City of Fort Dodge, Iowa

Anthropologist Tom Johnson, a long-time fieldworker among the Eastern Shoshone Indians, unfolds a captivating story of mistaken identity, manipulated facts, and disputed legend involving Sacajawea, the young Shoshone who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition. For over 100 years, many have believed Sacajawea rejoined her people at Wind River where she died and was buried in 1884. Conclusive evidence surfaced in the 1950s that the woman in that grave was not Sacajawea. Through his careful unraveling of Shoshone oral tradition, bolstered by the discovery of a key historical document, Johnson strips away decades of cover-up to reveal the Wind River Sacajawea's true identity without discrediting Shoshone history and values.

 

Anthropologist Tom Johnson is a graduate of Fort Dodge High School, Augustana College, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champagne, and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He first came to Wind River Reservation in 1966. Tom teaches at the University of Wisconsin.

 

Helen Johnson holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley. She has worked with Tom Johnson at Wind River for the past decade.

 

For more information visit their website at www.tomandhelenjohnson.com.

 

There will be reading from the book, a discussion of the research with the Eastern Shoshone Indians, and a question and answer period.

Sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

 

Admission is free.

 

Refreshments will be served.