Smithsonian American Art Museum
Wah-pe-séh-see, Mother of the Chief
George Catlin, born Wilkes-Barre, PA 1796-died Jersey City, NJ 1872 · 1830
Wah-pe-séh-see was the mother of the Kaskaskia/Miami chief Kee-món-saw, or Little Chief (see 1985.66.246). George Catlin, who described her as “a very aged woman,” probably painted her portrait at Fort Leavenworth (in today’s Kansas) in 1830. (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 47, 1841; reprint 1973)
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