1. Kickapoo Indians
This presentation was created using information from the website of Laura Redish and Orrin Lewis. The title of the site is Native Languages of the Americas. The site was first created in 1998 and last updated in 2007.

2. Location
The Kickapoo Indians originally lived in the Michigan and Ohio area. They fled south and west to get away from British and American aggression, settling briefly in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Eventually the Americans forced some Kickapoos onto Kansas and Oklahoma reservations. Others escaped, and their descendants now live in Texas and northern Mexico. Few Kickapoos still live in their original homeland.

3. Can you find their location on the map?

4. Shelter
The Kickapoos didn't live in tepees. They lived in small dome-shaped houses called wickiups. Kickapoo Indians in Mexico still live in traditonal homes like these today, but most American Kickapoos live in modern houses and apartment buildings now.

5. Food Supply
The Kickapoo tribe's staple food was corn. Kickapoo women raised corn and baked cornbread called pugna. They also planted squash and beans. Kickapoo men hunted deer and small game.

6. Kickapoo family - Texas
Women’s Jobs
Kickapoo women were farmers and did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine.
Kickapoo family - Texas

7. Men’s Jobs
Kickapoo Indian men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine.

8. Children
They do the same things any children do--play with each other, go to school and help around the house. Many Kickapoo children like to go hunting and fishing or camp outdoors. In the past, Indian kids had more chores and less time to play, just like colonial children. But they did have toys and games, and Kickapoo women made cornhusk dolls for their daughters. Like many Native Americans, Kickapoo mothers traditionally carried their babies in cradleboards on their backs--a custom which many American parents have adopted now.

9. Clothing
Because the Kickapoo tribe moved so many times, their style of dress changed frequently. Originally, Kickapoo men wore breechcloth and leggings and Kickapoo women wore wraparound skirts. The Kickapoos also wore moccasins on their feet and fur caps or a beaded head band on their heads. Sometimes Kickapoo warriors wore a porcupine roach instead. (These roaches are made of porcupine hair, not their sharp quills!)

10. Kickapoo Brave White Horse

11. Transportation
The Kickapoo Indians were farming people, and when they needed to travel, they usually walked overland. There were no horses in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe, but the Kickapoos adapted to the new animals quickly, and became known as excellent riders. Most of the Kickapoo tribe's long migrations were on horseback.

12. Tools and Weapons
Kickapoo hunters and warriors used bows and arrows, spears, and clubs.

13. Arts and Crafts
Kickapoo artists were known for their pottery, quillwork, and woodcarving. Like other eastern American Indians, the Kickapoos also crafted wampum out of white and purple shell beads. Wampum beads were traded as a kind of currency, but they were more culturally important as an art material. The designs and pictures on wampum belts often told the story of an important incident or represented a person's family. After moving south, some of these traditional crafts disappeared in favor of arts like beadwork and silverwork.