Marie Dorion is frequently compared to Sacagawea in accounts of her life and work.

The comparison is understandable and not entirely without merit: both were Indigenous women who traveled with major American westward expeditions, both served as cultural interpreters, and both demonstrated survival capacities that exceeded those of many of the men around them.

But the comparison, if pursued too far, does a disservice to both women.

Sacagawea traveled with Lewis and Clark in 1804-1806 as a member of the Corps of Discovery, which was a government-sponsored military expedition operating with the logistical support of the United States Army.

The Lewis and Clark expedition was well-supplied by the standards of the era, had a specific route and destination, and was conducted with the explicit intention of producing a documentary record that would be published and preserved.