Watseka
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Infobox person Watseka or Watchekee (c. 1810–1878) 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
She was also known by the name of Josette (or Zozette) Bergeron.<ref name="BH" /><ref name="DJ" />
Early lifeEdit
Watseka was born around 1810 at Buncombe, an "Indian village site" in Illinois. The village was presided over by Tamin, her uncle; by 1880, the site was called Concord.<ref name="HoIC">Template:Cite book</ref> Her father was Shabbona, who was an ally of Tecumseh during the war of 1812; her mother was Monashki.<ref name="Bergeron">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="CPN-CHC" /><ref name="DJ" />
BiographyEdit
At age 10 or 11, she became engaged to Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, whom she married in 1826 at age fourteen or fifteen. Hubbard and Watseka had a daughter who died in infancy.<ref name="Centennial history">Template:Cite book</ref> They mutually dissolved the union in 1826.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Watseka married Noel Le Vasseur at age eighteen, and was described as "beautiful, intelligent and petite."<ref name = "watseka"/> 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.<ref name="watseka" /> In 1840 Watseka married the French-Canadian Francis Xavier Bergeron.<ref name="Bergeron" />
Her biography per the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center states: "French-Canadian Francis Xavier Bergeron arrived in the Great Lakes region as a young man where he met Watseka on one of her trips back to the region. In 1840, she received the Christian name Josette or Zozetta upon her baptism. She and Francis wed around that same time, but it was not her first marriage. Before marrying Bergeron, she had two other husbands named Noel LeVasseur and Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard. She had four children: Jean Batiste, Catherine (Kate), Matilda and Charlie."<ref name="CPN-CHC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
She is known for playing an "instrumental role" in Kankakee and Iroquois counties; and in particular, Bourbonnaise Grove, Illinois.<ref name="BH">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
She died in Council Bluffs in 1878.<ref name = "watseka">Template:Cite news</ref>
LegacyEdit
A city in East Central Illinois was named in her honor.<ref name="DJ">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Indian place names">Template:Cite book</ref>
The Daughters of the American Revolution, Iroquois County Chapter was named in her honor.<ref name="DJ" />
Watseka and Bergeron's daughter Catherine (Kate) married Joseph L. Melott, a Frenchman; they were the principal founders of the community Mission Hill, now known as Wanette, Oklahoma.<ref name="Bergeron" />