Kickapoo

Member of an American Indian people who inhabited the Great Lakes region until the mid-17th century when they were forced west by the Iroquois. An Algonquian-speaking people, they were once part of the Shawnee group. Although primarily farmers, they were one of the first American Indian groups to use horses to hunt buffalo. Despite later dispersals, the Kickapoo remained aloof from white culture, and took great pains to uphold their own traditions. Many still follow the traditional Drum or Dream religion which centres on the great spirit Manitou. They now live in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas in the USA, and Chihuahua, Mexico; their US population numbers about 3,200 (1996).

The Kickapoo were primarily farmers growing maize (corn), squash (pumpkin), and beans, supplemented by hunting and gathering. They lived in longhouses in permanent villages during the summer, and spent the winters hunting, when they used portable wigwams (tepees). In the 1970s Kickapoo in Mexico were still living in wigwams.

Invasion by the Iroquois forced the Kickapoo into Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois in the mid-17th century. In 1819 they ceded their lands in Indiana and Illinois to the US government, and about half relocated to a reservation in Missouri. In 1832 the Missouri reservation was ceded for a smaller one in Kansas. Meanwhile, the rest of the Kickapoo scattered throughout the southwest, including parts of Texas and Oklahoma, with some settling in Mexico.