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Secondary sourceSculpture1905

Sacajawea and Jean-Baptiste

Alice Cooper · 1905

A 1905 bronze statue in Portland, Oregon, showing Sacagawea carrying her infant son, commissioned by women for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.

This statue commemorates Sacagawea and shows how early 20th-century suffragists turned her into a symbol of women's achievement.

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Bronze statue of a woman in a long, draped garment and head covering, pointing her right arm outward, with a small child on her back, standing on a green-patinated base set on a rough rock pedestal. Tall evergreen trees and bare branches are behind it. A plaque is on the rock at lower right.
Alice Cooper, Sacajawea and Jean-Baptiste, 1905. Washington Park, Portland, Oregon.

About this source

What it is

This bronze sculpture by Alice Cooper depicts Sacagawea with her son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on her back. It was commissioned by the Committee of Portland Women for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition and unveiled that year, later moved to Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, where it still stands.

Why it matters

The statue honored Sacagawea as 'the only woman in the Lewis and Clark Expedition' and as a symbol of pioneer motherhood. Its unveiling was attended by suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Abigail Scott Duniway, and Anna Howard Shaw, showing how the women's movement adopted Sacagawea as an emblem of female courage and contribution. Alice Cooper was the first woman artist represented in Portland's public sculpture collection.

Look closer

  • Why do you think suffragists chose Sacagawea as a symbol for their cause?
  • What does the statue's pose—pointing westward—suggest about how the sculptor wanted viewers to see her role?
  • How might this image differ from how Sacagawea's own community remembered her?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sacajawea on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Diary entry

Primary source

Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark · 1804–1806

Handwritten manuscript page in brown ink on aged paper, numbered 7 in the top right corner, with many words struck through and revised. The text describes travel to the forks of Jefferson's river, meeting Captain Lewis, and dealings with Shoshone natives and a mountain crossing.Letter

Primary source

William Clark's Letter to Toussaint Charbonneau

William Clark · 20 August 1806

Book

Secondary source

The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark

Eva Emery Dye · 1902

Bronze statue of a woman standing on a pedestal in a stone-walled hall. She wears a long draped dress and shawl, holds a child on her back, and gazes upward. A plaque reads North Dakota, Sakakawea, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806.Sculpture

Secondary source

Sakakawea

Leonard Crunelle · 1914 (recast 2003)

Reverse side of a gold-colored US one dollar coin. Around the rim: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and ONE DOLLAR. Center: an eagle in flight facing left, with wings spread, above the words E PLURIBUS UNUM. Ring of stars along the edges.Artifact

Secondary source

Sacagawea Dollar

Glenna Goodacre · 2000

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