‘An
Account of the Kickapoo
from
Contact to Today’
Christopher
S Turner
Spring
2005
Introduction
My own curiosity with
the Kickapoo arose from hearing errant anecdotal information. Through the
years, I cannot recall where, individuals have mentioned especially the
well-known fierce resistance that the Kickapoo embody. This group repeatedly
moved away from the encroaching white man, finally going as far as Mexico,
where they still carry on their traditional ways. I shelved away these romantic
notions. The accounts seemed flimsy.
Now, with the research and reading I
have undertaken to write this report, I find that my old informants were
largely correct. Within the last 350 years, the Kickapoo have managed cultural
upheaval in diverse ways, and they do indeed maintain a traditional village in
Mexico. Two other bands of Kickapoo reside in the US, each with their own
unique narrative of struggle.
These remarkable people met the
European onslaught in virtually every conceivable manner. They adopted other tribes
in confederacies, or fissioned when so needed. They waged serious campaigns of
aggression against the French, the British, the Americans or the Texans. In
other cases they allied with these entities. Other Indian tribes were one day
friends, the next day enemies, or vice versa. The Kickapoo have adapted to the
land in an array of geographical locations: the wooded Midwest, the prairies,
the Mexican deserts. Perhaps most importantly has been their noted religious
conviction. Within the Kickapoo corpus, we find examples of revitalization and staunch conservative traditionalism,
examples of assimilation, acculturation, and resistance. The Mexican Kickapoo
are said to be the most traditional of all remaining Woodland tribes, with many
retaining their original language.
In the pages that follow, I will be
examining the Kickapoo within four general categories:
History:
The course through time
and space of these people reads like an account of early US history itself.
They were very active agents in the Midwest, Oklahoma and other territories,
and Texas.
Material and Social Culture:
Because the Kickapoo have stridently
sought to maintain their original pre-contact culture, it is possible that
their lifeways represent for the anthropologist one of the clearest views into
prehistoric Eastern Woodland societies.
Forms of Religion:
This is the most
fascinating if often hidden aspect of the Kickapoo. Whether examining the
determined brilliance of Kenekuk and his peaceful revitalization/acculturation
effort, or the anachronistic mysterious Mexican Kickapoo, with their strict
adherence to their religious traditions and ceremonies, one gets the impression
that the Kickapoo are strongly spiritual.
The Kickapoo Today:
Lastly, I will offer an overview of the
tribe as they exist today within their three homelands in Kansas, Oklahoma, and
Mexico.
Early Kickapoo History
According to an account from 1640
written by a Jesuit priest, the Kickapoo lived in present-day southwestern
Michigan and northeastern Ohio, west of Lake Erie. Their Huron name meant
‘people of the lake’ (Stull 1984:21). Other sources noted their presence in the
Green Bay area c1634 (Wallace 1964:2). Some sources assert that
‘ki i ka
a po’ roughly translates to wanderers
(Nielsen 1975:1-2, cf. Callender et al 1978:656), and apparently these people did range the region of the lower
Great Lakes and the upper Midwest. They spoke (and speak) a dialect of
Algonkian language that is closely related to that of the Fox, Sac, Mascouten
and Shawnee (Callender et al 1978:656, Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:23),
other tribes that ringed the lower lakes.
While it is impossible to pinpoint a
specific ancestral land, it is known that by c1670, the Kickapoo and other
tribes had retreated to Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula area (Gibson 1963:6). All
were avoiding the advancing Iroquois as they monopolized the fur trade with
their superior European weaponry, the so-called Beaver Wars (Stull 1984:22).
With pressure from their west in the person of French-supplied Sioux warriors,
the Kickapoo and their Wisconsin brethren were truly surrounded. Here begin in
US history the numerous accounts of Kickapoo ferocity and determination.
The Kickapoo now joined forces with
the Sac, Fox and Mascouten, the latter having accompanied the Kickapoo from
their southern Michigan homeland (Gibson 1963:8, Stull 1984:24). Aggressing
against the Iroquois and Sioux, their combined attacks ranged wide, from the
Detroit / Niagara area to the east, to across the Mississippi in Iowa.
Kickapoo-French relations were ambiguous, erupting in mutual violence.
Throughout the late 1600s, French trade was threatened and disrupted. In 1712,
decisive French victories further polarized the situation. Hundreds of
Mascouten were killed, and some Kickapoo ambushed and beheaded, the heads
displayed in Detroit (Callender 1978:662, Gibson 1963:11, Nielsen 1975:12).
It is at this point in the
historical spectrum that we begin to see the workings of Kickapoo intertribal
relations and identity. Among the many Midwestern tribes some sided with the
British, others the French, causing new Kickapoo animosities toward for
instance the Potawatomi. The Kickapoo
also had persistent pre-contact enemies such as the Osage of Missouri.
Throughout the 1700s the compatriot Mascouten were reduced in number, and by
1813 the Kickapoo outright absorbed the tribe, who thereafter ceased to exist
(Callender et al 1978:662,670; cf. Gibson 1963:14; Stull 1984:25).
Stull (1984:75) brings Kickapoo history to bear on the
understanding of intertribal dynamics and identity:
“...Kickapoo
[history] is but another example of the fact that tribes are not static groups
with rigid boundaries that are forever fixed, unchanging throughout
history... There is no such thing as a
tribe whose membership is ‘pure’.. Tribes split up because of factional
differences or they merge because they share common needs or interests.”
In Illinois
Kickapoo history during the 1700s demonstrates their
shifting and apt allegiances and strategies. The combined Fox and Kickapoo/Mascouten
force moved down into Illinois and Indiana as the century began, decimating the
Illinois tribes. The French were especially hated after the events of 1712. Yet
by 1728, the Kickapoo mended relations with the French, and now helped war against
former friends the Fox.
The Kickapoo were encouraged and
employed by colonial forces to war against particular tribes. South of the Ohio
River, the British-allied Chickasaw felt their wrath. The Spanish encouraged
the Kickapoo to raid and destroy the Osage from Louisiana to Missouri. In 1763,
one band of Kickapoo under Chief Serena fissioned and relocated “twelve
leagues” west of St Louis in Spanish Louisiana (Gibson, 1963:32, Nielsen
1975:21, Stull 1984:29), the first event in a long series of Spanish assisted
land acquisitions.
From this period forward, we have the Kickapoo represented
by three bands: Serena’s in Missouri (Spanish Louisiana), the ‘Prairie Band’ on
the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, and the ‘Vermilion Band’ along the river by
that name near Danville Illinois, and along the Wabash River, into western
Indiana. These bands retain some cultural identity, at least with the Vermilion
band today represented by the Kansas Kickapoo (Herring 1988:73,90).
Throughout the late 1700s, Kickapoo
allegiances to the British, the French, and the Americans fluctuated as needed.
During the French-Indian War, the Kickapoo sided against the British. Later,
during the War of 1812, the British would become allies against the Americans.
During this period, the Kickapoo engaged in raids, massacres, and warfare
throughout the Midwest, often in Illinois. Numerous Kickapoo villages were
annihilated. American forces too suffered their share of severe blows,
including the heavy troop losses at Ft. St. Clair in 1790. Only the Spanish
enjoyed a relatively stable relation with these active agents, culminating in
the Mexican Kickapoo enclave we see today (Latorre and Latorre 1976:6-25; Stull
1984:29).
As the nineteenth century opened,
Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet Tenskwatawa visited the
Kickapoo Vermilion Band. The Kickapoo were advocating a pan-Indian unity and
advocating a return to traditional ways, including a resistance to alcohol use.
In 1808, the two Shawnee leaders led their people from Ohio to western Indiana
to found Prophetstown on a former Kickapoo village site. This village was
destroyed in November 1811 in the famous ‘Battle of Tippecanoe’ involving later
president W. H. Harrison (Gibson 1963:62, Nielsen 1975:27, Stull 1984: 43).
Despite such losses, the Kickapoo continued to wage conflict. The British
supplied them with arms during the War of 1812. Tecumseh himself was killed
during a battle in that war, fighting along side of the British.
Finally though by 1819, with the
great influx of hostile white settlers, the Kickapoo signed away their lands in
Illinois and Indiana. They were to be given a two million acre reserve on the
Osage River just northwest of Springfield, Missouri. And “while nearly 2000
tribesmen migrated during 1819, there remained in Illinois two renegade bands,
each numbering about 250 warriors” (Gibson 1963:80-83). One of these groups,
the remains of the Vermilion Band under Kenekuk, remained peacefully in the
state till 1832. The other, the Prairie Band under Chief Mecina, continued in
resistance. Eventually fissioning, one faction of the Prairie Band under
Panoahah went on to join forces with the Fox chief Black Hawk’s ill-fated
uprising in 1832, while Mecina and his people eventually merged with Kenekuk’s
band in peace (Schultz 1980:39).
In Kansas
The subsequent history of the
Kenekuk and his followers is most fascinating. Kenekuk, born circa 1795, became
a leader in the Vermilion Band around 1715 (Herring 1988:27). Earlier in his
life he had murdered a cousin while drunk, and was banished. He was then
befriended by a Christian teacher, and returned to his tribe reformed (Custer
1918). Following existing revitalization, anti-alcohol redemptive practices, he
codified his teachings into a religion. Actually, this was closer to a
syncretic adaptation than an outright revitalization movement. He held regular
church services, though the teachings were of morals and love, lacking the
Christian pantheon. The Kickapoo retained their own religion within that
professed by Kenekuk. (With some adaptations / revisions including monogamy and
the ceasing of medicine bag rituals.) Kenekuk gained a large following,
including a substantial number of Potawatomi.
This effort was apparently quite
pragmatic, as with Kenekuk’s entreaties to Superintendent of Indian Affairs
William Clark, the former explorer. The Prophet would plainly urge Clark with
his message of peace, cooperation, avoidance of alcohol, peaceful coexistence
with the whites, and the like, embodying Christian forthrightness. His people
were generally accepted and noted for their friendliness. His efforts gained
the tribe a relatively peaceful time, till finally they migrated in 1833
(Gibson 1963:88-90, 110-12; Herring 1988:27-75; Stull 1984:49). This marked the
end of the Kickapoo east of the Mississippi.
The 1832 Treaty of Castor Hill
(Clark’s St.Louis home) provided 768,000 acres in northeastern Kansas, and
prior Kickapoo possession of the Osage River tract in Missouri (from the 1819
treaties) was superceded by the agreement. Hence two separate bands of Kickapoo
were to use the Kansas reserve. This proved problematic for Kenekuk’s people as
they tried to settle in their new land. The former Prairie Band Kickapoo under
Chief Kishko abused alcohol, were combative, and refused to take up farming.
They held Kenekuk’s passive group in derision. For several years in the 1830s,
these two groups kept an uneasy distance living only a mile apart on their new
Kansas lands. The antagonist group would sometimes rage through Kenekuk’s
village drunk, accosting women and the like. Kishko and his unsettled Prairie
Band Kickapoo finally left Kansas in 1837 to join the growing number of
dispossessed Kickapoo in parts of Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma (Callender
1978:663; Gibson 1963:109-117; Herring 1990:36-41; Stull 1984:71-74).
Kenekuk’s people were left in
relative peace. By 1851, followers among the
Potawatomi were formally merged into the Kansas Kickapoo tribe. Kenekuk
died of smallpox in the early 1850s, but his influence helped the Kansas
Kickapoo/Potawatomi to assimilate to the
greater degree than the other Kickapoo bands.
In Texas
Other Kickapoo bands had occupied
areas across Oklahoma and Texas since as early as 1815 (Gibson 1963:145). With
the encouragement of the Spanish, the Kickapoo acted as buffers against the
hostilities of other local tribes, such as the Osage or Comanche. They occupied
villages along the Sabine and Angelina rivers in east Texas, the Brazos River in central Texas, in the
western Ouachita Mountains near the Red, and along Oklahoma’s Wichita and
Canadian rivers. The east Texas camps were shared with émigré Cherokee Chief
Bowles and his people. During the 1820s, these villages fared well under
Spanish aegis. The following decade however brought Texan independence, and
despite assistance from Sam Houston, the Texas Indian villages were routed, and
Chief Bowles himself killed in 1839 (Gibson 1963:157). Thus began the perennial
Kickapoo hatred for the Texans.
The Kickapoo in Mexico
In the late 1840’s, dispossessed
Seminole Indians of Florida under Chief Wildcat arranged with the Spanish to
occupy lands along the Rio Grande (Wright and Gesick 1996:14). They were to
help defend Mexico from marauding Apache, Kiowa, Osage, Pawnee and Comanche.
Wildcat envisioned a new pan-Indian alliance based in Mexico, yet none were
interested but the roving Kickapoo. In 1850, 250 Kickapoo, Seminole, and the
Seminole’s black slaves occupied lands in northern Coahuila. This ‘colony’ was
largely a failure and due in part to predation of the Seminole’s slaves at their
Rio Grande location, it was relocated further into Mexico to the locus of the
present day Kickapoo lands. These black slaves essentially kept the enclave
going through the 1850s and 60s, as the Indians had all but for twenty Kickapoo
returned to Oklahoma by 1861 . The maroon colony exists to this day (Latorre
and Latorre 1976:13-15, Red River Authority 2005, Ritzenthaler and Peterson
1956:19).
The Kickapoo in Oklahoma
Existing animosities with the Osage
and the Chickasaw rendered problematic Oklahoma settlement for the Kickapoo. In
agreement with the Creeks in 1842, they would settle along the Canadian River,
about 40 miles east of present Oklahoma City. They were to guard the Creek
western flank against the Comanche and others (Gibson 1963:163-176). This area,
near the present town of Shawnee, is still the center of Kickapoo habitation in
the state.
More intra-tribal division arose
during the Civil War as different bands sided with the South or North. Some
Kickapoo based themselves in Kansas and fought for the Union. Others, seeking
to avoid the contention, started migrating back to Mexico. In 1862, Chief
Machemanet’s Band of about 600 Kickapoo trekked a steady discrete course well
wide of Texas settlements, out along the 100th Meridian west of San
Angelo. Rejoining the remnant Kickapoo and the colony of Seminole Blacks,
Machemanet’s group marked the beginning of the permanent Kickapoo settlement at
Nacimiento, Mexico. The chief sent
messengers north to other Kickapoo in Oklahoma and Kansas, beseeching them to
come to Mexico. In late 1864, Chiefs Nokowat, Pecan, and Papequah led about 700
Kickapoo from Kansas down to Mexico.
They too took the stealthy, slow discrete western route around their
Texas enemies. They were, however discovered and attacked in camp in January
1865. Though surprised at dawn, the Kickapoo routed the Texas militia force of
400, killing twenty-six and critically wounding sixty. Gibson wrote: “The
Battle of Dove Creek was the most disastrous defeat ever suffered by the Texans
in their long history of Indian wars...” (1963:200-207). The shaken Indians
hastily made their way to join the other Kickapoo in Mexico.
In Mexico to Stay
For the next twenty years, with the
tacit approval of the Mexican government, the Kickapoo would launch relentless
repeated raids against their hated Texas enemies. Stolen livestock was the
primary target, with many people murdered or kidnapped, and property destroyed.
Finally, in 1873, this time with the tacit approval of the US government, an
Army command under Colonel Ranald Mackenzie crossed unauthorized (viz: by the
Mexican government) into Mexico and struck the undefended Kickapoo camp. Blacks
from the maroon colony had assisted Mackenzie’s forces, and had informed them
that the Kickapoo men were away on a hunt. Nineteen were killed, but what’s
more, many women and youth were hastily taken back to San Antonio in the US.
The goals were to stop the Kickapoo raids and to force part of the Mexican
colony back to Oklahoma, and this was largely the outcome. Raiding continued
for a few more years, ending by 1880 (Callender et al 1978:664; Gibson
1963:210-257; Latorre and Latorre 1976:20-23; Nielsen 1975:52-58).
Though some Kickapoo did later
return to Mexico, part of their tribe has been in Oklahoma since the Mackenzie
affair. They still had to endure the reduction in their lands, both in Kansas
and Oklahoma, with the allotment laws of the Dawes Act of 1887. But from the
turn of the 20th Century, with Kickapoo in Kansas, Oklahoma, and
Mexico, this is essentially the situation as it exists today. We can now leave
the historical narrative, and look at the Kickapoo as regards their cultural
characteristics.
Kickapoo Culture
In general, the Kansas band is the
least traditional, Nacimiento the most, with the Oklahoma Kickapoo somewhere in
the middle. In Kansas for instance, the Kickapoo dialect is no longer spoken,
but rather Potawatomi. At Nacimiento, the original language is still dominant.
A few of the men in Mexico can write using the Cherokee script. Virtually all
of the structures there are traditional. In Oklahoma, about one-third build
traditional houses, and about 50% engage in traditional religious activities
(Latorre and Latorre 1976:29-30, Stull 1984:1, Wallace 1969:107-108).
About 600 Kickapoo/Potawatomi live
on or around the roughly 7000 acre reservation in northeastern Kansas (Stull
1984:128). The Oklahoma Kickapoo, who perhaps number 400, are dispersed on
former allotment tracts between Shawnee and Jones, Oklahoma (Callender
1978:666, Wallace 1964:62). The 1964 estimate of the Mexican Kickapoo
population was 425. The Nacimiento tract
is over 7000 hectares, and was given to the Kickapoo by the Mexican government
in the 18 and 1900s (Latorre and Latorre 1976:28, 122-129). It is located in
the Chihuahuan Desert at 1500 feet above sea level, in the foothills of the
Sierra Madre Oriental. The upper reaches of the spring fed Sabinas River flow
nearby the village (Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:23).
Most often noted are the traditional structures as seen in
Nacimiento (and to a lesser extent in Oklahoma). Traditionalist Kickapoo still
build alternating winter and summer houses. Though they are now covered with a
reed native to Mexico, these houses are apparently of ancient design. Typically
about 15 by 20 feet in area, the doors on these bent sapling oval structures
always face east. The women own (and build much of) the home (Gesick 1996;
Latorre and Latorre 1976:27-28,35-44; Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:81-89;
Wallace 1964:11).
According to the Latorres, the
village at Nacimiento is laid out in a kind of quartered cosmogram. In the
village “two main lanes cross from east to west, crossed by two others from
north to south”(1976:27). According to Wallace (1964:11), there are specific
loci both inside and outside of the village for various buildings, including:
the homes of the chief, his wives, his 1st and 2nd
assistants, the main Eagle Clan and Tree Clan members, the shamans, the sick
huts, the sweat lodges, the birth huts, the menstrual huts, and the cemeteries.
Given spatial relations have meaning within the Kickapoo cosmogony. For
instance, the birth hut is located west of the village such that new mothers
and babes when emerging through the east-facing door see the rising sun over
the village. The dead are buried laid out with head to the east. In this way,
when they arise to depart to beyond, they are facing west, the proper direction
for parting souls to venture. There is no evidence of a moiety arrangement in
the community housing. The moieties that do exist, divided into white (kisko) and black (oskasa) groups, are used to choose sides in ritual games. These divisions are not (any longer?)
reflected in clan or marriage schemata (cf. Callender 1978:660; Latorre and
Latorre 1976:268; Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:45).
The Mexican Kickapoo still make a
number of useful traditional items. Among these are baskets, bows and arrows,
saddles, utensils, bowls, deer calls, cradle boards, pipes, jewelry, tanned
skins, and moccasins (Latorre and Latorre 1976:64-75, Ritzenthaler and Peterson
1956:65-81). Weaving and tanning are the work of women. The men do the carving.
Any hunting is done by the men. They especially like to bag deer whenever
possible, for the meat, ritual use, and for the skins.
Polygyny (in Mexico) was apparently practiced until very
recently. The society is largely egalitarian, and marriage and divorce are both
easily accomplished. Marriages are matrilineal: the man moves into the woman’s
home. Clans were probably once but are no longer exogamous. First cousin
marriages are tabooed, perhaps a trend toward observing prevalent
supra-cultural norms (Mexican and American), away from the former clan exogamy
regime (Latorre and Latorre 1976:183-190, Ritzenthaler and Peterson
1965:62-63).
There are various nominal leaders, both civil and
religious. The acting chief at Nacimiento receives a small stipend from the
Mexican government (Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1965:41). The religious chiefs
oversee the various annual ceremonies. In Oklahoma, according to Wallace
(1969:109), the religious leaders “...basically control the political activity
of the tribe.”
Religious Practices
The Kickapoo recognize that all gods
are one, and their name for the great spirit is Kitzihiat (Latorre and Latorre
1976:261, Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:46). Religion colors much of Kickapoo
identity.
The Kansas Kickapoo community was essentially founded by
followers of Kenekuk, whose tenets continue to be observed to this day. Soon
after arriving in Kansas in 1833, Kenekuk’s people were exhorted by Baptist,
Presbyterian, Catholic Jesuit, and Methodist ‘would be converters’. Even an
Evangelical crusader, Harriet Livermore, came to northeast Kansas to prophesy
the end of the world. The Kickapoo resisted all, and maintained the syncretic
creed of Kenekuk (Herring 1988:93-99, Schultz 1980:42-45).
According to Stull (1984:94-96),
members of the Kansas Kickapoo still belong to the Kenekuk religion, the “Drum
religion”, and/or the Native American Church. The latter uses the peyote cactus
as its sacrament. Whereas members of both the Kansas and the Oklahoma Kickapoo
ritually consume the cactus, the Mexican Kickapoo, who live close to the peyote
range and are said to more religious, shun it (Latorre and Latorre 1976:99,
Peterson 1956:20; Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:12, 50). This can perhaps be interpreted as an
indicator of their adherence to older Algonkian traditions 1(Wallace
1969:107), or a result of misinformation arising from secrecy. The Mexican
Kickapoo are fiercely secretive about their religious practices, and are closed
minded toward outside religious influences (Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:
9,12, 25, 45, 50, 56; Wright and Gesick 1996:xiii-xv). Generally, outsiders are not welcomed in Nacimiento,
especially during the winter season (as Ritzenthaler and Peterson found out
suddenly during their fieldwork, viz: 1956:9).
|
The
winter/spring ceremonies mark the New Year, the heart of the Kickapoo ritual
cycle. Although these are kept highly secret, it is known that four different
ceremonial clan bundles are involved. The sequence of ceremonies begins after
the Plieades is seen at the zenith at sunset, when the first thunders of the
season occur in the four directions, typically in February (Callender 1978:661;
Latorre and Latorre 1976:267; Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:47). New Fire
Ceremonies are performed at this time, with the ritually kindled fire kept
going in a specific hut all year (Latorre and Latorre 1976:265). Puppy and deer
ribs are ritual foods for these ceremonies. Deer apparently ranks high in the
Kickapoo cosmogony, and is of great ritual importance (Latorre and Latorre
1976:274-279, 339-340; Wright and Gesick 1996:153-157).
There are too many taboos, dances,
and rituals to name them all. A brief discussion must suffice. For example,
with newborns a naming ceremony is
performed at a few months of age. The ritual requires a certain quantity of
deer ribs, and must be held in the season appropriate to given clans. Adoption ceremonies are held for the
spirits of the recently deceased. Such rites are performed during the Kickapoo
New Year season. The Latorres list the following types of Kickapoo dances,
ceremonies, and games: chief’s, men’s, and buffalo dances. Ceremonies for the
Green Corn, the rain, for bundle purification, arrival and departure, for
‘Little Rabbit’, house dedication, house construction, and for planting. And
lastly the Moccasin, Man’s Ball, Bow and Arrow, Woman’s Double-Shimmy, and Dice
and Bowl games (1976:290-340, see also Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:45-53).
The number of such observances
underscores the depth of Kickapoo religious conviction. The overall importance
religion and ritual hold to the Kickapoo is noted by Ritzenthaler and Peterson:
“The Kickapoo believe that when their tribe becomes extinct, God will destroy
the whole world by fire” (1956:13, 46). “They ardently believed that if they
were to give up their ways, the world would come to an end” (Nielsen 1975:2).
To my mind, the realm of Kickapoo sacrality is reminiscent of that of the Hopi
(Waters 1963). Both maintain an ‘ancient’ religious program, both maintain
secrecy, and with both dances figure prominently in the seasonal rituals. Both
Hopi and Kickapoo hold that the perpetuation of their ceremonies sustains the
very existence of the world. If indeed these rites have been continually
performed, it is remarkable that the Kickapoo did so through the many upheavals
and migrations they experienced and through the periods of warfare that they
endured.
The Kickapoo in the 1900s
As the century opened, Native
American population estimates were at an all time low. According to Stull
(1984:102), there were less than 250,000 Indians of all tribes, with 255
Kickapoo on the Kansas reservation. Among these were about ten descendents of
Kenekuk, whose church was still being maintained (Schultz 1980:46).
Oklahoma Kickapoo population was a
few hundred, dwindling to 100 in 1905 (Nielsen 1975:73). Some had gone as far
away as the Mexican state of Sonora (south of Douglas AZ) attempting to start
yet another colony. These and many Nacimiento Kickapoo returned to the Oklahoma
allotments in the late 1920s, and the formal Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma legally
organized in 1938 (Callender et al 1975:665, Gibson 1963:342, Nielsen
1975:68-76, 82, Wallace 1969:109).
Nielsen (1975:82-91) noted that
1,184 members were enrolled in the Oklahoma tribe, with about 500 actually
living in the Jones-Shawnee area. Kickapoo there owned about 6000 acres in
total. Whereas adults over 25 at this time had a 40% high school graduation
rate, all 408 school age children were attending classes, a clear sign of
increasing Kickapoo acculturation. One-third were reported as Christian in
1975, versus one-sixth in the early sixties (Nielsen 1975:91, Wallace
1969:108). Use of the Kickapoo language is down in Oklahoma, while Voorhis
(1974: Introduction) puts the total number of speakers (including in Mexico) at
500-700.
As with the Mexican Kickapoo, many
of the Oklahoman tribe labor on the annual migrant circuit. Some lease their
own land to farmers, then labor on it. A minority of Oklahoma Kickapoo work
semi-skilled jobs in nearby towns. They are said to shun white contact, and
philosophically some are overtly anti-Christian. About one-third of the homes
are made in traditional style, with most far back off main roads in wooded
areas, the people liking privacy (Nielsen 1975:77, Wallace 1969:107, 110).
According to Nielsen (1975:91),
among the Oklahoma Kickapoo, 1/3 were members of a Protestant church, 1/3 were
Protestant and also observed traditional religion, thirteen percent were
members of the peyote cult, while another 11% adhered only to traditional ways.
These categories fail to assess the number who to some degree identified with
the traditional religion, but it was minimally [1/3 + 11% = 44%].
Lastly, we come to the Mexican Kickapoo, the most
compelling of the tribes. Since the Mackenzie raid in 1873, Nacimiento has
served as a place of refuge for disgruntled Kickapoo from Oklahoma, and it has
become a new ancestral home (Garcia 1992:174). In 1937, Mexican President
Cardenas expanded and reaffirmed the rights of Kickapoos in their Nacimiento
reserve. (President Benito Juarez had issued the first land grant in 1857, and
in 1937 they were given an additional 10,000 acres.) They pay no taxes, and
have general foraging rights (Ritzenthaler and Peterson 1956:20-21, Wright and
Gesick 1996:16-17).
A major drought in the late 1940s
forced the Mexican Kickapoo to assume a migrant labor lifestyle (Fredlund
1994:4,Garcia 1992:170, Wright and Gesick 1996:17). They were no longer able to
raise crops, and it was difficult to gain permission from some ranchers to hunt
on their land (Ritzenthaler 1956:36-38). Lacking birth certificates and the
like, they were in a limbo zone legally when crossing the US border. Around
1950, the migrant Kickapoo established an intermediate camp along the Rio
Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas. This base served as a jumping off point for
finding farm work as it became available. The camp was set up under the
International Bridge. In a most incongruous juxtaposition, the Kickapoo built
traditional style houses there, but used corrugated cardboard as a sheathing
material. This situation persisted for four decades (Latorre and Latorre
1976:90-91, Wright and Gesick 1996:20).
In January 1983, these Indians
living in Eagle Pass were given formal federal recognition, and were called the
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas (Wright and Gesick 1996:25). Apparently
they are also legally recognized as the Texas Band of the Oklahoma Kickapoo
Tribe (Fredlund 1994:3).
The Kickapoo were given a 125-acre reservation 8 miles
southeast of Eagle Pass. Fredlund (1994:19) suggested that about 200 Kickapoo were
living on this land. It is difficult to assess this quantity, as so many are
off in season to their farm work. The Latorres (1976:25) reported that 98% of
the Nacimiento band leave for the summer migrant labor season. Others have gone
back to their homes in Oklahoma. Later, hundreds may be back down in Nacimiento
for the New Year ceremonies (Fredlund 1994: 4,19; Wallace 1969:109, Wright and
Gesick 1996).
The
Kickapoo in the 21st Century
This then is the situation now in
2005. There are presently four separate bands of Kickapoo, those in Kansas,
Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico. They are in that order progressively more
traditional in lifestyle. The Texas settlement is a bit anomalous. Members
there can consist of individuals who reside most often in Oklahoma or Mexico.
These identities are fluid and interchangeable. Most Kickapoo recognize the
Nacimiento site as being the sacred center of the tribe as a whole. Large
numbers of Kickapoo travel there in the winter for the annual ceremonies.
Due in part to the migrant
lifestyle, education among the Kickapoo is increasing. Schooling had been
vehemently eschewed in the past. Utilities are available on the Texas
reservation, conducive to a healthier lifestyle.
There have been unforeseen problems.
The abuse of solvents, the inhaling of the volatile fumes, has become a major
health concern. Fredlund (1994) reported that 44% of the 167 adult respondents
on the Texas reservation admitted to prior paint use. Special inhalation
techniques and devices are used to maximize the vapor from the paint
(preferably a gold or silver color, reported to taste the best). Shabby gangs
of homeless paint abusers frequent the old haunts under the International
Bridge in Eagle Pass. The matter-of-fact style of Fredlund’s report to Texas
state health officials is blunt and disturbing. Apparently the Kickapoo value a
particular aspect of the experience: it produces ‘visions’. This is an
unfortunate example of their religious cosmogony, their immersion in the
ritualistic, gone awry. The Kickapoo Traditional Council has remarked that
paint abuse “..threatens to do what 350 years of hardship could not: extinguish
the traditional Kickapoo way of life
from the earth.”(Fredlund 1994:1).
And right in the forefront of recent
news, the Kickapoo have just opened a modern casino on their land in Eagle
Pass. The Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino first opened in 1996 in prototype form,
awaiting a planned full-scale facility. In fact, corruption and delay resulted.
Finally in October 2002, members of the Texas Kickapoo tribe staged “a peaceful
vote of conscience” toppling the tribal manager of the casino. Federal criminal
charges soon resulted, with one Kickapoo, the former chief, being indicted .
The tribal manager, Isidro Garza, is the center of the investigation:
“Garza, 54, a non-Indian,
was ousted along with members of the Kickapoo tribal council and chairman in a
peaceful tribal uprising in October 2002....If convicted on all counts and
sentenced to the max, Garza, a former Eagle Pass city manager, technically
faces more than a century behind bars. But his troubles just begin
there....Also indicted were his wife, Martha, his eldest son,...another son,
....former tribal lawyer Joe Ruiz ...former casino manager Lee Martin, ...and
former tribal chairman Raul Garza Sr., the only Kickapoo charged. (He is not
related to the other Garzas.) All seven have pleaded not guilty. A trial is
likely to come this summer. ...Among the counts the Garza family members face
are tax evasion, embezzlement and conspiracy.(MacCormack 2/10/2005).”
The new casino opened in fall 2004, and the Kickapoo hosted
the Tejano Music Awards Ceremony just last month (March 2005). The casino is
expected to gross $30 million per year to start. Attempts are being made to
upgrade the legal status of the facility to that on par with Las Vegas (i.e.
allowing more types of gambling).
Given the very recent situation with
Speaker of the US House Tom Delay, some of which involves illegal lobbying of
Texas Indian tribes concerning casino development, it is easy to be curious
about the Kickapoo casino situation. That journalistic inquiry is beyond the
present scope, but who knows, it may play a part in the public story
eventually.
With the advent of a successful
casino, with the trends toward increased childhood education, and lastly
combined with the migrant lifestyle and the cultural exposure it brings, it is
easy to predict that the Kickapoo are entering a mutable phase in their cultural identity. Their fierce self-determination
likely assures their continued existence as a people.
References Cited
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Custer,
Milo
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Keeanakuk: the Kickapoo Prophet. The
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Eric V.
1994 Volatile
Substance Abuse Among the Kickapoo People in the Eagle Pass, Texas Area, 1993. Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse
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The author grants permission to
reproduce text, tables, maps, or images included herein, provided that the
author is cited as Turner, Christopher S.,
year of article, name of article, conference event and date if
applicable to paper, page, and source, and provided that use of any text,
tables, maps, or images included herein is for non-commercial, academic
purposes.
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