WAPASHA III
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Wapasha III, also known as Joseph Wapasha, succeeded to the hereditary chieftancy of the Mdewakanton Santee Sioux.
The date of his birth is unknown.
He was opposed to the Treaty of Mendota which ceded parts of the traditional lands of his tribe.
However, he favored a peaceful settlement and when the Minnesota Uprising occurred, he counseled against the use of force.
Instead he went to Washington in 1858, to plead his case.
By 1862 he had settled on a reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River about 15 miles from Fort Ridgely.
War came that year and he was forced to side with the hostiles or give up the chieftancy.
He did all he could to protect the women and children, both Indian and White.
After the Uprising he went with his people to Fort Thompson, Dakota Territory and later to the Santee Reservation in Nebraska where he died in 1876.
Source: WHO'S WHO AMONG THE SIOUX, by T. Emogene Paulson and Lloyd R. Moses,
Institute of Indian Studies, THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA, Vermillion, South Dakota,
State Publishing Company, Copyright (c) 1988
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 87-50736.
[Ed. corrections: Wapasha III was probably born in about 1812. He went to Washington in 1858, four years before the uprising.
After the uprising, he was exiled with his people to the desolete Crow Creek where many died of hunger and disease.
He died April 23, 1876 at the Santee Reservation and is buried there.]
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