They are preserved in enough sources that they cannot be dismissed.

They constitute a foundation that is adequate for the historical recognition she deserves, even if it is inadequate for the kind of comprehensive biography that a figure of comparable achievement in the mainstream of American historical writing might have received.

The History She Made Without Making The History Books

American history as it has been written and taught has a canon of explorers and frontier figures whose names are recognizable to anyone who went to school in the United States: Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson, John C.

Frémont, Daniel Boone, Sacagawea in her now-prominent place.