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The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, formerly known as the Texas Band of Traditional Kickapoo, is one of three Federally recognized tribes of Kickapoo people. The other Kickapoo tribes are the Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas and the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. The tribe had a village under the international bridge spanning the Rio Grande.
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Reservation
The Kickapoo Indian Reservation of Texas is located at 28°36′37″N 100°26′19″W 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.
Government
The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas is headquartered in Eagle Pass, Texas. Their tribal chairman is Juan Garza.
Enrollment to the tribe requires a minimum blood quantum of one-quarter Kickapoo blood.
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
The tribe owns a pecan farm. They also own and operate the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, hotel, Rio Grande Buffet, Riverbend Cafe, Winners Sports Bar and Grill, and Cazadores Bar, all located in Eagle Pass.
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.