The Kickapoo people (; Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi; ) are an Algonquian-speaking

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

and

Indigenous people in Mexico Indigenous peoples of Mexico (), Native Mexicans () or Mexican Native Americans (), are those who are part of communities that trace their roots back to populations and communities that existed in what is now Mexico before the arrival of Europe ...

, originating in the region south of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

. There are three

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes are legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.

Kickapoo tribes in the United States: the

Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas The Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas is one of three Federally recognized tribes of Kickapoo people. The other Kickapoo tribes in the United States are the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Kickapoo Tribe ...

, the

Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is one of three Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Kickapoo people, Kickapoo tribes in the United States. There are also Kickapoo tribes in Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. The Kickapoo are a Eastern Woodlan ...

, and the

Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, based in Eagle Pass, is a federally recognized tribe that uses revenue from its gaming and business operations to provide housing, education, and social services to its members. The tribe has been held as ...

. The Oklahoma and Texas bands are politically associated with each other. The Kickapoo in Kansas came from a relocation from southern Missouri in 1832 as a

land exchange A land exchange or land swap is the ''voluntary'' exchange of land between two parties, typically a private owner and a government. These parties may include farmers, estate owners, developers, nature organizations, and governments. Land swaps may a ...

from their reserve there. Around 3,000 people are enrolled tribal members. Another band, the Tribu Kikapú, resides in

Múzquiz Municipality Múzquiz is one of the 38 municipalities of Coahuila, in north-eastern Mexico. The municipal seat lies at Santa Rosa de Múzquiz. The municipality covers an area of . As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 62,710. Of these, 242 ...

in the northern Mexican state of

Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

, ending up there after disputes between leaders of rival bands in the tribe caused a schism between followers of the "Kickapoo Prophet"

Kennekuk Keannekeuk (c. 1790–1852), also known as the "Kickapoo Prophet", was a Kickapoo medicine man and spiritual leader of the Vermilion band of the Kickapoo nation. He lived in East Central Illinois much of his life along the Vermilion River. One s ...

and Prairie band Chief Kishko. Smaller bands live in

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

, to the west, and

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

, to the southwest.

Name and etymology

According to some sources, the name "Kickapoo" ( in the

Anishinaabe language Ojibwe ( ), also known as Ojibwa ( ), Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algon ...

and its Kickapoo

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

) means 'stands here and there', which may have referred to the tribe's migratory patterns. The name can also mean 'wanderer'. This interpretation is contested and generally believed to be a

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

History

Pre-1800s

The Kickapoo are an Algonquian-language people who likely migrated to or developed as a people in a large territory along the southern

Wabash River The Wabash River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana, and a significant part of Illinois, in the United ...

in the area of modern

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...

, where they were located at the time of first contact with Europeans in the 1600s. They were confederated with the larger

Wabash Confederacy The Wabash Confederacy, also referred to as the Wabash Indians or the Wabash tribes, was a number of 18th century Native Americans of the United States, Native American villagers in the area of the Wabash River in what are now the U.S. states of Il ...

, which included the

Piankeshaw The Piankeshaw, Piankashaw or Pianguichia were members of the Miami tribe who lived apart from the rest of the Miami nation, therefore they were known as Peeyankihšiaki ("splitting off" from the others, Sing.: ''Peeyankihšia'' - "Piankeshaw Pers ...

and the

Wea The Wea were a Miami–Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as being either closely related to the Miami tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami. Today, the descendants of th ...

to their north, and the powerful

Miami Tribe The Miami ( Miami–Illinois: ''Myaamiaki'') are a Native American nation originally speaking the Miami–Illinois language, one of the Algonquian languages. Among the peoples known as the Great Lakes tribes, they occupied territory that is no ...

, to their east. A subgroup occupied the Upper Iowa River region in what was later known as northeast

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

and the Root River region in southeast

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

in the late 1600s and early 1700s. This group was probably known by the clan name "Mahouea", derived from the Illinoian word for wolf, ''m'hwea''. The earliest European contact with the Kickapoo tribe occurred during the

La Salle Expeditions LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

into

Illinois Country The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

in the late 17th century. The French colonists set up remote

fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

posts throughout the region, including on the Wabash River. They typically set up posts at or near Native American villages. Terre Haute was founded as an associated French village. The Kickapoo had to contend with a changing cast of Europeans; the British defeated the French in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

and took over nominal rule of former French territory east of the Mississippi River after 1763. They increased their own trading with the Kickapoo.

1800s to present

The United States acquired the territory east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River after it gained independence from Great Britain (now the United Kingdom). As white settlers moved into the region from the United States' eastern areas, beginning in the early 19th century, the Kickapoo were under pressure. They negotiated with the United States over their territory in several treaties, including the

Treaty of Vincennes The Treaty of Vincennes is the name of two separate treaties. One was an agreement between the United States of America and the Miami and their allies, the Wea tribes and the Shawnee, and was signed on June 6, 1803. The purpose of the treaty wa ...

, the Treaty of Grouseland, and the Treaty of Fort Wayne. They sold most of their lands to the United States and moved north to settle among the Wea people. Rising tensions between the regional tribes and the United States led to

Tecumseh's War Tecumseh's War or Tecumseh's Rebellion was a conflict between the United States and Tecumseh's confederacy, led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh in the Indiana Territory. Although the war is often considered to have climaxed with William Henry Ha ...

in 1811. The Kickapoo were among the closest allies of Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Many Kickapoo warriors participated in the

Battle of Tippecanoe The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between United States Armed Forces, American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and tribal forces associated with Sh ...

and the subsequent

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

on the side of the British, hoping to expel the white American settlers from the region. The 1819 treaty of Edwardsville saw the Kickapoo cede the entirety of their holdings in Illinois comprising nearly one-half area of the state, in exchange for a smaller tract on the Osage river in Missouri and $3,000 worth of goods. The Kickapoo were not eager to move, partly as their assigned tract in Missouri was made of rugged hills and already occupied by the Osage, who were their hereditary enemies. Instead, half of the population traveled south and crossed onto the Spanish side of the Red River in modern day

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. The US government quickly mobilized to prevent this emigration and force their removal to Missouri. This remnant of Kickapoo remained in Illinois under the guidance of

, a prominent, nonviolent spiritual leader among the Kickapoo. He led his followers during the Indian Removal in the 1830s to their current tribal lands in Kansas. He died there of smallpox in 1852. The close of the war led to a change of federal Indian policy in the

Indiana Territory The Indiana Territory, officially the Territory of Indiana, was created by an organic act that President of the United States, President John Adams signed into law on May 7, 1800, to form an Historic regions of the United States, organized incor ...

, and later the state of

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. White American leaders began to advocate the removal of tribes to lands west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, to remove their claims to Native lands wanted by white American settlers. The Kickapoo were among the first tribes to leave Indiana under this program. They accepted land in

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

and an annual subsidy in exchange for leaving their land in the state.

Language

Tribes and communities

Three federally recognized Kickapoo communities are in the United States in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. The

Mexican Kickapoo The Mexican Kickapoo () are a binational Indigenous people, some of whom live both in Mexico and in the United States. In Mexico, they were granted land at Hacienda del Nacimiento near the town of Múzquiz in the state of Coahuila in 1850. A few ...

are closely tied to the Texas and Oklahoma communities. These groups migrate annually among the three locations to maintain connections. Indeed, the Texas and Mexican branches are the same cross-border nation, called the Kickapoo of Coahuila/Texas.

Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Kansas

The tribe in Kansas was home to prophet Kenekuk, who was known for his astute leadership that allowed the small group to maintain their reservation. Kenekuk wanted to keep order among the tribe he was in, while living in Kansas. He also wanted to focus on keeping the identity of the Kickapoo people, because of all the relocations they had done. The basis of Kenekuk's leadership began in the religious revivals of the 1820s and 1830s, with a blend of Protestantism and Catholicism. Kenekuk taught his tribesmen and white audiences to obey God's commands, for sinners were damned to the pits of hell. Once the Kickapoo people got relocated to Kansas they resisted the ideas of Protestantism and Catholicism and started focusing more on farming, so they could provide food for the rest of the tribe. After this had happened they remained together and claimed some of the original land that they had before it was taken by Americans. The Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Kansas is located at in the northeastern part of the state in parts of three counties:

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, and Atchison. It has a land area of and a resident population of 4,419 as of the 2000 census. The largest community on the reservation is the city of Horton. The other communities are: * Muscotah * Netawaka * Powhattan * Whiting *

Willis Willis may refer to: Places United States * Willis, Florida, an unincorporated community * Willis, Kansas, a city * Willis, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Willis, Nebraska, an unincorporated community * Willis, Oklahoma, an unincorporat ...

Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Texas

The Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Texas is located at on the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

on the U.S.-Mexico border in western Maverick County, just south of the city of

Ciudad Acuña , also known simply as Acuña, (originally Garza Galán, later Villa Acuña) is a city located in the Mexican state of Coahuila, at and a mean height above sea level of . It stands on the Rio Grande (locally known as the Río Bravo), which mark ...

, as part of the community of Rosita South. It has a land area of and a 2000 census population of 420 persons. The Texas Indian Commission officially recognized the tribe in 1977. Other Kickapoo in Maverick County, Texas, constitute the "South Texas Subgroup of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma". That tribe formerly owned of non-reservation land in Maverick County, primarily to the north of Eagle Pass, but has sold most of it to a developer. It has an office in that city.

Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma

After being expelled from the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

, many Kickapoo moved south to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, but the population of two villages settled in

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

. One village settled within the

Chickasaw Nation The Chickasaw Nation () is a federally recognized Indigenous nation with headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma, in the United States. The Chickasaw Nation descends from an Indigenous population historically located in the southeastern United States, in ...

and the other within the Muscogee Creek Nation. These Kickapoo were granted their own reservation in 1883 and became recognized as the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. The reservation was short-lived. In 1893 under the Dawes Act, their communal tribal lands were broken up and assigned to separate member households by allotments. The tribe's government was dismantled by the

Curtis Act of 1898 The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasa ...

, which encouraged assimilation by Native Americans to the majority culture. Tribal members struggled under these conditions. In the 1930s the federal and state governments encouraged tribes to reorganize their governments. This one formed the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma in 1936, under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act.Annette Kuhlman, "Kickapoo"
, ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture'', Oklahoma Historical Society, 2009 (accessed 21 February 2009) Today the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is headquartered in McLoud, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, Pottawatomie, and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

counties. They have 2,719 enrolled tribal members.Oklahoma Indian Affairs
''Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory.''
, 2008:21

Notes

External links

official website
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma
official website

Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
official website
Matthew R. Garrett, ''Kickapoo Foreign Policy, 1650–1830''
PhD dissertation, University of Nebraska, 2006, at Digital Commons
Kickapoo Reservation, Kansas and Kickapoo Reservation, Texas
United States Census Bureau

Lee Sultzman] *