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Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas facts for kids

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Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
Grupo Kikapú en Coahuila México.jpg
Southern Kickapoo people building a
winter house in Nacimiento,
Coahuila, Mexico, 2008
Total population
960
Regions with significant populations
 United States ( Texas)
Languages
English, Kickapoo
Religion
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
other Kickapoo people and
Fox, Sauk, and Shawnee people
Kickapoo Indian Reservation
Location in Texas
Location in Texas
Tribe Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas
Country United States
State Texas
County Maverick
Headquarters Rosita South
Government
 • Body Tribal Council
Population
 (2017)
 • Total 416
Website kickapootexas.org

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 is a model for other Native American tribes seeking to lift their members out of poverty, because they were living under the international bridge over the Rio Grande as recently as the 1980s.

Reservation

The Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Texas is located at 28°36′37″N 100°26′19″W / 28.61028°N 100.43861°W / 28.61028; -100.43861 on the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border in western Maverick County, just south of the city of Eagle Pass, as part of the community of Rosita South. It has a land area of 0.4799 square kilometres (118.6 acres) and a 2000 census population of 420 persons. Thanks to the efforts of Cherokee elder and medicine woman, Nakai Breen, the Texas Indian Commission officially recognized the tribe in 1977. Nakai became the first Native American woman to represent another tribe in congress on behalf of the Kickapoo people. This brought the tribe federal recognition and aid in Texas and a small allotment of reservation land.

Language

The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas speaks English and the Kickapoo language, which is a Fox language, part of the Algonquian language family. They also have whistled speech among Kickapoo Indians in Mexico.

Economic development

Tribal enterprises include the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel, which provides Class II gaming, the Lucky Eagle Convenience Store, Kickapoo Empire, which is an 8A business, a pecan farm, ranches located in both the U.S. and Mexico, a gas station in Múzquiz, Coahuila, Mexico, with PEMEX, and other businesses in Maverick County. Tribal members receive educational, housing, wellness, and other social services from the tribe.

History

Kickapoo people traditionally lived near the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers in Wisconsin until the mid-17th century. After the War of 1812, two Kickapoo groups moved to Missouri. In 1833, they moved to Kansas and later down to Oklahoma, Texas, and Nacimiento, Mexico. In Texas, Kickapoos lived among other tribes along the Sabine River. In the 1860s, they fought the Texas Rangers. In the 1870s, the US Army illegally entered Mexico to destroy Kickapoo villages and took women and children to Indian Territory as hostages. The Mexican–Texan Kickapoos moved to a reservation in Indian Territory; however, the reservation was broken into individual allotments in the 1890s, and the Mexican-Texan Kickapoos returned to Mexico. Texan Kickapoos regularly hold ceremonies in Mexico.

In 2002, the tribe had to oust its chairman Raul Garza and business manager Isidro Garza Jr. over corruption charges.

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