Dakota Tribe

Kickapoo Indians

Kickapoo Language and the Kickapoo Indian Tribe (Kikapoo, Kikapu)

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Either babeshikit, a Kickapoo, or Meraparapa (Lance), a Mandan; portrait, half-length, seated, with white paint on forehead and two-feather headdress, 1894. American Indian list--135indians-135a.jpg

Various Spellings: Kickapoo, Kikapo, Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma

Ancestral Homeland: Great Lakes area (Illinois); closely related to the Sac and Meskwaki (Fox); all three tribes lived in Wisconsin

Band: Vermilion

Federally recognized

Tribal Headquarters

Kickapoo of Kansas Kickapoo Tribal Office 
1107 Goldfinch Road 
Horton, Kansas 66439 Phone: 1-877-864-2746

Web site: http://www.ktik-nsn.gov/contact.htm

Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma
P.O. Box 7 
McLoud, Oklahoma 74851 Phone: 1-405-964-7053

Official Website:

Kickapoo Tribe of Wisconsin

Kickapoo Tribe in Texas

History

Currently, there are groups of Kickapoo Indians in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Brief Timeline

• 1600's: Jesuit priest Claude Jean Allouez visited the tribe between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers
• 1790-94: Little Turtles' War; tribes stands against non-Indians
• 1763: The tribe joined Pontiac in his rebellion.
• 1809-11: Tecumseh's Rebellion, the tribe joined Tecumseh
• 1819: Leave Illinois and Indiana and move to Missouri
• 1832: Black Hawk War
• 1832: The tribe removed to Missouri
• 1833: Census (M1831)
• 1839: Part of tribe moved to Texas and Mexico
• 1860's: The tribe migrated to the Illinois River in Illinois
• 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

Additional References to the History of the Tribe

Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Kickapoo tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America.

Superintendency

Central Superintendency

Reservations

From the mid-1800s, the official policy of the United States government toward the American Indian was to confine each tribe to a specific parcel of land called a reservation. Agencies were established on or near each reservation. A government representative, usually called an agent (or superintendent) was assigned to each agency. Their duties included maintaining the peace, making payments to the Native Americans based on the stipulations of the treaties with each tribe, and providing a means of communication between the native population and the federal government.

Sometimes, a single agency had jurisdiction over more than one reservation. And sometimes, if the tribal population and land area required it, an agency may have included sub-agencies.

The boundaries of reservations, over time, have changed. Usually, that means the reservations have been reduced in size. Sometimes, especially during the later policy of "termination," the official status of reservations was ended altogether.

The following list of reservations has been compiled from the National Atlas of the United States of America^[1], the Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America^[2], and other sources. There are no current federally-recognized reservations in Illinois.

Shawnee Reservation

Kickapoo Reservation - Kansas

Kickapoo Reservation - Oklahoma

Sac and Fox Reservation

Agencies

Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value were created by these offices.

The following list of agencies that have operated or now exist in Illinois has been compiled from Hill's Office of Indian Affairs...^[3], Hill's Guide to Records in the National Archives Relating to American Indians^[4], and others.

Shawnee Agency

Fort Leavenworth Agency 1824-51

Great Nemaha Agency 1851-55

Kickapoo Agency 1855-76 (Mexican Kickapoo 1874-80)

Horton (Pottawatomie) Agency 1874-80

Sac and Fox Agency 1874-80

Records

The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:

• Allotment records
• Annuity rolls
• Census records
• Correspondence
• Health records
• Reports
• School census and records
• Vital records

Slack, C.T. Genealogies of the Kickapoo IndiansFHL Film: 928361

Allotment

• 1862 Kansas Kickapoo Land Allotments http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com
• 1890 Kansas Kickapoo Land Allotments http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com

Correspondence and Census

Treaties

• 1795 August 3, with the Wyandot
• 1803 June 7, at Fort Wayne, with the Delaware
• 1803 August 7, at Vincennes, with the Eel River, Etc.,
• 1809 December 9, at Vincennes,
• 1815 September 2, at Portae des Sioux
• 1816 June 4, at Fort Harrison, with the Wea
• 1819 June 30, at Edwardsville, Illinois
• 1819 August 30, at Fort Harrison
• 1820 July 19, at St. Louis
• 1820 September 5, Kickapoo of the Vermillion
• 1832 October 24, at Castor Hill
• 1854 May 18, at Washington
• 1862 June 28, at Kickapoo Agency

Vital Records

• Horton (Potawatomi) Agency, M595,births and deaths 1918-1935, FHL Film: 580774

Important Web Sites

• Constitution of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas.
• Constitution and By-Laws of the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas, Approved February 26, 1937
• Constitution and By-Laws of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Ratified September 18, 1937.
• Kickapoo Tribe Wikipedia