President Donald Trump’s attacks against Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have been relentless since his campaign began. Trump has called her “Pocahontas,” attempting to use the name as a racial slur to fire up his base — but his usage is actually an insult to this country’s Indigenous people, some of whom have even been present when the president has taken a jab at Warren by using the name.

Pocahontas's name is not an insult, but he is using it as one. Pointed requests from a plethora of Native voices that he stop disrespecting Pocahontas — myself included — have done nothing to stop his disrespectful references to a young Native girl who was kidnapped, held hostage, and raped by European invaders.

The disrespect continued in January when a member of his party, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), referred to Warren as “Sacagawea.” Like Pocahontas, Sacagawea was a real person, one whose life is directly tied to America’s colonialist history.

Yet another attempt from the right to turn an Indigenous person’s name into an insult didn’t go unnoticed. Newly elected Native Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) addressed Gaetz on Twitter, reminding him of Sacagawea’s rightful place in American history and calling his remarks “offensive and hurtful.” (Haaland even offered on Twitter to meet with Gaetz to discuss the matter.) Seemingly in return, he appeared to dismiss Haaland and took jabs at yet another woman of color, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

While many people are more familiar with Pocahontas, Sacagawea seems to be less often discussed in pop culture. But her life greatly influenced the country we live in today. So just who was she?

The woman known as Sacagawea, whose name has seen varied spellings, was a member of the Lemhi band of Shoshone. When she was about 12, she was captured by Hidatsa buffalo hunters and brought to their lands near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. Sacagawea was integrated into the Hidatsa people (now part of the Three Affiliated Tribes, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara), and adopted their culture and language.

“Cagaagawia'sh, in Hidatsa, or Birdwoman, in English, has become an important figure in both American Indian history and identity and as an icon of the women’s suffrage movement,” Alisha Deegan (Hidatsa/Sahnish), a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation in North Dakota, and the interpretation and cultural resource program manager at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, tells Teen Vogue. (Deegan notes that “Cagaagawia'sh’s name is often misspelled and misused,” saying these variations exist because misidentification is “not something new to the first people of this continent.”)

“She was one of three wives of Toussaint Charbonneau and went along with her husband on the Lewis and Clark Expedition because of her ties to the Shoshone Nation. There are many questions about Cagaagawia'sh and her life, but what we do know demonstrates that she was an amazing and strong woman,” Deegan says.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were explorers charged with surveying the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase — a vast swath of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico — by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803. He also hoped that they would discover a Northwest Passage that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through continuous waterways. This important expedition would influence the shape of the United States, on the map and as an economic power.

About a year later, Lewis and Clark reached the Hidatsa-Mandan settlement, where Sacagawea was living with her husband. Initially, Lewis and Clark were primarily interested in Sacagawea’s skills as a translator, for the continuation of their expedition, since Sacagawea was fluent in both the Hidatsa and Shoshone languages. With Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader who spoke French and Hidatsa, and another member of the expedition who knew French, Sacagawea would enable Lewis and Clark to converse with the Shoshone people, from whom they needed to purchase horses. Sacagawea was also acquainted with the wild terrain and potential dangers they would face along the rest of their journey.