Watseka

Who was Watseka?

Watseka or Watchekee was a Potawatomi Native American woman, born in Illinois, and named for the heroine of a Potawatomi legend. Her uncle was Tamin, the chief of the Kankakee Potawatomi Indians.

In 1824, at age ten, she became engaged to Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, whom she married at age fourteen or fifteen. Hubbard and Watseka had two children, both of whom died in infancy. They mutually dissolved the union in 1826. Watseka married Noel Le Vasseur at age eighteen, and was described as "beautiful, intelligent and petite." She had three children with Le Vasseur, who learned to speak the Potawatomi language. In 1836, she left for Council Bluffs, Iowa, where her tribe had been removed in 1832 following the Treaty of Camp Tippecanoe. She died in Council Bluffs in 1878.

The United States Navy tug USS Watseka, and a city in East Central Illinois were named in her honor.