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Official North Dakota policy is to use the “Sakakawea” spelling
based largely on the writings of Russell Reid who researched the subject
in the early 1900's. Most of the rest of the United States, however, including
the Hidatsa in North Dakota, tend to use the “Sacagawea” version
as being closer to the meaning of her given name. The source of debate
ever since, the true spelling of her name is difficult for a number of
reasons. First of all, Hidatsa is not a written language; Lewis and Clark
themselves employed over a dozen different spellings of her name in their
journals. Secondly, coming from an oral tradition, the proper spelling
of her name presents difficulty because of the phonetics involved. The
controversy probably will not be resolved any time soon, but it is probably
best to use the spelling that contemporary Hidatsa people prefer.
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