The Mexican Kickapoo ( es, Tribu Kikapú) are a binational Indigenous people, some of whom live both in Mexico and in the United States. In Mexico, they were granted land at Hacienda del Nacimiento near the town of
Múzquiz in the state of
Coahuila
Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico.
Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...
in 1850.
A few small groups of Kickapoo also live in the states of
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...
and
Durango
Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...
. The Mexican Kickapoo often work as migrants in Texas and move throughout the Midwest and the Western United States, returning in winter to Mexico.
They are affiliated with the federally recognized tribes of the
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, based in Eagle Pass, is a federally recognized tribe that uses revenue from its gaming and business operations to provide housing, education, and social services to its members. The tribe has been held as ...
,
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma
The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is one of three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States. There are also Kickapoo tribes in Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. The Kickapoo are a Woodland tribe, who speak an Algonquian language.Kuhlman, ...
, and
Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas
The Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas is one of three Federally recognized tribes of Kickapoo people. The other Kickapoo tribes in the United States are the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Kickapoo Tribe ...
.
In 1979, the Mexican Kickapoo who were dual residents requested clarification of their status, as they had no clear legal status in either the United States or
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
[Ricky (1999), p 172] An act was passed in 1983
by the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
, which recognized them as a distinct subgroup of the
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma
The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is one of three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States. There are also Kickapoo tribes in Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. The Kickapoo are a Woodland tribe, who speak an Algonquian language.Kuhlman, ...
. It also granted federal recognition to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. A 1985 law gave the Texas band the option of selecting Mexican or U.S. citizenship. Some 145 of the tribe members chose to become U.S. citizens, and the remaining 500 or so chose to obtain Mexican citizenship.
Reservation
The hacienda occupied by the Mexican Kickapoo is located about 32 km northeast of the city of Múzquiz, and is called by them ''El Nacimiento de la Tribu Kikapú'' (The Birthplace of the Kickapoo Tribe). Their property contains around 17,300 acres of semiarid land sourced with water from the
Río Sabinas.
Government
The Mexican Kickapoo traditionally have a president of the ''
ejido
An ''ejido'' (, from Latin ''exitum'') is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct rights rather than ownership rights to land, which in Mexico is held by the Mexican state. People awarded ejidos in ...
'' (common lands), who is supported by a council of elders for making business decisions, but, a larger assembly made up of the heads of families decides all important, tribal political matters. This assembly chooses the community leadership. They have no representation in local, state, or federal Mexican politics.
Social organization
![MAPElNorte069](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/MAPElNorte069.JPG)
The Kickapoo kinship system is based on
patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
clans
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship
and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...
,
by which inheritance and property are passed through the paternal line. Children are considered born into the father's clan. Fourteen of the original 17 clans are remaining: Man, Berry, Thunder, Buffalo #1, Tree, Black Bear, Eagle, Brown Bear, Buffalo #2, Fire, Water, Raccoon, and Fox. Marriage possibilities are based on affection; however, the clan system regulates the possibilities of each individual.
The Kickapoo are matrilocal, meaning that young couples live in housing compounds and living arrangements near the woman's mother and grandmother. Women not only maintain, but also build the dwelling shelters. Women gather the materials to build their housing and are responsible for all housework.
Language
The Mexican Kickapoo speak the
Kickapoo language
Fox (known by a variety of different names, including Mesquakie (Meskwaki), Mesquakie-Sauk, Mesquakie-Sauk-Kickapoo, Sauk-Fox, and Sac and Fox) is an Algonquian language, spoken by a thousand Meskwaki, Sauk, and Kickapoo in various locations i ...
, which is a
Fox language
Fox (known by a variety of different names, including Mesquakie (Meskwaki), Mesquakie-Sauk, Mesquakie-Sauk-Kickapoo, Sauk-Fox, and Sac and Fox) is an Algonquian language, spoken by a thousand Meskwaki, Sauk, and Kickapoo in various locations i ...
, part of the large
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic languages, Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language f ...
family.
They also speak
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
and English; typically, these are not learned in school, but rather through exposure.
Economic development
Traditionally a hunter-gatherer people, in the early 20th century, the Kickapoo began switching to agriculture. By the 1930s, they had developed a modern system of farming.
Due to significant droughts in the 1940s, the Kickapoo became migrant farm workers in the United States, abandoning agriculture on their own land.
In the 1950s, they began transforming their own farms into grazing lands for cattle raising.
Both men and women do migrant farm labor. When they are living in Mexico, only the men participate in the livestock trade.
History
Northern origins
Kickapoo comes from their word ''Kiwigapawa,'' which roughly translates into "he moves from here to there." The tribe is part of the central Algonquian group, and has close ethnic and linguistic connections with the
Sac and Fox
The Sac and Fox Nation ( ''Mesquakie'' language: ''Othâkîwaki / Thakiwaki'' or ''Sa ki wa ki'') is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox) Indian peoples. Originally from the Lake Huron and Lake Michigan ...
. The Kickapoo were first recorded by Europeans in about 1667-70 as residing at the
confluence
In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...
of the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
and
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
Rivers.
Under pressure from the
Menominee
The Menominee (; mez, omǣqnomenēwak meaning ''"Menominee People"'', also spelled Menomini, derived from the Ojibwe language word for "Wild Rice People"; known as ''Mamaceqtaw'', "the people", in the Menominee language) are a federally recog ...
, the Kickapoo and their allies moved south and west into southern Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and northern Iowa.
A treaty dated 7 June 1803 between the U.S. government and the
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
,
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
,
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...
,
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
,
Eel River,
Wea
The Wea were a Miami-Illinois-speaking Native American tribe originally located in western Indiana. Historically, they were described as either being closely related to the Miami Tribe or a sub-tribe of Miami.
Today, the descendants of the ...
, Kickapoo,
Piankeshaw
The Piankeshaw, Piankashaw or Pianguichia were members of the Miami tribe who lived apart from the rest of the Miami nation, therefore they were known as Peeyankihšiaki ("splitting off" from the others, Sing.: ''Peeyankihšia'' - "Piankeshaw Pers ...
, and
Kaskaskia
The Kaskaskia were one of the indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in t ...
tribes
occupying the country watered by the
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
,
Wabash, and
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
Rivers
and a subsequent treaty dated 7 August 1803
ceded lands previously granted in the
Treaty of Greenville
The Treaty of Greenville, formally titled Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., was a 1795 treaty between the United States and indigenous nations of the Northwest Territory (now Midwestern United States), including the Wyandot and Delaware peoples, ...
in 1795 by General
Anthony Wayne
Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...
, and Fort Wayne and
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the Southwestern Indiana, southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville, Indi ...
.
By these treaties and succeeding treaties in 1809,
1815,
1816,
1819,
and 1820
the tribe ceded all their lands on the Wabash, White and Vermilion rivers and moved into
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
along the
Osage River
The Osage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Missouri River in central Missouri in the United States. The eighth-largest river i ...
.
Resettlement on the Plains
In 1832, the tribe ceded their lands in Missouri and were granted a "permanent" home south of the
Delaware Nation in Kansas near
Fort Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth () is a United States Army installation located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth. Built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., an ...
.
Around the same time as the Kickapoo moved into Kansas, some of them went to Texas, invited to settle there by the Spanish colonial governor to serve as a buffer between Mexico and American expansionists. The
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...
and the
Texas Revolution proved that the tide of settlers would not be stopped by the few hundred Kickapoo.
At the conclusion of the Texas Revolution, these groups moved south into Mexico. In 1854, the tribe ceded the eastern portion of the Kansas lands to the United States, leaving the Kickapoo the western 150,000 acres.
Two provisions of this treaty were to have long-lasting effects on the tribe. The treaty authorized a survey of the Kickapoo lands, which could be used as the basis for fee-simple allotment, and it granted a railroad right-of-way across the reservation.
Using these two clauses as a basis, the local Indian agent, William Badger, convinced the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal government of the United States, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...
Charles E. Mix that the Kickapoo wanted to have their communal lands allotted to individual households. Considering that the tribe had always held their lands in common, it is unlikely that the tribe wanted such allotment. However, in light of Badger's persuasiveness, Mix directed that allotment proceed if 1) the Indians paid for the costs of surveying and allotting the land, 2) 80 acres was allotted to each head of household, and 3) any lands remaining after allotment of the Kansas Kickapoo be reserved for resettlement of the Mexican Kickapoo. Holding the lands not allotted for the Southern Kickapoo was not in the interests of the railroad, and Badger began pressuring tribal members for allotment. Though they complained, a change in presidential administrations due to a national election resulted in Badger being replaced in office in 1861 by his brother-in-law, Charles B. Keith.
[Gibson (2006), p 125-127]
Keith was a political ally of Senator
Samuel C. Pomeroy
Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (January 3, 1816 – August 27, 1891) was a United States senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century. He served in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. Pomeroy also served in the Massachusetts House of ...
, who was the president of the Atchison and Pike's Peak Railroad.
This was the central section of the
transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
, which had been formed in 1859. The railroad wanted to gain the right-of-way across the Kickapoo Reservation and title to any surplus lands when the reservation was allotted.
Pomeroy and Keith both met with and wrote letters to Commissioner Mix urging allotment, and by 1862, the US made a new treaty with the Kickapoo.
The 28 June 1862 agreement allowed for chiefs to receive 320-acre plots, heads of households to receive 160 acres, and all other tribe members to get 40 acres each, with the bulk of the remaining 125,000 acres to be sold to the railroad. Those who chose not to accept allotment could continue to hold their lands in common until such time as an arrangement could be made to locate a new reserve in
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
, later Oklahoma. Any Southern Kickapoos had one year to return to Kansas and take up their allotments, or they would be forfeited.
When news broke that the treaty was approved, protest erupted.
The Kickapoo said that they were unaware that the agreement had been reached and thought that they were still negotiating terms. The
Kansas Attorney General
The Attorney General of Kansas is a statewide elected official responsible for providing legal services to the state government of Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is ...
, Warren William Guthrie, launched a grand-jury hearing. The charges were considered serious enough that allotment was suspended and the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
William P. Dole, appointed in 1863, traveled to Kansas to investigate. In the hearings that followed, allegations were made that Guthrie's real interest in the matter stemmed from his involvement with a rival railroad, the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Corporation. Dole returned to
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
, and submitted his report to President
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln ...
on 4 April 1864. Some of the frustrated Kickapoo decided to leave Kansas, and a group of about 700 headed for Mexico in September 1864 to join kinsmen there.
In January, 1865 a delegation of Kickapoo travelled to Mexico City to meet with the government of the newly established
Second Mexican Empire
The Second Mexican Empire (), officially the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists in conjunction with the Second French Empire. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second French i ...
to seek land rights as well as protection from attacks by American soldiers and rival tribes against their territory near the
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
.
In 1865 pressure from Pomeroy finally gained the approval to continue with the Kickapoo allotment, though the tribe resisted. By 1869, only 93 Kansas Kickapoo had accepted fee-simple allotment, the remainder preferring to continue holding their lands in common. A small band, about 50 tribesmen, returned from Mexico to the Kansas Reservation before the forfeit period lapsed. They settled on the common lands briefly, but left before claiming their allotments. They later joined the Kickapoo in Indian Territory in 1874. In 1875, a group of 114 of the Mexican Kickapoo were returned to the Kansas Reservation.
Texas Settlement
![CentroQueretaro027](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/CentroQueretaro027.JPG)
The first Southern Kickapoo migration occurred around the time that the tribe was settled in Kansas.
They traveled across the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
,
fighting the Seminole in
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
around 1837 and traveled into Texas in search of horses from the
Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
.
In 1850, they agreed to act as a buffer between Mexicans, invading Texas settlers, and the
Lipan, Comanche, and other tribes in northern
Coahuila
Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico.
Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...
. As a reward for their service, the Mexican governor awarded them a land grant at Hacienda del Nacimiento near the settlement of Santa Rosa (now known as
Múzquiz). At the peak of their strength, the southern Kickapoo, numbered about 1500, and by 1860 were living in a swath from the Canadian and Washita Rivers in Indian Territory to the
Sabine
The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divide ...
and
Brazos River
The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Dr ...
s in Texas to the Remolino River in northern Mexico.
In 1864, about 700 Kickapoo, frustrated with the duplicitous actions of agents and their railroad colleagues in Kansas, left to join their kinsmen in Mexico. The Kickapoo who left Kansas in the fall of 1864 were led by chiefs Pecan, Papicua, and Nokohat.
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
scouts picked up their trail and reported their findings to Captain Henry Fossett and Captain S. S. Totten, leader of a group of Texas militiamen.
On 8 January 1865, the Texans charged the Kickapoo at
Dove Creek, were engaged in battle for a brief half-hour, and then retreated. The Kickapoo had lost about 15 warriors and the Texans twice as many men.
In 1868, a report to the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal government of the United States, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...
indicated that roughly 800 Kickapoo were living in Mexico.
It said that the Mexican Kickapoo were responsible for raids in the western part of Texas.
In an effort to pacify the Texas residents and ward off difficulties with Mexico, the U.S. determined to retrieve the Kickapoo.
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
passed P.L. 16 Stat. 359 an Act of 15 July 1870 to appropriate funds for the
Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to:
* Secretary of the Interior (Mexico)
* Interior Secretary of Pakistan
* Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines)
* United States Secretary of the Interior
See also
*Interior ministry ...
to collect Kickapoo in Texas and Mexico and establish them on land in the Indian Territory. A second Act, P.L. 16 Stat. 569, passed by Congress on 3 March 1871, appropriated funds for the resettlement and subsistence of the Kickapoo on reservations within the United States. Armed with these two acts, Indian Agent John D. Miles, went with a delegation of
Kansas Kickapoo to try to persuade the Indians at Santa Rosa to return to the United States.
Mexican authorities refused to allow Miles to speak with the Kickapoo, as the residents of Santa Rosa thought they were the only defense against other marauding tribes.
In 1873, after complaints were received that Mexican authorities were using the Kickapoo to hide the theft of Texas cattle by Mexicans, the US made another attempt to bring the Kickapoo to Indian Territory. Special Agents H. M. Atkinson and Col. T. G. Williams went to
Saltillo
Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...
, to negotiate directly with Governor
Victoriano Cepeda Camacho. Though citizens and the Legislature of
Coahuila
Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico.
Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...
did not support the action, Cepeda appointed an officer to assist the agents and gave him a proclamation that they were to be assisted by the officials and citizenry. While the delegation was en route to Santa Rosa, a party of Americans under the command of General MacKenzie attacked the Kickapoo, thinking that they were a group of raiding
Lipan. The Kickapoo were not interested in hearing from the US agents. In the autumn of 1874, Atkinson and Williams finally persuaded a group of about 300 Kickapoo to resettle in Indian Territory.
Relocation to Indian Territory/Oklahoma
The Mexican Kickapoos were to be removed to the Indian Territory to a site on the north fork of the Canadian River.
They were to be provided with farm equipment to begin cultivation for subsistence farming. The adjustment was difficult, and by 1883, they had still not been provided with a permanent title to the lands they were occupying. By an
executive order
In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of th ...
issued 15 August 1883, the Kickapoo were granted the lands that they had been occupying near the southwest corner of the
Sac and Fox Reservation The Sac and Fox Reservation of Sauk (Sac) and Meskwaki (Fox) people is a 23.639 sq mi (61.226 km²) tract located in southeastern Richardson County, Nebraska, and northeastern Brown County, Kansas. It governed by the Sac and Fox Nation of Mi ...
. This territory had been ceded in 1866 by the
Muscogee (Creek) Nation
The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...
, under a new treaty with the US after the Civil War, for resettlement of Creek
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...
and others.
Four years later, passage of the
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pre ...
created pressure to make allotments of communal lands and secure fee-simple title for the Oklahoma Kickapoo. On 21 June 1891 the tribe agreed to cede their reservation in exchange for 80-acre allotments for each tribesman. The Kickapoo were "bitterly opposed" to allotment and fought the process until 1894.
They were right to be resistant, as it resulted in their losing large blocks of land.
Notable members
*
Emma Kickapoo (1880-1942)
References
Further reading
*
*
{{Americans abroad
Assimilation of indigenous peoples of North America
Indigenous Mexican American
Indigenous peoples in Mexico
Kickapoo people
Mexican-American history
Native American history of Kansas
Native American history of Oklahoma
Native American history of Texas
United States federal Indian policy