Kickapoo Indians Timeline

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Last Updated: 6 years

Written history of the Kickapoo tribes begins in the 1600s. Here is a timeline of important events that affected the Kickapoo Tribe.

1600’s: The Kickapoo lived in the southern Great Lakes Region. Jesuit priest Claude Jean Allouez, vicar general of Quebec, visited the tribe between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers.

1600’s: New France’ was established in the area of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. New France was divided into five colonies of Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Louisiana.

1634: Devastating epidemics of smallpox are spread by the Europeans.

1640: The Beaver Wars (1640 – 1701), also called the French and Iroquois Wars, were fought by tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy against the French and their Indian allies who included the Kickapoo.

1649: Attacks by the Iroquois force the Kickapoo to scatter.

1670: Hudson Bay Company is formed establishing significant fur trading in Lake Superior region.

1688: The French and Indian Wars (1688-1763) begin marking the outbreak of King William’s War (1688-1699) and the Kickapoo become allies of the French.

1696: Price of furs begins to collapse.

1702: Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) and the tribe fight with the French.

1702: Numerous Native Indian tribes including the Kickapoo, were invited by the French to settle in the trading area of Fort Detroit.

1702: Another smallpox epidemic results in the deaths of many Kickapoo.

1712: The First French Fox War (1712–1716) began when Fox, Kickapoo, and Mascouten attacked Fort Pontchartrain.

1744: King George’s War (1744 – 1748)

1754: French Indian War (1754 – 1763), also known as the 7 year war, was the fourth and final series of conflicts in the French and Indian Wars fought between the British and the French. Both sides were aided by Native Indian allies.

1763: French and Indian War ends in victory for the British ending the colony of New France

1763: The outbreak of Pontiac’s War (1763–1766) in which Native American tribes resisted British settlement of the Great Lakes region. The Kickapoo tribe joined Pontiac in his rebellion.

1769: The Kickapoo join the ‘Three Fires’ (Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi) in forcing the Peoria from the Illinois River. The Kickapoo move to the middle Illinois River and the valley of the Sangamon where they became known as the ‘Kickapoo of the Prairie.’

1775: The War of Independence (1775–1783) – the Kickapoo fought with the British.

1785: The Western Confederacy was formed consisting of many different tribes who aimed to keep the Ohio River as a boundary between Native Indian lands and the United States.

1785: Little Turtle’s war (1785–1795), aka the Northwest Indian War erupted.

1787: The 1787 ordinance of Congress organized the North-western Territory, out of which the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were eventually formed, creating hostility with the tribes of the Great Lakes and beyond.

1790: Harmar’s defeat. General Josiah Harmar attempted to subdue Native Indians in the Northwest Territory but was defeated by a tribal coalition led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket.

1790-94: Little Turtles’ War; tribes stands against non-Indians.1809-11: Tecumseh’s Rebellion, the tribe joined Tecumseh.

1791: Battle of the Wabash on November 4, 1791. Chief Little Turtle and Chief Blue Jacket led 1,000 warriors to a great victory battle against Major General Arthur St. Clair’s 1,400 federal troops.

1791: The Wabash Kickapoo join with the Miami tribe in the 1791 uprising.

1794: Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794. Major General Anthony Wayne defeated Little Turtle and the coalition of Native Indians.

1795: The Treaty of Greenville ended Little Turtle’s war and Native Indian tribes were forced to cede much of present-day Ohio and Indiana to the United States.

1800’s: Conflicts erupt between settlers and Native Indians including the Illinois, Iroquois, Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Miami, Shawnee, Sauk and Fox tribes throughout the 1800’s.

1804: The Lewis and Clark Expedition encountered the Kickapoo tribe in April 1804 and again on their return journey in 1806.

1811: Tecumseh’s War (1811–1813). The Kickapoo join the Shawnee chief Tecumseh in an attempt to reclaim Indian lands.

1813: Peoria War (1813). The conflict between the U. S. Army, settlers and the Native American tribes of the Potawatomi and the Kickapoo tribes in the Peoria area of Illinois. Their villages were attacked and the tribes left the area.

1819: The Kickapoo leave Illinois and Indiana and move to Missouri.

1830: The Indian Removal Act of 1830

1832: The Black Hawk War broke out in Northern Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin. Sauk and Fox tribes led by Chief Black Hawk were joined by other tribes, including the Kickapoo, in an attempt to re-take their homeland.

1832: The Kickapoo tribe were removed to southern Missouri, but many resisted the relocation, and fled west and south into Mexico.

1833: Census (M1831)

Late 1830’s: The tribe ceded their land in Illinois and Indian

1839: Part of tribe moved to Texas and Mexico

1840s: Most of the Kickapoo people were forcibly moved to Kansas.

1852: A large group of Kickapoo left and went to Mexico, they became known as Mexican Kickapoo’s. in 1873 most returned to the United States and settled in Indian Territory.

1860’s: The tribe migrated to the Illinois River in Illinois

1862: Most of the tribe settled in northeastern Kansas.

1867: Following the American Civil War, many Kickapoo people were sent to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

1873: Part of the tribe move to Indian Territory, granted a reservation along the North Canadian River; their descendants became the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma.

1873-1875: Movement of Mexican Kickapoo from Mexico to Indian Territory.

1887: The Dawes General Allotment Act led to the break up of the large Indian Reservations and the sale of Native Indian lands to white settlers.