Product Code Database
The Kickapoo people (; Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi; ) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe and Indigenous people in Mexico, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. There are three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States: the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. 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 from their reserve there. Kickapoo History Around 3,000 people are enrolled tribal members.
Another band, the Mexican Kickapoo, resides in Múzquiz Municipality in the northern Mexico state of Coahuila, ending up there after disputes between leaders of rival bands in the tribe caused a schism between followers of the "Kickapoo Prophet" Kennekuk and Prairie band Chief Kishko. Smaller bands live in Sonora, to the west, and Durango, to the southwest.
The earliest European contact with the Kickapoo tribe occurred during the La Salle Expeditions into Illinois Country in the late 17th century. The French colonists set up remote fur trading 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 and took over nominal rule of former French territory east of the Mississippi River after 1763. They increased their own trading with the Kickapoo.
Rising tensions between the regional tribes and the United States led to Tecumseh's War in 1811. The Kickapoo were among the closest allies of Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Many Kickapoo warriors participated in the Battle of Tippecanoe and the subsequent War of 1812 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 Nation, 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. 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 Kennekuk, 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, and later the state of Indiana. White American leaders began to advocate the removal of tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River, 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 and an annual subsidy in exchange for leaving their land in the state.
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, Jackson, 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:
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.Maverick County Appraisal District property tax appraisals, 2007
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, 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, Pottawatomie, and Lincoln counties. They have 2,719 enrolled tribal members.Oklahoma Indian Affairs. Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. , 2008:21
Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Texas
The Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Texas is located at on the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border in western Maverick County, just south of the city of Eagle Pass Texas, 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.Miller, Tom. On the Border: Portraits of America's Southwestern Frontier, pp. 67.
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma
After being expelled from the Republic of Texas, many Kickapoo moved south to Mexico, but the population of two villages settled in Indian Territory. One village settled within the Chickasaw Nation 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.
See also
Notes
Further reading
External links
See also
Categories: Algonquian Peoples, Native American History Of Indiana, Native American History Of Iowa, Native American History Of Kansas, Native American History Of Minnesota, Native American History Of Oklahoma, Native American History Of Texas, Native American Tribes In Kansas, Native American Tribes In Oklahoma, Native American Tribes In Texas, Algonquian Ethnonyms, Native American Tribes In Iowa
|
|
