In the Lewis and Clark accounts, she does not even have a name. Yet both explorers briefly remarked on Sacajawea’s friend in their expedition journals. The passages are short, but what they contain shows the will and determination of another Lemhi Shoshoni woman who refused to accept the same fate as Sacajawea who famously left her people and joined the Europeans’ camp.
Naya Nuki, meaning Girl Who Ran, as Kenneth Thomasma called this woman in his work of historical fiction, was certainly not the only person in any place or time who has ever attempted to escape from captivity. That Naya Nuki succeeded meant she was probably both intelligent and fortunate. Her case is particularly interesting because it is juxtaposed with her friend, who for whatever reason did not try to escape.
“They had been companions in childhood,” wrote Lewis after describing the two friends’ warm meeting. “In the war with the Minnetares they had both been taken prisoner in the same battle. They had shared and softened the rigors of captivity until one of them escaped from the Minnetares with scarce hope of ever seeing her friend relieved from the hands of her enemies.”
Once Naya Nuki managed to safely leave the camp of the Minnetare, a North Dakota tribe, she would have had to be on guard for days against searchers who would come after her. Even after she left them behind, she would have faced a journey of approximately 1,000 miles alone on foot, traveling from what is now the Dakotas to her people’s homeland in Western Montana and North Idaho. She was only 11 or 12 years old when she made this journey.
Naya Nuki must have placed enormous value on her freedom and her people to run the risk of recapture during her long journey alone.
Many throughout the years have admired Sacajawea and studied her role in expedition as translator and guardian of safe passage.
At the same time, some people have also criticized the admiration sometimes expressed for her. Having been captured, sold into slavery, and bought by Charbonneau, she was, they say, basically conforming to the will of her captors, which was in line with that of the U.S. government. Basically, she very likely did not do what she did because she agreed with the U.S. government’s hopes, but rather because of her life situation. Yet it is because her situation happened to bring her in line with American ideals that she was remembered.
