"It's hard to say definitively that Sacagawea was "sold" to Charbonneau, says historian Carolyn Gilman. "Euro-Americans observing Indian weddings often talked about the women being 'sold,' mistaking the exchange of gifts between families for purchases." Moreover, in the early 19th century there was a great deal of intermarriage between white (especially French) fur traders and Indian women, and these alliances generally conferred some advantages on the women. "That may have changed over time as tribes got more acquainted with white society and more contemptuous of it," says Gilman. "But in Sacagawea's time being a trader's wife was still a mark of status."

While marrying a fur trader might have been good in general, Charbonneau might not have been a great catch. He has the sort of shabby reputation that seems impervious to revisionism, though in fairness it may owe something to blustering Francophobia. Gary Moulton, editor of the definitive edition of the Lewis and Clark journals, notes that historians have portrayed Charbonneau as "a coward, a bungler, and a wife-beater." Clark recorded that Charbonneau hit Sacagawea on at least one occasion — along with the fact that he upbraided him for doing so.