The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling is one of the best, most unique, intriguing, and important books I have read. This book depicts the story of Sacajewea, and it is so well-researched and contemporary, that it truly seems it must be the more accurate account. Most are familiar with the fact that Sacajewea is heroically and positively depicted in U.S. historical accounts, but it is less well-known that she was a child captive and sold into servitude as a child bride before and while serving on the trek with Louis and Clark. Through rigorous research, Debra Magpie Earling blends the historical accounts with a creative imagining of what this world and this experience must have been like, and the outcome is absolutely genius.
I also loved the prose, which was a mix of prose poetry, which worked well to depict a child’s experience, a culture, religion, and a way of being that is wholly unique, and mind-expanding for the reader, and also captures enough of the physical and visceral reactions that a child might have, in a way that is protected from a Western literacy, or logic. In that way, the book is precious gift of perspective that is otherwise difficult to impossible for the typical reader to ever experience. This must be Debra Magpie Earling’s magnum opus , and it is an epic literary work of staggering genius.