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Kickapoo - Oklahoma (U.S.)

Native American

Last modified: 2017-08-22 by rick wyatt
Keywords: kickapoo | oklahoma | native american |
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[Kickapoo - Oklahoma flag] image by Donald Healy, 11 January 2008



See also:


The Band

[Kickapoo - Oklahoma map]
map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Kickapoo - Oklahoma

The Kickapoo's history (ENAT, 109-110) begins in what is now Wisconsin, although their legends and prayer sticks indicate they may have once inhabited parts of Michigan. They are closely related to the Sac and Fox people who lived in the same general area. In 1769 they joined six neighboring Tribes in a war against the Illinois Indians and moved into lands in what is now Illinois and Indiana. By 1832, with the influx of white settlers and the defeat of many Tribes in the Black Hawk War, the Kickapoo were forced into Missouri. Later still, they were pushed into Kansas and finally, after branching into two groups, the Kickapoo settled in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and Mexico. A small band of Kickapoo is still in northeast Kansas.

The many moves of the Kickapoo Nation seem to have been foretold by their own name. Kickapoo is a corruption of the phrase Ki-we-ga-paw, meaning "He moves about, standing now here, now there".

© Donald Healy 2008


The Flag

The flag of the Kickapoo Nation of Oklahoma sets the tribal seal in black upon a cream or buff field. The seal (Annin & Co.) contains a tribal meeting house on an oval shield, behind which appears a Kickapoo arrow. From the shield hang three white-and-black eagle feathers recalling the subgroups of the Kickapoo people. A band surrounding bears the legend "GREAT SEAL OF THE KICKAPOO NATION" across the top and "OKLAHOMA" below, all in black.

While the flag's field has been described as "cream", it may be "buff" as produced by certain flag manufacturers in the United States and as used in the flag of the Navajo. Or it may actually be white, the most common background color in Native American flags, but faded over time by chemical reactions in the aging fabric [see Choctaw].

In early 1996, the State of Oklahoma dedicated a flag plaza to the Native peoples currently living within its boundaries. Thirty-six flagpoles bear thirty-five flags - the pole for the Kickapoo is bare. Their religious beliefs frown upon the display of such symbols, even though they have a flag in their tribal offices [see Tolowa].

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 11 January 2008