Customer Reviews

Sacajawea

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I've had SACAJAWEA: Her True Story for a day-and-a-half and I've read it twice. I've known her to be the most memorialized female in American history and my interest has been expanded because now her image is on the very ubiquitous Year 2000 Golden Dollar Coin. But historians have muddled my mind because about half of them claim she died in 1812 in South Dakota and the other half claim she died in 1884 in Wyoming. And where is she buried? Better than anything that has gone before, Mr. Haney's book, complete with eighteen pages of footnotes and documentations, answers those questions to my satisfaction. Therefore, this summer I plan to visit her grave on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, the only place she has been buried since she died on April 9th, 1884. In addition to its historical importance, I believe that Mr. Haney's new book is easily the most loving portrait of Sacajawea that I have ever read. I also agree with him that she deserves every memorial that has ever been dedicated to her, including the new Golden Dollar Coin.

I've been enchanted with Sacajawea for forty years, all my adult life. I am now enchanted with Rich Haney's book SACAJAWEA: Her True Story, which I think is the definitive book regarding the very important questions of when she died and where she is buried. Most people, it seems, agree with me and with Mr. Haney's conclusions that she died in 1884 and is buried on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and that is was another Shoshoni, Otter Woman, that died in 1812 in South Dakota...[T]he very first two sentences of Mr. Haney's book, the Prologue, states very plainly: "This in not an attempt to tell Sacajawea's story in chronological order, because the basic facts have been enumerated many times across two centuries. Rather, I endeavor to elaborate on the reasons many white historians erroneously maintain that she died in 1812 at Fort Manuel in South Dakota, although her Shoshoni people rightfully claim she died in 1884 on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation, her final resting place." With that defining parameter, Mr. Haney successfully separates his book from all other Sacajawea books, most of which have merely added to the mystery as to when Sacajawea died and where she is buried. Mr. Haney, better than any other Sacajawea biographer, clears up that mystery by starkly corroborating the Oral/Traditional History of the Shoshones with a plethora of documentation from the white world, including the testimony of people such as the U. S. Government's investigator, Dr. Charles Eastman; John Roberts, the preacher who knew her and buried her; Mormons who interacted closely with the Shoshones; and a bevy of white people who lived and/or worked on the Wind River Reservation during the years Sacajawea lived and died there. At the same time, Mr. Haney minutely points out how and why many white historians, including Stephen Ambrose, mistook Otter Woman's death at Fort Manuel in 1812 as being the death of Sacajawea. To pull this off, Mr. Haney, as he outlined in the Prologue, reviewed various accounts of Sacajawea's life, explaining where those accounts were similar and where they differed and then discussing the nuances before proving that, essentially, the Shoshones themselves have been totally correct in unwaveringly mandating Sacajawea's life and death. The "repetitive" style, complete with an astute explanation of how the nuances agreed or disagreed with the Shoshones, is exactly what convinced me that Sacajawea's own people indeed know exactly when she died -- April 9th, 1884 -- and exactly where she is buried, on the Wind River Reservation. ...Mr. Haney vividly explains the cultures of the Plains Indians -- which included repeated raids by rival tribes to raid Shoshoni villages for the express purpose of capturing Shoshoni girls... Mr. Haney's version of Sacajawea's reaction to being captured precisely parallels the views of the Plains Indians, as he documents. ...I've read the book three times and ...discovered... only beautifully written, markedly lucid sentences. By contrast, any "editor" would find Anonymous's sentences replete with "rough grammar" and misspelled words. Anonymous, for example, spells "when" as "whan." Also, Anonymous obviously doesn't know much about Sacajawea. He/she, for example, confuses "Fort Mandan" with Fort Manuel concerning where Otter Woman died. Well, Mr. Haney obviously does know more than a little bit about Sacajawea, including when she died and where she is buried. I believe...Mr. Haney's refreshing and insightful biography of America's most memorialized female. ...I am not Anonymous in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Year 2000 Golden Dollar Coin rekindled my interest in Sacajawea and in discussing it with a friend I was informed of Rich Haney's new book entitled SACAJAWEA: Her True Story. I exerted some effort to secure a copy and I now prize it like no other. Beautifully written and superbly documented, I believe it is a vastly important book that, to my satisfaction, delineates 1884 and the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming as the time and place of Sacajawea's death, and the time and place of her burial. I had been skeptical of claims by noted historians such as Steven Ambrose and Ken Burns that Sacajawea died in 1812 in South Dakota, and Rich Haney does the best job of challening that fallacy. And whether Sacajawea died in 1812 or in 1884, and where she is buried, is, I think vastly important. After all, she was already by far the most memorialized female in American history, even prior to the Year 2000 Golden Dollar Coin that will forever bear her image. This little book is a treasure for both Sacajawea and history buffs, like me.

SACAJAWEA: Her True Story is a brilliant, thought-provoking biography of Sacajawea, America's most memorialized female. The sheer tenderness of the author's affection for his subject contrasts sharply with his rebukes of her perceived antagonists -- including her adopted state of Wyoming for not embracing her properly and noted historians such as Steven Ambrose for claiming she died in 1812 in South Dakota. The author's documentation that Sacajawea died in 1884 and is buried in Wyoming seems quite convincing, pending better documentation than Ambrose and others have provided regarding the 1812 South Dakota theory. The fact that the U. S. Government, which funded an investigation, and her own Shoshoni people agree with Mr. Haney is also quite persuasive, as is the fact that the only Sacajawea tombstone, listing her death as April 9th, 1884, is on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. I'd like to see that grave, unless Ambrose can convince me that it's not there or that it's inaccurate. Simply awesome!

The Sunday, August 13th, 2000, Denver Post had a review of SACAJAWEA: Her True Story by its Nonfiction Editor Sandra Dallas. Ms. Dallas wrote: "Every now and then, a book comes along that challenges historical 'fact' and does it well enough to make you wonder. Did Butch Cassidy die in Bolivia, or did he wind up as a dentist in Seattle? Was Billy the Kid really shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett, or did he die an old man in a little town in New Mexico? Now comes Rich Haney who claims in SACAJAWEA: Her True Story that the Lewis and Clark guide did not die at Fort Manuel in 1812, as most historians claim, but married an Indian named Jirk Meat, lived until 1884 and is buried on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Haney makes a compelling case, citing a number of Indian sources. The 'Snake squaw' (as she was described) who died in 1812 was indeed the wife of Charbonneau, Sacajawea's husband. But he had several wives. The dead woman was Otter Woman, another wife, Haney says. That makes sense. A one-time Virginia television sportscaster, Haney is passionate about his subject. He has a credible argument...

SACAJAWEA: Her True Story is a stunning new book. It is a beautifully written and starkly documented biography of America's all-time most memorialized female. It is also vitally important because it defines when (1884) and where (Wyoming) Sacajawea died and where (Wyoming's Wind River Reservation) she is buried. This is in sharp contrast to noted historians such as Steven Ambrose who claim Sacajawea died in 1812 in South Dakota. I defy Ambrose or anyone else to challenge Mr. Haney's conclusions and documentations. Like him, I have long considered Sacajawea my favorite historical figure, especially since I am now daily reminded of her because of her latest memorial, the Year 2000 Golden Sacajawea Dollar Coin. Thus, I have waited for such a definitive book, and I treasure it. It makes me wonder if anointed historians, such as Ambrose, can get away with murder along with their dispensing of usually unchallenged misinformation.

Just today I received and read Rich Haney's SACAJAWEA: Her True Story. I have always been interested in her because she is, after all, the most memorialized female in American history. My renewed focus on her, of course, relates to her newest and greatest memorial -- the Year 2000 Golden Dollar Coin. In the back of my mind, I have wondered why half the historians say Sacajawea died in 1812 and the other half claim she died in 1884, and there is also no firm affirmation regarding her gravesite. Well, at last I accept the conclusions registered and documented in SACAJAWEA: Her True Story. The one and only Sacajawea grave is on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. I believe, at long last, that is a vital revelation concerning the most memorialized female in American history. Now I wonder if the anti-Wyoming historians, such as Steven Ambrose, can sufficiently challenge Mr. Haney's biography of Sacajawea. I seriously doubt that they can.

While the premise of Rich Haney's book "Sacajawea" is interesting - he is concerned with proving that she died in 1884 on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and not in 1812 at Fort Mandan in South Dakota - this entire book of 128 pages could and should be condensed into an essay of much shorter length. The material is unbelievably badly organized and repetitive; one never knows where one is in the chronology of events, either the author's or Sacajawea's. A good editor would hopefully have made sense out of this chaos, done away with some of the jargon that seems so out of place (such as saying that Sacajawea "was not too bent out of shape whan a rival tribe mauled her village and took her captive" or "Ken Burns and Steven Ambrose consented to be interviewed only so the 'news' networks or the 'news'papers would pimp both their new projects") and straightened out the rough grammar. Mr. Haney is obviously an amateur historian with a cause, and I congratulate him for his loyalty to and admiration of his Indian subject. However, I wish I hadn't had to spend four hours reading what should have taken me one.