Kickapoo

Kickapoo, Native American tribe of the Algonquian language family and of the Northeast culture area. The tribe originally lived in central and southern Wisconsin. The name Kickapoo is derived from the Algonquian Kiwigapawa, meaning “he who moves about.” These Native Americans were extremely successful warriors who raided lands far from their villages; they also served as mercenaries for the French, Spanish, British, and Mexicans. When not on raids the Kickapoo lived in permanent villages, subsisting by raising corn, beans, and squash and by hunting buffalo. Their society was divided into bands based on patrilineal descent. The Kickapoo strongly resisted European culture and religion and, to a large extent, retained their own ways.

In the period before the American Revolution, the Kickapoo moved southward into the Wabash region now included in the states of Illinois and Indiana, and during the Revolution and the War of 1812 they joined the other tribes of the Ohio Valley in siding with the British against the Americans. In 1819, after ceding their lands in Illinois to the U.S. government, they settled in Missouri and later in Kansas. About 1852 a large portion of the tribe made another migration southward through Texas into Mexico, where they became known as the Mexican Kickapoo. Today Kickapoo communities are found in northern Coahuila State, Mexico, and in northeastern Kansas and Oklahoma. In 1990, 3,577 persons in the United States identified themselves as Kickapoo, the majority living in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. In the 2000 U.S. census about 3,500 people identified themselves as Kickapoo only; an additional 1,600 people reported being part Kickapoo.

See also Native American Languages; Native Americans of North America: Northeast.