Wakpala is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Corson County,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

, United States, on the west side of the Missouri River, north-northwest of Mobridge. Although not tracked by the

Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, Wakpala has been assigned the ZIP code of 57658. Wakpala is within the boundaries of the

Standing Rock Indian Reservation The Standing Rock Reservation ( lkt, Íŋyaŋ Woslál Háŋ) lies across the border between North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa and Sihasapa bands of Lakota Oyate and the Ihunktuwona and Pabaksa ...

, and its name loosely translates to "creek" in the Lakota language, with Oak Creek running south on its eastern edge.

Chief Gall Gall (c. 1840 – December 5, 1894), Lakota ''Phizí'', was an important military leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He spent four years in exile in Canada with Sitting Bull's people, after the wars ended and surre ...

(Piji, Phizí) is buried at Saint Elizabeth Episcopal Cemetery here and Chief

Sitting Bull Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock I ...

(Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) is possibly buried under a concrete bust bearing his name a few miles south of town in the Mobridge area. Sitting Bull was originally buried at Fort Yates, North Dakota but an effort was made to exhume his bones and rebury him at the present site, but some individuals assert that the bones moved are not his. The annual Wakpala Wacipi (dance or powwow) is held on the last weekend in August.

Demographics

References

Unincorporated communities in Corson County, South Dakota Unincorporated communities in South Dakota {{SouthDakota-geo-stub