10 Facts About Vestana Cadue

Vestana Cadue was the first female chairperson of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas.

Vestana Cadue was elected just months prior to the passage of House Concurrent Resolution 108 calling for the termination of her tribe.

Vestana Cadue led the tribal effort to successfully defeat enactment of a termination bill on the Kansas Kickapoo.

Vestana Masquat was born on January 31,1901 on the Kickapoo Reservation west of Horton, Kansas to Eugene Masquat and Ella [nee Herrick] Dupuis The family legend is that Vestana was a great-great-great granddaughter of Joseph Robidoux IV, founder of St Joseph, Missouri.

Vestana Cadue was the first woman elected to serve as chair of the Kickapoo Council.

Vestana Cadue began her term in April, 1953, and was reelected for a second term to begin in 1955.

Vestana Cadue won the re-vote and served continuously as chair until she was succeeded by her son, Kenneth Cadue, in 1961.

Vestana Cadue fought with the government over a defunct day school which the tribe wanted to utilize as a community center.

Vestana Cadue wrote letters to officials in Washington, DC protesting the sale and asserting that since the school was built with funds acquired from the sale of tribal lands it was, in essence, tribal property.

Vestana Cadue died 22 June 1974 at Hiawatha, Brown, Kansas and was buried in the Kickapoo cemetery following drum services.