All about the ancient tribes
The Kickapoo Indians were farming people, and when they needed to travel, they usually walked overland. There were no horses in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe, but the Kickapoos adapted to the new animals quickly, and became known as excellent riders.
Religious practice is organized around sacred bundles, misaami, for clans and herbal societies. The religion is protected and practiced almost fanatically among the Mexican Kickapoo, whereas the Kansas Kickapoo have been strongly affected by Christianity.
The Kickapoo people ( Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi; Spanish: Kikapú) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American and Indigenous Mexican tribe, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes.
The Kickapoo first appeared in history about 1667-70 when they were found by Allouez near the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers.
The Kickapoo, meaning “those who walk the earth” or “he who moves here and there,” are grouped with other tribes in the Algonquian linguistic lineage, and were situated in what A. M. Gibson refers to as the “Algonquian heartland” (1963:3).
1a: an Indian people originally of Wisconsin but now living in Oklahoma and Chihuahua, Mexico. b: a member of such people. 2: a dialect of Fox.
Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas Selects Lester Randall as New Leader.
Kickapoo roots can be found in the Great Lakes region, and were first mentioned in Lower Michigan in the 1600s. By 1654, French explorers identified the Kickapoo, along with the Sauk, Fox and Potawatomi tribes, in southeast Wisconsin, having moved due to the heavy Iroquois influence in the east.
The French established New France in the 1600’s and established trading links with the tribe. The Kickapoo were allies of the French during the violent Beaver Wars (1640 – 1701) and the long running French and Indian Wars (1688-1763).
The Kickapoo built wooden, bark covered structures for houses. These houses are called wickiups or wigwams. They raised crops, gathered fruits and nuts when in season, fished the rivers and hunted deer, bear and small game. Wood, gathered from the forests provided material for many of the tools and implements.
The first group–known to French explorers and missionaries as the Illinois or Illiniwek Indians –was a collection of twelve tribes that occupied a large section of the central Mississippi River valley, including most of what is today Illinois.
The Kickapoo Indians, an Algonkian-speaking group of fewer than 1,000 individuals scattered across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Mexico, are the remnants of a larger tribe that once lived in the central Great Lakes region.
In the 21st century, the Comanche Nation has 17,000 members, around 7,000 of whom reside in tribal jurisdictional areas around Lawton, Fort Sill, and the surrounding areas of southwestern Oklahoma.
Present-day Lipan live mostly throughout the U.S. Southwest, in Texas, New Mexico, and the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, as well as with the Mescalero tribe on the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico; some currently live in urban and rural areas throughout North America ( Mexico, United States, and
WEA TRIBE. The Wea Tribe was a subtribe of the Miami Nation. In the late seventeenth century they lived near the western shore of Lake Michigan. During the next 150 years, they moved frequently and the 1750’s found them living on the Wabash and White Rivers, in the present States of Indiana and Illinois.