ng the years they had lived in the southeastern United States. Typical of other Great Lakes Algonquin, both lived in fixed villages of mid-sized long houses during summer. After the harvest and a communal buffalo hunt in the fall, the Kickapoo separated to winter hunting camps. The Kickapoo were skilled farmers and used hunting and gathering to supplement their basic diet of corn, squash and beans. Many Indian agents in the 1800s were startled just how well the Kickapoo could farm, but modern Americans would probably be just as surprised to learn how important buffalo hunting was to Kickapoo in Illinois during the 1700s. Before most of the other tribes in the area, the Kickapoo were using horses to hunt buffalo on the prairies of northern Illinois - a skill that allowed their rapid adaptation to the lifestyle of the Great Plains after removal. Like the Shawnee, the Kickapoo were organized into patrilineal clans with descent traced through the father, but the brothers and sisters of the mother had special responsibilities in raising the children. The Kickapoo name is familiar, but most people have trouble remembering where they have heard it. For most Americans, the name sounds humorous, especially for those old enough to remember Al Capp's "Little Abner" and "Kickapoo joy juice." There was, however, nothing funny about the Kickapoo who were a very serious and traditional native people. Until 1819, they lived in Illinois and Wisconsin and played an important role in the history of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, but during the 1870s, they were suddenly in northern Mexico and fighting American cavalry in Texas. Other groups were scattered across the Great Plains from Kansas to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. This is not surprising to those familiar with them. The most distinctive characteristic of the Kickapoo was their stubborn resistance to acculturization, and it is difficult to think of any other tribe, which has gone to such length...
