A frank portrayal of Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader, who, with his Shoshone Indian wife Sacagawea, joined the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803. While Sacagawea assumed legendary status as a "token of peace", Toussaint has been maligned in fiction and nonfiction alike.

DIVRemarkable study, based on exacting research, unravels the tangled threads of Sacajawea's family life, describes her personal traits, and significant services she rendered during a grand adventure that would forever alter American history. /div

This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above. Each group of stories is prefaced by a brief factual account of Indian beliefs and of storytelling customs. Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest is a treasure, still in print after fifty years.

Particularly valuable for Ronda's inclusion of pertinent background information about the various tribes and for his ethnological analysis. An appendix also places the Sacagawea myth in its proper perspective. Gracefully written, the book bridges the gap between academic and general audiences.OCo"Choice""