Penasha

Chief Penasha (also known by Pinisha or and Wayaga Inazin)^[1] was an 18th and 19th-century Mdewakanton Dakota Chief.

In 1780, Penasha led a community of about 1900 people at the mouth of Nine Mile Creek, called Titanka Tannina, although it was also known as 'Pinisha's Village'.^[2][3] He was described by William Snelling as a "a harmless, worthless, drunken vagabond". Penasha was a common visitor to Fort Snelling.^[4]

He was a signer of the Land Cession Treaty in 1805.^[5]

In the 1820s or early 1830s, Penasha had died. He would be succeeded by Takuni Phephe Sni, and then shortly after by Penasha's grandson, Good Road.^[6][7] Titanka Tannina would also sometimes be labeled as 'Good Road' from then on, until it was dismantled in 1851, following the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.^[8] The area is now part of Bloomington, Minnesota.