Description
The Kickapoo people are an Indigenous Mexican tribe, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. Today, three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes are 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. Around 3,000 people are enrolled tribal members. 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 in the area of modern Terre Haute, Indiana, where they were located at the time of first contact with Europeans in the 1600s.
Language
Kickapoo is dialect of the Fox language closely related to dialects spoken by the Sauk people and Meskwaki people.
Culture
After European contact, the Kickapoo ingnored their culture on economic, political, and religious matters, and chodes to contune using their old ways when possible. The Kickapoo lived in stationary villages, moving between summer and winter residences; they raised maize, beans, and squash and hunted buffalo on the prairies. Their society was divided into several clans based on descent through the paternal line. The religion is animistic and includes a belief in manitous or spirit messengers. Skilled bow and arrow hunters, the Kickapoo hunted deer and small game during the winter months. They also used spears for hunting. Bows were fashioned from wood and sinew and arrowheads were made from flint, bone, or antler and secured with sinew to a stick trimmed with feathers for control and precision.