Kickapoo Indians a tribe of the Algonquian language family, closely related to the Sauk and Fox tribes. They were noted for their fierceness in war and their frequent wanderings. About 1670, they lived in Wisconsin, and in about 1765, they moved to Illinois and Indiana. The Kickapoo aided the British in the War of 1812. In 1809 and 1819, they ceded their lands to the government and moved to Missouri; in 1832, they moved to a reservation in Kansas. In 1837, about 100 warriors were engaged to assist the U.S. Army in the Seminole War.

In 1852, a large band of Kickapoo, with some Potawatomi, moved to Texas and then to Mexico. These “Mexican Kickapoo” were granted a reservation in the Santa Rosa Mountains of Chihuahua. A part of the Mexican band in 1873 went to a reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Many Kickapoo remain on reservations in Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.