MARCH 15, 1842

MESKWAKI (FOX) CHIEF WAPELLO DIED

Born at Prairie du Chien, Northwest Territory, in 1787, his Sauk name meant “He Who Is Painted White.” Wapello led a band of Meskwaki in the 1820s located in southeastern Iowa. While the Meskwaki did not participate in the Black Hawk War (1832), they still were forced to cede eastern Iowa land. The treaty ending that war also made Keokuk (a rival of Black Hawk) head chief of the “Sac and Fox Tribe.” Wapello agreed to treaties at Fort Armstrong (1822, 1832), Prairie du Chien (1825, 1830), and Dubuque (1836). He also accompanied Keokuk to eastern cities in 1837, including to Washington, D.C., where Wapello helped negotiate another cession. This led many to see Wapello as a “money chief”—a recipient of a federal treaty annuity—and possibly too compliant with U.S. officials. Following the last of these treaties, Wapello’s village moved to present-day Agency, Iowa. He died while on a hunting trip.

Sources:

Douglas Firth Anderson, “Wapello,” The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa.  Retrieved 11/13/2022, Details Page - The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa - The University of Iowa Libraries (uiowa.edu)

Wikipedia

Lithograph: J.T. Bowen, 1836-44, from painting by Charles Bird King (1785-1862). Public Domain.