Once a Grass Widow is a fictional history of a Potawatomi woman, Watchekee, in the waning days of the American Indian-Trader days and the beginning of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She grew up in northeast Illinois. Watchekee struggled to survive after her Franch Canadian trader-husband cast her aside. Through an arranged marriage, she became the wife of another French Canadian, Francis Bergeron. Subsequently, her path led to Council Buffs, eastern Nebraska, northeastern Kansas, and finally to present-day, central Oklahoma. Stability in her life was challenged by the death of one of her daughters, the vicious attack on her oldest son, and the involvement of her husband in the state's 'free-state' politics and in the Civil War. Although her health was declining she managed to move from the Potawatomi Reservation in Kansas to a new reservation for the Citizen Potawatomi in the Unorganized Indian Territory. What was to have been tranquility turned to tragedy and to Watchekee's death when she came to the defense of her husband who was being harassed by two 'uncivilized whites.'