Photo by Samuel X. Cicci/Covert Art by Ian Churchill/Portable Press
Sacagawea2
Not all history lessons have to be dull affairs, spent listening to a teacher drone on in front of a chalkboard for hours. Sometimes, it just takes the right packaging to get kids and students interested in important, and sometimes undervalued, stories and heroes from our history. With that in mind, James Buckley Jr. has made it his mission to convey some of America's narrative building blocks through his "Show Me History!" series of graphic nonfiction books, featuring a broad range of historical figures, from Betsy Ross to Roberto Clemente.
Sacagawea: Courageous Trailblazer! is framed by illustrator Cassie Anderson's cartoonish looking narrators Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. They whisk readers off to the early 1800s, where we're introduced to a young Sacagawea and her life in a band of Lemhi-Shoshone Native Americans. Through her lens and copious bright visuals, we're introduced to other historical figures like the captains Meriweather Lewis & Williams Clark.
The story quickly takes on the tone of a whimsical adventure, with humorous analogies and modern lingo used to make the journey more relatable to young readers. Sacagawea's baby, Jean Baptiste (nicknamed "Pomp"), constantly cracks jokes in his head about the various travails that the party runs into as they chart the Louisiana Territory, while the narrators chime in with helpful notes about anything relating from historical anecdotes to environmental hazards.
But as bright and upbeat as much of the travelogue is, we know that much of our history is whitewashed. Buckley and Anderson don't shy away from some of the unsavory aspects of this tale. While there isn't a huge focus on the negative side of 19th century America, the authors make sure to acknowledge that not every person in this story is treated as an equal. They touch on issues like Sacagawea's forced marriage to French-Canadian explorer Toussaint Charbonneau, the institution of slavery, and, to put it lightly, gender discrimination. There are even asides where the narrators debate the proper spelling of Sacagawea's name, or provide important historical context for land exchanges like the Louisiana Purchase.
So consider Sacagawea: Courageous Trailblazer! a fun-filled starting line of a long race through American history. It's a crucial tale of a crucial contributor, and one that can pique students' interest before they move on to further reading to learn more about the foundation of our country, our treatment of Native Americans, and other complex issues.
It sounds like a lot to absorb, and not every part of this story is a happy one. But Buckley and Anderson provide a great entry point for a very important piece of American history without overloading young readers with information. It's hard not to get sucked into Sacagawea's journey with Lewis & Clark, what her exploits mean for modern-day America, and the impact she's had on popular culture.