help at all there.

I prefer the name the children of North Dakota give her as they crowd in the Heritage Center for the penny-crushing machine. In fact I can’t even look at her any more and not hear the local kids’ Madonna-like name for her. To them, she’s not Sakagawea or Sakajawea. She’s  just:  ”That lady with a baby.”