Keokuk, Wapella, and Powasheek composed the triumvirate of great Sauk and Fox chiefs. The first two became famous on the frontier of the 1820s and 1830s, but Powasheek, who, Colonel McKenney called "a daring warrior, and held a respectable standing in council, as a man of prudence and capacity," remained always in their shadow.

He signed his first important treaty between his nation and the United States in 1832 and his last ten years later. The chief visited Washington in 1837 as a member of the large Sauk and Fox delegation.