Sacagawea has appeared on American currency.

Marie Dorion has not.

This is not a measure of relative historical importance.

It is a measure of relative visibility in the narrative traditions that shape popular historical memory.

After The River: Marie’s Later Life

The encounter with Franchère’s brigade on the Columbia River was not the end of Marie’s story.

It was a waypoint.

The brigade took Marie and her sons to Fort Okanogan, a fur-trade post in present-day northeastern Washington.