Bicentennial Story #102-Fort Mandan midwifery

Bicentennial Story #102-Fort Mandan midwifery

Account of the birth of Sakakawea's son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February 11, 1805 at Fort Mandan.

9/19/1975

Father Louis Pfaller

This recording cannot be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Dickinson Museum Center. This recording may be freely used for education uses, so long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this recording file is permitted without written permission of the Dickinson Museum Center.

mp3

audio reel, analog, 1/4 inch polyester tape

English

BS-102

Fort Mandan, ND

Copyright Stark County Historical Society and Dickinson Museum Center

On February 11, 1805, Meriwether Lewis recorded the birth of a boy to the Indian maid, Sakakawea at Fort Mandan. The pain was violent, and so "Mr. Jesome informed me that he had frequently administered a small portion of the rattle of the rattlesnake, which he assured me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child; having the rattle of a snake by my I gave it to him and he administered 2 rings of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small quantity of water. Whether this Medicine was truly the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine, but I was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before she bought forth. Perhaps this remedy may be worthy of future experiments, but I must confess that I want faith as to its efficacy."

This is Bicentennial Story No. 102, prepared by Father Louis Pfaller for the Stark County Historical Society.

Reid, 146

Sound recordings

1:26

128kbps

1970 1979

Bicentennial tape #6, Bicentennial stories 87-107