The Sacagawea Golden Dollar Coin

Sacagawea´s Life Sacagawea was born in 1788 to a tribe of Shoshone Indians, in what is now Lemhi County (Idaho). At the age of 12, she was kidnapped by Hidatsa Indians and taken to what is today Washburn (North Dakota). When she was 16, Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trader, took her as wife, although he was already married to another Shoshone woman. In 1805, the Corps of Discovery, under Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who intended to explore the western territories between St. Louis (Missouri) and the Pacific Ocean, recruited Charbonneau and Sacagawea, because they needed translators of the Native American languages. In addition, Sacagawea offered them geographic information, told them which plants could be used as food or medicine and served as a negotiator between the explorers and the Native Americans. Moreover, the presence of an Indian woman and her child, who was born during the journey, would indicate that the expedition was actually friendly and peaceful.

“This map traces the Corps of Discovery's historic journey (1804-1806) west (in red) and trip home (in blue)” (Source: http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/inside/index.html [12/5/2006])

Although Sacagawea was treated as an important member of the party, it was her husband who was paid and given land for their work at the end of the expedition in 1806. Some years later, Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, but soon afterwards died at the age of about 25. Sacagawea’s portrait on the dollar coin is not the only honour she received for supporting the Lewis and Clark expedition. She is honoured by more statues, mountain peaks, streams, lakes, landmarks, parks, public schools, songs, ballads and poems than any other woman in American history.

Cultural Appropriation and Commodification

Cultural appropriation is defined as “the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation [12/5/2006]). Cultural elements are, for example, objects and artefacts, clothes, music and art, religious or ceremonial practices, language, stories, myths and legends or knowledge and behaviour.

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Cultural appropriation has usually a negative connotation, especially if the relationship of the two cultural groups is not based on equality, i.e. when there is a dominant majority and a subject minority culture, which is “subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status to the appropriating culture” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation [12/5/2006]), or when there is an ethnic or racial conflict between the two groups. This certainly applies to the

relationship between Western and Native American cultural groups.

As white people have taken different elements of Native American cultures without permission and claimed it to be their own, one speaks of ‘cultural theft’ or exploitation and abuse. However, the whites may rather call it ‘copying‘ or ‘borrowing’ from or ‘being influenced’ by the Native Americans’ art, music or clothes, for example. Some of them even

argue that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” (http://web.pdx.edu/~doughert/rosebud_ 2002.htm [12/5/2006]) and enhances more respect for Native Americans and their culture.

“Commodification is the transformation of what is normally a non-commodity into a commodity” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodification [12/5/2006]) – anything that can be bought and sold. By this process monetary value is assigned to, for example, a person, an object, an idea or a myth. They then appear on the international market in the form of commodities, ranging from handicrafts, books, CDs to clothes or even cosmetic articles (for instance “Pocahontas shampoo” or “Sacagawea honey”), just to mention a few.

Often the processes of cultural appropriation and commodification, which is “the physical form of cultural appropriation” (http://web.pdx.edu/~doughert/rosebud_2002.htm [12/5/2006]), work together: Cultural elements are not only being appropriated, but also commodified and placed into the international market.

As people seem to be highly interested in Native American culture and as commercialization plays a central role in capitalist economies, all kinds of cultural elements are commodified and advertised as well as marketed in order to make profit. They are removed from their original context, where they were part of people’s identity, and placed in the context of the ‘modern’ world. Thus they lose their authenticity and “[…] take on meanings that are […] divergent from, or […] less nuanced than those they originally held” (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Cultural_appropriation [12/5/2006]). They may even become “a ‘meaningless’ part of pop

[12/5/2006]). The appropriated culture is rarely fully understood, but often misinterpreted and therefore misrepresented and abused / misused.

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