During November 2004 and November 2005, the series goes on the road to cities across the Northwest.

From the Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, area to the Tri-Cities, Lewiston, and Spokane, Dakota historian and performer Jeanne Eder (pictured at right) will present her portrayal of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark expedition. Eder’s performance examines the myths about Sacagawea's life and presents an often overlooked historical perspective of Indian women.

Historians and local tribal representatives will provide valuable context.

These events are sponsored by the Department of History and the College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University, with the assistance of the Center for Columbia River History.

Jeanne Eder
Department of History Professor at University of Alaska, Anchorage
Jeanne Eder is a Dakota Sioux. Her Dakota name is Oya-win (pronounced OH-yeah-wee-a); it means "Track Woman." She was born and raised on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Poplar, Montana. She has bachelor’s and master's degrees in American history, and she earned a Ph.D. in American history and public history from Washington State University. Eder says, "I guess you could say I am a historian, and as a historian I have always been interested in the oral traditions of Native people—all sides of the issues." She was one of the first American Indian members of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council and a member of the Montana Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Committee.

Mary Clearman Blew
Author and Professor of English, University of Idaho
Mary Clearman Blew was born and raised on a small cattle ranch in central Montana, the site of her great-grandfather's original 1882 homestead. She attended the University of Montana and the University of Missouri, Columbia, where she received a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature. She has written or edited 10 books, including All but the Waltz: Essays on Five Generations of a Montana Family, which won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award; When Montana and I Were Young (a found memoir), which received WILLA and Handcart awards; and, most recently from the University of Oklahoma Press, Writing Her Own Life: Imogene Welch, Rural Schoolteacher. She teaches creative writing at the University of Idaho.