Three Forks

When they arrived at the three forks, all three were much smaller streams so they declared the Missouri River ending and named all three, the Gallatin (after the Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin), the Madison (after Secretary of State James Madison), and the Jefferson, “in honor of that illustrious personage Thomas Jefferson, the author of our enterprise.”

Here Sacagawea began to recognize landmarks and told the captains that this was where she had been kidnapped.  She also was able to tell them that the Jefferson River was the one to follow toward where her tribe could be found.  The river is shallow and swift and difficult for the men to drag their canoes upstream.  Sacagawea recognizes another landmark – Beaverhead Rock, north of present-day Dillon, Montana – and says they are nearing the river’s headwaters and home of her people, the Shoshones.  From this point the name of the river changes to the Beaverhead River on today's map.  Near here they did find the Shoshone tribe and one of the first squaws that they met was a girl that had been captured the same time as Sacagawea but she had escaped her captor and returned to her tribe.  It was a joyous and emotional reunion for the two girls.  Later they found that the chief of the tribe was in fact Sacagawea's brother which made the bartering for horses much easier than expected.  They also arranged for one man, they called "old Toby" from the tribe to guide them across the divide to the beginnings of the Columbia River.

According to their customs Sacagawea had been betrothed to a brave when her father had been given a horse while she was young and they were to be wed when she became a woman.  That brave came to claim his bride but when he saw that she had a baby with another man he no longer wanted her.