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TNB->Kickapoo Tribe: Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas

Posted on Sunday, July 22 @ 07:19:20 CDT

Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas...KEYWORDS: Kickapoo tribe Kikapoo Indians Kikapu indian tribe wickiup kickapoo housing Coahuila

The Kickapoo were originally an offshoot of the Shawnee tribe ("Kickapoo" is thought to be a corruption of a Shawnee word for "wanderers,") but their language and customs had more in common with the neighboring Fox and Sauk. Fiercely resistant to European cultures, the Kickapoo tribe never assimilated, preferring to continue relocating further southward from their original Michigan-Illinois homeland. Today, about 3000 Kickapoo people live in three groups in the US (Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas) and one in Mexico (Coahuila). This article contains information about the Kickapoos of Texas.

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Kickapoo Language

Kickapoo is an Algonquian language closely related to Mesquakie-Sauk (some linguists even consider it a dialect of Mesquakie-Sauk). Unlike Mesquakie-Sauk, however, Kickapoo is a tone language--the pitch of a vowel can change the meaning of a Kickapoo word. Kickapoo is spoken in three distinct language areas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico, by a combined 800 people.

The language is most vigorous in Mexico, where some children are still learning it at home; in the United States Kickapoo is in strong danger of dying out, though revitalization efforts are ongoing. In the past, Kickapoo Indians also used a unique linguistic code called "whistle speech" to convey simple utterances, but today it is a lost art.

The Kickapoos are original residents of Wisconsin and the upper Michigan peninsula, but they fled further and further south to escape from European and American aggression. Some were captured and forced onto Kansas and Oklahoma reservations. Others escaped, and their descendants now live in Illinois, Texas, and northern Mexico. There are few if any Kickapoos left in their native territory.

The Kickapoos didn't live in teepees. They lived in dome-shaped buildings called wickiups. Even today, the Kickapoos in Mexico live in wickiups, but most American Kickapoos live in modern houses and apartment buildings now, just like you.

The Kickapoo staple food was corn. Women planted and harvested corn as well as squash and beans and baked cornbread, which they called pugna. Kickapoo men hunted deer and small game.

Kickapoo artists are known for their pottery, quillwork, and woodcarving. Kickapoos and other eastern American Indians also occasionally crafted wampum out of white and purple shell beads to use as regalia, currency, and commemoration of important events. Like European tapestries or Celtic tartans, the designs and pictures on wampum often told a story or represented family affiliations.

The Kickapoo were forced to move many times by the government. Eventually, some of them settled in Oklahoma on a reservation. Others obtained land from the President of Mexico and lived there. After many years of hardship from droughts hurting their crops and poor hunting, the Mexican Kickapoo were forced to work as migrant workers in the United States. They finally applied for US citizenship and were federally recognized as the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas in 1983. The Kickapoo were given land just south of Eagle Pass, Texas. The Kickapoo still spend a lot of time on their traditional land in Mexico. It is in Mexico that they are able to maintain their traditional way of life. They perform all their important ceremonies there and their houses are set up according to tribal custom.