The Heartland

by Kristin L. Hoganson

28. T. S. Palmer, Legislation for the Protection of Birds Other Than Game Birds, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1902).

  29. “Proceedings of a Kickapoo Council . . . July 16, 1912,” Folder 1, Box 1, Records Concerning Affairs of the Mexican Kickapoo, 1895–1914, Finance Division, RG 75 Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Archives, 11.

  30. On sights, “Street Gossip,” Atchison Champion, June 22, 1890; on single file, “The Populist Mania for Office Has Broken Out among the Kickapoo Indians . . . ,” Atchison Daily Globe, Oct. 13, 1894; on dress, “Will Migrate to Mexico,” Dallas Morning News, May 12, 1904.

  31. “W. W. Letson . . .” Atchison Daily Globe, May 6, 1891.

  32. John D. Miles to General J. J. Reynolds, June 6–21, 1871, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 373, 1867–1871 (Washington, DC: The National Archives, 1958).

  33. Dana Elizabeth Weiner, Race and Rights: Fighting Slavery and Prejudice in the Old Northwest, 1830–1870 (Dekalb: NIU Press, 2013), 43, 53, 203.

  34. Wm. M. Edgar to Hon. E. P. Smith, Oct. 27, 1875, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958); on passports, see Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 19; Craig Robertson, The Passport in America: The History of a Document (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 16.

  35. These provisions were affirmed by the Act of 1834; Martha Menchaca, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001). On removal as protective, see Edward Everett, “Speech of Mr. Everett, of Massachusetts, on the Bill for Removing the Indians from the East to the West Side of the Mississippi” (Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1830), 9–10.

  36. Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 361.

  37. “Lost—One Hundred and Fifty Kickapoos,” Atchison Daily Globe, Jan. 2, 1897.

  38. “The Mexican Kickapoos,” part II, Chronicles of Oklahoma 11 (June 1933): 823–37.

  39. Wm. P. Dole to So-Ko-watt, Pe-shaw-gen, Pah-kah-kah, and Ke-o-quawk, May 5, 1862, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 371, 1855–1863 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  40. “Street Fair Notes,” Emporia Weekly Gazette, Oct. 5, 1899.

  41. “All Have Smallpox,” Milwaukee Journal, Jan. 19, 1899; on guard, “The Indian Troubles in Wisconsin,” Cleveland Herald, March 5, 1846; on hostages, “More Indian Treaties,” New-York Spectator, April 22, 1833; on military confinement, “Great Salt Plain,” Ohio Statesman, Dec. 5, 1843; on imprisonment at Fort Gibson, “The Mexican Kickapoos,” Atchison Daily Globe, Jan. 2, 1897; on detachments, “Kickapoo Trouble,” Dallas Morning News, April 29, 1896; “Lost—One Hundred and Fifty Kickapoos,” Atchison Daily Globe, Jan. 2, 1897.

  42. J. A. Scott to Dan Kan-ke-ka and Jno. Mas-que-qua, Policemen, Oct. 20 1892, in Folder 6: Arrest Warrant, Box 6, Kickapoo, Milo Custer Collection, McLean County Historical Society.

  43. On geography lessons, see David Kinnear to Major R. W. Cummins, Sept. 30, 1838, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Fort Leavenworth Agency, 1824–1851, Roll 301, 1837–1842, microcopy no. 234 (Washington, DC: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1959).

  44. On the $1.00 fine, see Brig. Genl. Henry Atkinson to Edmund P. Gaines, St. Louis, Oct. 7, 1826, in The Territorial Papers of the United States, vol. 20, The Territory of Arkansas, 1825–1829, ed. Clarence Edwin Carter (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1954), 294.

  45. On jail, see John W. Spencer, Reminiscences of Pioneer Life in the Mississippi Valley (Davenport: Griggs, Watson & Day, 1872), 31; “Conviction,” Louisville Public Advertiser, April 20, 1841; “Kickapoos Shot,” Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco), July 11, 1887.

  46. “White Water,” Atchison Daily Globe, June 10, 1896, 31.

  47. Testimony of Ekoneskaka (Aurelio Valdez Garcia) as reported by Jim Salvator, in “An Oral History,” Parnassus: Poetry in Review 17, no. 1 (1992): 170–83.

  48. Latorre and Latorre, The Mexican Kickapoo Indians, 1976.

  49. George R. Nielsen, The Kickapoo People (Phoenix: Indian Tribal Series, 1975), 21, 33.

  50. Nielsen, The Kickapoo People; on buffering Americans, Kiowas, and Comanches, 41. On settlement in Texas, see Gary Clayton Anderson, The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820–1875 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), 164–69; “Mexican Intelligence,” The Boston Daily Atlas, June 4, 1852.

  51. On land in Coahuila, see Shelley Bowen Hatfield, Chasing Shadows: Indians along the United States-Mexico Border, 1876–1911 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998). On trips to Mexico City, see Reports of the Committee of Investigation Sent in 1873 by the Mexican Government to the Frontier of Texas, translated from the official edition made in Mexico (New York: Baker and Godwin, 1875), 409; “Mexican Intelligence,” Boston Daily Atlas, June 4, 1852; José Guadalupe Ovalle Castillo and Ana Bella Pérez Castro, Kikapúes: Los Que Andan Por la Tierra: El Proceso de Proletarización y la Migración Laboral del Grupo de Coahuila (México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1999), 22–23. On Mier y Terán, see Anderson, The Conquest of Texas, 71.

  52. On their 1866 acquisitions, see Reports of the Committee of Investigation Sent in 1873 by the Mexican Government to the Frontier of Texas, 412.

  53. Na she nan et al. to Col. Cumming, Nov. 21, 1855, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 371, National Archives. The Kickapoos were not the only Native American people to survive and cope through fragmentation and diaspora in the nineteenth century. See, for example, Sami Lakomäki, Gathering Together: The Shawnee People through Diaspora and Nationhood, 1600–1870 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).

  54. On conflicts with Comanches, “Affairs in Texas,” North American and United States Gazette (Philadelphia), Jan. 17, 1852. On conflicts with Osages, “Treaty with the Kickapoo Indians,” St. Louis Enquirer, Dec. 8, 1819. On conflicts with Chickasaws, see David La Vere, Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000), 86. On Wichitas and Caddos, see Anderson, The Conquest of Texas, 6. On eastern Indians as pioneers in the trans-Mississippi West, see John P. Bowes, Exiles and Pioneers: Eastern Indians in the Trans-Mississippi West (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 4.

  55. Anderson, The Conquest of Texas, 8, 169, 174, 342.

  56. M. M. McAllen, Maximilian and Carlota: Europe’s Last Empire in Mexico (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2014), 169.

  57. Quoted in Anderson, The Conquest of Texas, 342.

  58. “Kickapoo Indians Not Satisfied,” Dallas Morning News, Feb. 10, 1899.

  59. Latorre and Latorre, The Mexican Kickapoo Indians, 48.

  60. William Kennedy, Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas, vol. 1 (London: R. Hastings, 1841), 349–50.

  61. Robert E. Ritzenthaler and Frederick A. Peterson, The Mexican Kickapoo Indians (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Public Museum, 1956), 11. Mary Christopher Nunley makes similar claims in “The Mexican Kickapoo Indians: Avoidance of Acculturation through a Migratory Adaptation” (PhD diss., Southern Methodist University, 1986), 219.

  62. Alfonso Fabila, La Tribu Kikapoo de Coahuila (Mexico City: Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 2002), 43. On hunting, Wm. Edgar to Edward P. Smith, June 17, 1875, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  63. On pouncing and booty, see “Indian Atrocities in Texas,” Little
Rock Daily Gazette, May 28, 1866. On horse and cattle theft, see “The Kickapoos and Mexican Annexation,” Daily Evening Bulletin (San Francisco), June 17, 1873; “Washington Letter,” Galveston Daily News, June 23, 1874; “Ghastly Trophies,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Sept. 24, 1877.

  64. Richard W. Cummins to Gen. William Clark, Jan. 31, 1838, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Fort Leavenworth Agency, 1824–1851, Roll 301, 1837–1842, microcopy no. 234 (Washington, DC: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1959).

  65. On the Kickapoos as agriculturalists, see “In General,” Boston Daily Advertiser, April 9, 1864; “Mexicans and Indians on the Rio Grande,” Weekly Arizona Miner, Nov. 25, 1871.

  66. “Will There Be War with Mexico?” Cleveland Morning Daily Herald, May 27, 1873. On Anglo robbers passing as Kickapoos, see Anderson, The Conquest of Texas, 302, 307.

  67. “Kickapoo Indians. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, Transmitting Communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs relative to the Kickapoo Indians Now in Mexico,” House of Representatives, 40th Congress, 2nd session, Ex. Doc. No. 340, in Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 373, 1867–1871 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958), 2.

  68. S. S. Brown, “Explanatory Letter A [1868],” in Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series) 1861–1870, Roll 642, National Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy no. 619 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1965).

  69. On arranging, see S. S. Brown to Brevet Major General J. J. Reynolds, Sept. 1, 1868; on questions and camping ground, see S. S. Brown, “Explanatory Letter A [1868],” both in Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series) 1861–1870, Roll 642, National Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy no. 619 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1965).

  70. Edward Hatch to General Ely S. Parker, Aug. 9, 1864, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 373, 1867–1871 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  71. Testimony of Lt. Major A. McD. McCook, Brownsville, Texas, July 30, 1872, in United States Commission to Texas, v. 9, Proceedings July 4–Oct. 3, 1872, Depositions 1–364, Record Group 76, International Claims Commissions. U.S. and Mexico Claims Commissions, National Archives, College Park, Maryland, 32.

  72. Testimony of Lt. Major A. McD. McCook, Brownsville, Texas, July 30, 1872, in United States Commission to Texas, vol. 9, Proceedings July 4–Oct. 3, 1872, Depositions 1–364, Record Group 76, International Claims Commissions. U.S. and Mexico Claims Commissions, National Archives, College Park, Maryland, 32; Arrell M. Gibson, The Kickapoos: Lords of the Middle Border (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 228.

  73. J. R. Bliss to the Adjutant General, Department of Texas, June 15, 1871, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 373, 1867–1871 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958); John D. Miles to General J. J. Reynolds, 6th–21st [June], 1871, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1871, Roll 373, 1867–1871 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  74. John D. Miles to General J. J. Reynolds, 6th–21st [June], 1871.

  75. John D. Miles to General J. J. Reynolds, 6th–21st [June], 1871; Martha Buntin, “The Mexican Kickapoos,” Chronicles of Oklahoma 11 (March 1933), 691–708. On going back to their proper reservation, see Testimony of Lt. Major A. McD. McCook, in United States Commission to Texas, v. 9, 32.

  76. Buntin, “The Mexican Kickapoos,” 698; John D. Miles to General J.J. Reynolds, 6th–21st [June], 1871; John D. Miles, report of July 7, 1871, in Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series), 1861–1870, Roll 799 (Washington, DC: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1965); Colonel J. J. Reynolds to Adjutant General, July 28, 1871, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1871, Roll 373, 1867–1871 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  77. On the appeal to the minister, see Thomas H. Nelson to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, Aug. 30, 1871, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series), 1861–1870, Roll 799 (Washington, DC: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1965); Report and Accompanying Documents of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Relations of the United States with Mexico (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1878), 206, 211.

  78. “The Texas Raids,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver), May 30, 1873.

  79. H. M. Atkinson to E. P. Smith, June 14, 1873, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958); on strong guard and corral, see Ranald Mackenzie to the Assistant Adjutant General, May 23, 1873, Box 18, 1500–2554, 1873, U.S. Army Continental Commands, Department of Texas, Record Group 393, U.S. National Archives.

  80. Gibson, The Kickapoos, 244–45; H. M. Atkinson to E. P. Smith, June 14, 1873, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  81. P. Sheridan to General W. W. Belknap, May 22, 1873, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series), 1861–1870, Roll 799 (Washington, DC: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1965); [Mackenzie] to Col. Williams, May 22, 1873, U.S. Army Continental Commands, Department of Texas, Box 18, 1873, Record Group 393, National Archives. “Will There Be War with Mexico?” Cleveland Morning Daily Herald, May 27, 1873. Two accounts that lionize Mackenzie are R. G. Carter, On the Border with Mackenzie or Winning West Texas from the Comanches, 1935 (New York: Antiquarian Press, 1961), 422–66; Richard A. Thompson, Crossing the Border with the 4th Cavalry: Mackenzie’s Raid into Mexico–1873 (Waco: Texian Press, 1986).

  82. “Kickapoo Indians. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, Transmitting Communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Relative to the Kickapoo Indians Now in Mexico,” 40th Congress, 2nd Session, House of Representatives Executive Document # 340, 1868, 2.

  83. Buntin, “The Mexican Kickapoos,” 699.

  84. “The Mexican Kickapoos,” Atchison Daily Globe, Sept. 30, 1873.

  85. Buntin, “The Mexican Kickapoos,” 704–06. On the winter encampment, A. C. Williams to Enoch Hoag, Jan. 19, 1874, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958). On fencing, see Enoch Hoag to E. P. Smith, Jan. 20, 1874, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: The National Archives, 1958).

  86. On the treaty, see Mexican Border Troubles: Message of the President of the United States in Answer to the Resolution of the House of Representatives of Nov. 1, 1877 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1877), 19.

  87. Carter, On the Border with Mackenzie, 422, 431; Wm. Schuchardt to Second Assistant Secretary of State, March 2, 1874, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  88. H. M. Atkinson to Don Victoriano Cepeda, May 17, 1873, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  89. Lieutenant-General P. Sheridan to Secretary of War W. W. Belknap, May 28, 1873, Letters Received by the Office of the Adjutant General (Main Series), 1861–1870, Roll 799 (Washington, DC: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1965).

  90. Hatfield, Chasing Shadows, 19; [Mackenzie] to Mr. Schuchardt, May 22, 1873, U.S. Army Continental Commands, Department of Texas, Box 18, 1873, Record Group 393, National Archives.

  91. William Schuchardt to General, May 19, 1873, U.S. Army Continental Commands, Department of Texas, Box 18, 1873, Record Group 393, National Archives.<
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  92. H. M. Atkinson to Hon. E. P. Smith, June 14, 1873, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  93. H. M. Atkinson to E. P. Smith, Dec. 26, 1874, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958); on annexation, see El Siglo Diez y Nueve (Mexico City), June 30, 1873.

  94. On unjustified accusations, see Reports of the Committee of Investigation Sent in 1873 by the Mexican Government to the Frontier of Texas, 414.

  95. “H. M. Atkinson . . . ,” The Galveston Daily News, Nov. 3, 1874.

  96. H. M. Atkinson to E. P. Smith, Dec. 26, 1874, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958); “Texas Press,” The Galveston Daily News, March 12, 1874; “Interesting Letter from Durango,” The Galveston Daily News, June 3, 1874.

  97. H. M. Atkinson to Edward P. Smith, March 22, 1875; H. M. Atkinson to E. R. Smith, March 20, 1875, both in Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  98. H. M. Atkinson to Edward P. Smith, March 22, 1875; H. M. Atkinson to E. R. Smith, March 20, 1875; H. M. Atkinson to Edward P. Smith, April 30, 1875; John H. Pickering to Respected Friend, August 14, 1875, all in Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  99. John W. Foster to Hamilton Fish, June 25, 1875, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–76 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).

  100. John W. Foster to His Excellency J. M. Lafragua, June 24, 1875, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, 1824–81, Kickapoo Agency, 1855–1876, Roll 374, 1872–1876 (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1958).