Kickapoo

The Kickapoo people (Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe. Anishinaabeg say the name “Kickapoo” (Giiwigaabaw in the Anishinaabe language and its Kickapoo cognate Kiwikapawa) means “Stands here and there,” which may have referred to the tribe’s migratory patterns. The name can also mean “wanderer”. This interpretation is contested and generally believed to be a folk etymology. Today there are three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States: Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas, the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. The Oklahoma and Texas bands are politically associated with each other. Around 3,000 people are enrolled tribal members. Another band, the Tribu Kikapú resides in Múzquiz Municipality, in the Mexican state of Coahuila.