They were confederated with the larger Wabash Confederacy, which included the Piankeshaw and the Wea to their north, and the powerful Miami Tribe, to their east.

[2] The earliest European contact with the Kickapoo tribe occurred during the La Salle Expeditions into Illinois Country in the late 17th century.

The French colonists set up remote fur trading posts throughout the region, including on the Wabash River.

As white settlers moved into the region from the United States' eastern areas, beginning in the early 19th century, the Kickapoo were under pressure.

Many Kickapoo warriors participated in the Battle of Tippecanoe and the subsequent War of 1812 on the side of the British, hoping to expel the white American settlers from the region.

The 1819 treaty of Edwardsville saw the Kickapoo cede the entirety of their holdings in Illinois comprising nearly one-half area of the state, in exchange for a smaller tract on the Osage river in Missouri and $3,000 worth of goods.

[3] The Kickapoo were not eager to move, partly as their assigned tract in Missouri was made of rugged hills and already occupied by the Osage, who were their hereditary enemies.

Instead, half of the population traveled south and crossed onto the Spanish side of the Red River in modern day Texas.

[5] The tribe in Kansas was home to prophet Kenekuk, who was known for his astute leadership that allowed the small group to maintain their reservation.

Kenekuk taught his tribesmen and white audiences to obey God's commands, for sinners were damned to the pits of hell.

[6] Once the Kickapoo people got relocated to Kansas they resisted the ideas of Protestantism and Catholicism and started focusing more on farming, so they could provide food for the rest of the tribe.

That tribe formerly owned 917.79 acres (3.7142 km2) of non-reservation land in Maverick County, primarily to the north of Eagle Pass, but has sold most of it to a developer.

[8] After being expelled from the Republic of Texas, many Kickapoo moved south to Mexico, but the population of two villages settled in Indian Territory.

In 1893 under the Dawes Act, their communal tribal lands were broken up[9] and assigned to separate member households by allotments.