BISMARCK -- Two new donations will help Lewis and Clark guide Sakakawea travel to her new spot in Washington, D.C., and spread word about the explorers' trek, the State Historical Society said Monday.
Dan's SuperMarket Inc., which has stores in Bismarck, Mandan and Dickinson, donated $15,000 to the Sakakawea replica statue project. Though the statue fund raising was finished more than a year ago and the replica is done, the donation can still help, said Historical Society Director Merl Paaverud.
He said the money can be used for the statue's dedication ceremony in the U.S. Capitol, scheduled in October, or to maintain the original statue on the Capitol grounds in Bismarck.
The replica Sakakawea is temporarily installed front and center near the North Dakota Capitol steps until September. Her refurbished 1910 original is less than a block away in front of the Heritage Center.
The replica will be North Dakota's second statue in Statuary Hall in the national Capitol. The other is former Gov. John Burke, who also was U.S. treasurer.
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Gov. John Hoeven and U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., invited North Dakotans to a celebration of the new statue Friday evening, during the annual Independence Day symphony concert at the Capitol.
Pomeroy backed the fund raising for the replica and received approval for the statue to include Jean Baptiste, Sakakawea's baby.
Also announced Monday was $130,000 worth of marketing for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial being donated by Cass-Clay Creamery Inc. of Fargo.
Cass-Clay will place "Lewis and Clark fun facts" on half-pint and half-gallon milk cartons in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, beginning in September and continuing through 2006.
Paaverud said the Lewis and Clark facts for the cartons are being written and designed by the society staff.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent more time in North Dakota than in any other state on their 1804-06 exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. They built and stayed the first winter at Fort Mandan near Washburn and got assistance from a tribe of Hidatsa Indians. There they met Sakakawea, a young Shoshone who was hired along with her French husband, Pierre Charbonneau, to guide them west.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830
