Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/95

Rh George Shannon, who was twice elected governor of Ohio, was minister to Mexico, one of the argonauts to California in 1849, practicing law in San Francisco, and territorial governor of Kansas. Like Gass, Shannon was Protestant Irish, of splendid stock, his father a brave soldier of the Revolution, and a leader among men. George was sent to school in Pennsylvania and ran away from school to join the Lewis and Clark expedition. After returning from the Pacific coast, he entered the University at Lexington, Kentucky, graduated, studied law in Philadelphia, married Ruth Snowden Price at Lexington in 1813, was made a judge of the state circuit court at Lexington and rendered honorable service as a judge for twelve years; removed from Lexington to St. Charles, Missouri, where he was again placed on the judicial bench, and died suddenly while holding court at Palmyra, Missouri, in 1836. He was unquestionably the man of the most talent, culture and ability of all who made that world-renowned trip across two thousand miles of unexplored mountains, plains, deserts and wilderness. Several descendants of the Shannon family recently resided in Portland.

Sacajawea: The last to be noticed in the Lewis and Clark expedition, but by no means the least important nor the least deserving of notice, is the only woman of the party—Sacajawea. And no words can better express the merits of this Indian woman than those of Olin D. Wheeler, who has said: "There were many heroes; there was but one heroine in this band of immortals. And at the start I wish to take off my hat to the modest, womanly, unselfish, patient, enduring little Shoshone squaw—the Bird Woman of the Minaterees—Sacajawea, who uncomplainingly canoed, trudged, climbed and starved with the strongest man of the party; and that, too, with a helpless papoose strapped on her back. All honor to her! Her skin was the color of copper; her heart beat as true as steel, and was pure gold. Through all the long, dreary racking months of toil she bore her part like a Spartan. Captured when a child and carried over the mountains from Idaho as a slave to the Mandan (Wyoming) country, and there sold to Charboneau for a wife, she rose superior to her sad lot: was the go-between in all dangers and trials with the Indians, a safeguard by her tact and native wit; she interpreted all Indian dialects, made clear all doubtful trails and pathways, guided the great party in safety to the great Columbia, and was in every aspect of the great national achievement a mentor to the wise men set to lead, and who thereby achieved almost immortal fame. No words of praise can transcend her just dues; and her fame should be a cherished and precious memory to every Oregon household."

Lewis and Clark frankly acknowledged their debt to the woman so far as mere words go, for her inestimable services. But these two leaders, and congress as well, are open to the most severe and unsparing condemnation in failing to make, or recommending to congress to make suitable and liberal reward in money, lands or a pension to this woman. And it is an ineffaceable blot on the names of Lewis and Clark, and an everlasting disgrace to the congress of the United States that this poor, lowly, humble Indian was requited with such neglect for the priceless services she rendered to the great nation. And it is to the everlasting honor and credit of the women of Oregon that they provided and reared the first and most enduring monument to the honor of the heroic Indian woman—Sacajawea. (The bronze monument in the City Park at Portland.)