A tale from the trail.

Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - A wet, blustery day was a fitting backdrop Saturday morning as Eugene resident Nancy Gowins re-created the life of one of the most endearing and mysterious women of American history at the historic Dorris Ranch.

Similar miserable weather dogged Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark party exactly 200 years ago as they camped along the Columbia River, nearing their destination, the "big water."

Two dozen friends and strangers sat in a cold, musty barn to watch Gowins take on the role of the young Shoshone interpreter, describing her life and the epic trek across the western frontier.

"My name is Suh-KAW-kuh-WAY-uh. My people are the salmon eaters," she began, taking her audience back to 1811, several years after the expedition when Sacagawea lived in a Mandan village along the Missouri River.

Gowins wore a braided black wig and a dress adorned with what she described as elk teeth. She sat among props she had fashioned to complete the early 19th-century portrait of a woman in an earthen lodge: a deerskin, a kettle on a simulated cookfire, a rake made from deer antlers, a buffalo skull.

She spoke under a bare light bulb in the dim barn, but that historical inaccuracy faded as Gowins began the story of how Sacagawea was taken prisoner by the Hidatsa clan at age 11.

"I was forced to work very hard," she said in broken English, using hand gestures to help convey her message. "It was my job to plant beans, corn and squash."

For the next 40 minutes, she described her marriage to French Canadian Toussaint Charbonneau; the difficult birth of her son, Jean Baptiste, nicknamed Pomp; and her journey with the "white chiefs," Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to the Pacific Ocean and back again.

Of their winter at Fort Clatsop near the mouth of the Columbia River, she lamented: "It was cold and damp. Oh, it did not stop raining."

And when she finally was allowed to see the ocean: "How can I tell you of its great beauty, of its immense power?"

Gowins, 49, began studying Lewis and Clark last year and found herself drawn to the role Sacagawea played in the famous journey.

"It's full of courage, self-sacrifice, wonderful leadership, cooperation and kindness on the part of the Indians," she said. "It's just a beautiful story."

She developed her impersonation using journals kept by the expedition and has performed it several dozen times this year for school groups and adult audiences. The Willamalane Park & Recreation District hired her to present it as part of its living history series, Trail Talks.

Gowins said she felt nervous because she is not Native American and wondered how her portrayal would be received.

"I stepped up to the plate because her life is so meaningful and she was not given the honor that was due her at the time," she said. "I'm trying to give her recognition and appreciation for her devotion and her help."

She believes that Lewis and Clark owed their success in large part to Sacagawea's help in trading for horses, providing roots and other nourishing food, and easing tensions with tribes along the way.

As Clark wrote, "A woman with a party of men is a token of peace."

Corela Hardisty of Creswell came out for Saturday's performance and found that it refreshed her memory of this chapter of American history.

"You hear all those stories in school and growing up, but you forget unless you have people like this," Hardisty said.

The next trip back in time at Dorris Ranch will be "Meet Eugene Skinner" on Nov. 19.

CAPTION(S):

Nancy Gowins in the role of Sacagawea tells the history of her trip with Lewis and Clark for an event at Dorris Ranch on Saturday.