WASHINGTON - Sakakawea, who joined the Lewis and Clark expedition in North Dakota two centuries ago, this week will become the first American Indian woman represented in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. And she'll probably be hard to miss.

"As you cross Statuary Hall to the House chamber - and there is the door to the House - you'll stroll right past Sakakawea," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., gesturing from the Old Hall of the House. The elegant, marble-floored chamber now holds 38 of the collection's 97 statues.

The bronze statue depicts Sakakawea striding forward while carrying her son, Jean Baptiste, who is nicknamed "Pomp," on her back. It stands 11 feet tall when placed on a 4,600-pound granite base.

It is a replica of a statue erected in 1910 on the grounds of the North Dakota Capitol.

"It's a very, very strong, very powerful sculpture," said Arizona artist Thomas Bollinger. He said it was a great honor to have worked on the replica, and he praised the original, which was designed by the late Leonard Crunelle.

The architect of the nation's Capitol had to give special approval for the Sakakawea statue because it depicts two people - also a first in the national hall, Pomeroy said.

Each state is allowed two statues of prominent figures from its history in the collection, which dates to the 1860s. Sakakawea joins former North Dakota Gov. John Burke.

To make room for her, Burke's statue likely will be moved from Statuary Hall to join others elsewhere in the Capitol, Pomeroy said.

Burke - nicknamed "Honest John" - went from the North Dakota statehouse to become treasurer of the United States, a post he held from 1913 to 1921. He later served on the North Dakota Supreme Court through the 1930s.

The Sakakawea statue will be unveiled Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda, where it will be displayed for six months before it is moved to join the collection. The unveiling ceremony will include state officials, U.S. Senate and House leaders and Tex Hall, chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes.

Sakakawea was a Hidatsa, one of the three tribes, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark met her near what is now the North Dakota city of Mandan during the winter of 1804-1805.

The tribes plan a cultural celebration outside the Capitol on Thursday, with a horseback procession, singers and dancers.

Sakakawea, her husband and infant son joined the expedition in North Dakota, and she served as an interpreter and guide as Lewis and Clark explored territory acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase.

Pomeroy said Sakakawea symbolizes cooperation between Indians and whites, and the role of women in history.

The spelling of Sakakawea's name is in dispute. North Dakota adopted "Sakakawea," while others, including the U.S. Mint - which features her on $1 coins - use "Sacagawea."

Sakakawea has two grave markers - in Mobridge, S.D., and at the Fort Washakie Reservation in Wind River, Wyo.

Her statue in the national hall leaves Nevada and New Mexico as the only states without a second statue to the collection. Earlier this year, Kansas was the first state to swap statues, when a statue of former governor George Washington Glick was returned to that state and a bronze statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower was installed in the Capitol Rotunda.

More than $230,000 was raised for the Sakakawea figure - including $17,000 from schoolchildren in a statewide "Pennies for Sakakawea" campaign - since 2000.

Bollinger, the Arizona artist, returned to his native North Dakota for the project.

Bollinger was born in Bismarck and grew up on American Indian reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota, where his parents worked as teachers.

"That's been a really interesting and nice tie-in as well," he said, "coming back and getting reacquainted with some of the Native American persons who knew my parents."

The national statue collection includes such historical figures as golden-cloaked King Kamehameha the Great, who united the Hawaiian Islands into one kingdom in the early 1800s, and Oklahoman Will Rogers - a statue Pomeroy said captured Rogers' personality so well it "looks like he could just talk to you."

But most of the collection depicts the "frozen visages of white men in suits or uniforms," Pomeroy said. "Sakakawea, among this lot, is going to be a show-stopper," he said.