Where Did Kickapoo Indians Live?
Like many Native American tribes, the Kickapoo Nation signed treaties with the European colonial governments and then with the U.S. government in good faith. They gave up large areas of land in exchange for certain concessions, but then the U.S. expanded further west and the theoretically everlasting agreements were changed. Finally, the Kickapoo moved to their present day reservations where they still maintain independent governments. Some Kickapoo Natives have assimilated into the general population of the United States, but the Kickapoo Nation is working hard to preserve and protect its unique history.
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Identification
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The Kickapoo Nation is also called Kiikaapoi. Originally this tribe lived in the areas south of Lake Superior and west of Lake Michigan on the east side of the Mississippi River. Its members spoke an Algonquin dialect and were allied with the Sauk and the Fox tribes. Known as mighty warriors, their raiding parties attacked other Native Americans who lived as far away as Georgia, Mexico and Pennsylvania. The Kickapoo language is still spoken today although only a few native speakers remain.
Features
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Kickapoo built villages, grew crops like maize and squash, and hunted buffalo and other animals for food. They typically moved between two different villages, staying in one during the winter and the other during the summer. The houses, called wigwams, were domed structures built out of sticks, with bark, woven grasses or logs as walls. In the summer, they cooked outside on an open fire. During the winter, the indoor cooking fire helped heat the wigwams. The traditional Kickapoo dress consisted of shirts and tunics made of buckskin worn over an undershirt of woven nettles. They wore leggings and moccasins, and typically carried quill bags.
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History
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The Kickapoo tribe was allied with the French against the British during the French and Indian War, but by the end of the 18th century, they had become the enemies of the Americans. Although they signed the Greenville Treaty of Peace in 1795, American Gen. Anthony Wayne took action that immediately violated it. This treaty determined a border between the American colonists and the Native American tribes after forcing the tribes to withdraw their claim to much of the land in today's Ohio. Many Kickapoo people moved to Prophetstown on the Wabash River in 1811 to follow Tecumseh in his attempt to resist the Americans by means of a large multi-tribal effort. Tecumseh intended to keep the Ohio River as a boundary between the Native Americans and the Caucasians. The resistance failed, and the tribe eventually split into three smaller bands and each band moved to a different new home.
Geography
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One band of Kickapoo signed the Treaty of Castor Hill and moved to a section of northeastern Kansas in 1832. Another group joined the Santee Sioux Revolt in Minnesota, which failed in 1862, prompting them to migrate south to Mexico--an initial group went in 1852 and then more followed in 1863. This faction now lives in Chihuahua, Mexico. The third group, which includes some Kickapoo who returned from Mexico, settled on a reservation in Oklahoma.
Expert Insight
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The Kansas Kickapoo Tribe now owns the Plum Creek Reservation in northeastern Kansas near Mercier, Kansas. The reservation has an enrolled population of about 1,600 people. It operates the Golden Eagle Casino in Brown County, Kansas, and is ruled by the Kickapoo Tribal Council. One of the tribe's most serious issues is the lack of easily available safe drinking water. The tribe pipes in water from the Delaware River and then treats it in a facility that was built decades ago. It's not viable to get drill wells to get ground water because the reservation sits atop a thick, rocky area. The tribe is involved in negotiations with the United States to modernize its water treatment facility.
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