The actual kikapu settlements are the results of an arduous pilgrimage from the region of the great lakes of Michigan and the Eire, in North America, down to northern Mexico.

    Nowadays, the kikapu live in reservations in Kansas and Oklahoma, United States, and in the communities of El Nacimiento (Coahuila) and in Tamichopa, community of Bacerac, in the mountainous zone of Sonora.

    There are now 90 kikapu who live in Tamichopa.

HISTORY

*** At the end of the XVII century, the kikapú were living in southern Wisconsin, (USA) and at the beginning of the next century, they moved west of Lake Eire.
*** Towards 1730, two groups are formed: the Bermellón band, which moved to Indiana and the Praderas, who would settle in Illinois.
*** Halfway through the XVIII century, there is a third band formed and heads towards Missouri.
*** In Missouri, the three bands divided and new groups surge with new leaders, one of which settles in Kansas and the rest heads towards Arkansas and Oklahoma, where they settled in 1830 and have stayed up to our days.
*** In 1824, groups of kikapú, due to their territory being occupied by Americans settlers, request the Mexican president Guadalupe Victoria permission to settle in San Antonio, Texas.
***In 1847, the Texans rebelled against the government of Coahuila, from which they depended, and the Texas territory is lost.
*** In 1850, the kikapú, the mascogos and the Seminole request the Mexican government a territory to live. General José Joaquin Herrera, president of Mexico, authorizes the foundation of a military colony in the Hacienda La Navaja and allowed them to establish there with the condition that they defend Mexicans from the Comanche attacks, under the command of the Mexican army (Colonization Agreement of October 25, 1850).
** In 1852, they asked for a change of colony La Navaja to El Nacimiento, also in Coahuila. The petition was granted.
*** In 1856, the alliance between the three groups is broken. The Seminole return to the U.S.
*** In 1865 the emperor Maximiliano and later president Benito Juarez, acknowledge the concession of lands in El Nacimiento, which brought fights with the Apaches.
*** In 1870 the army colony at El Nacimiento became a farming settlement, defending valorously the Mexican frontier. The US Government granted them a federal reserve in US soil but they declined.
*** In 1873, about 500 US soldiers, under Col. Mackenzie, raid a kikapu settlement while male Indians were gone hunting.  Soldiers killed many settlers and then captured 40 natives (children, elders and women). Captives are taken to US territory. The kikapu assembled a war council and then the Mexican Government, in a diplomatic gesture, offered a voluntary return of remaining kikapus to the USA if this government set free women and children taken in the raid. About 500 kikapus decided returning to a Kansas reservation and 90 decided stayed in Mexico.
*** In 1883 was officially created the Oklahoma kikapu reservation. A kikapu group within the reservation was legally oriented by attorney Martin J. Bentley, commissioned from the US Bureau of Indian affairs, the objective was defined their own territory. Bentley deceived this group and plundered them in several occasions from their possessions. After Bentley was ceased from his post by the US Government, he drove this group (early XX century) to settle in El Nacimiento. These settlers were rejected by the Coahuila kikapus. Then the ex commissioner bought 29,158.44 acres in the municipality of Bacerac, in the northeast Sonora mountains.
*** In 1905 a group of about 200 members of this ethnia settled in an abandoned ranch, funding the Tamichopa settlement. Once in Sonora, this group was joined by several kikapus coming from Oklahoma.
***In 1910, several families from Tamichopa returned to USA.
*** In the second half of the XX century, this community endured territorial and demographic troubles, losing population as well as land.
*** Mexican presidents Venustiano Carranza (1919) and Lazaro Cardenas (1937) ratified their possessions and granted them more land. Later Mexican administrations honored those treaties with the kikapu people.
*** During the middle 80’ the kikapus intended the recovery of territory and group cohesion. The community legally claimed its rights for land, starting a campaign of awareness between scattered kikapus in Bacerac, Huachineras, Naco (in Sonora) and Casas Grandes (Chihuahua), proposing to them to repopulate Tamichopa. In this way was created the actual settlement, using support from different social sectors.
*** Nowadays, El Nacimiento settlement has become a sacred place where traditional rituals and dances still take place.

COSMOGONY AND RELIGION
Being a “good kikapú” means always fulfill hunting, purifying and New Year’s rites, also comply with sacred fires and baptism by means of prayers, offers and fasting. Celebrations are always accompanied with deer meat. Fire is constantly burning at the center of a dwelling, reminding a constant praying to Kitzihaiata, who chose kikapú men to populate earth.
The kikapú group settled in Sonora is in imminent danger of losing ethnic identity. Less than a year ago, the last Kikapú language speaker died. From years back, their dances, music, funerary rites, and traditional festivities were almost unused, as well as their craftsmanship and their political and legal structure.
Celebrations and traditional rites are now lost, the kikapú had embraced the Raman Catholic religion and they celebrate some of their holly days or join celebrations from nearby towns.

DWELLING
They dwell in two types of housing: Indian and Mexican design.
 Indian dwells have two variants:
***winter house: elliptic, with a structure based on thin trunks covered with Tule tree leaves, having the sacred bonfire at the center. In this place is where the offerings are made to their deity Kitzihaiata and also where tribe new members are initiated.
***summer house: rectangular, with walls made of Carrizo plants and an elliptical roof made of Tule tree leaves. In the interior a set of several beds supported by trunks are placed and at the center the sacred bonfire.
Mexican housing is built of concrete and terracotta, with electricity and watering services typical of modern societies.

LANGUAGE
The kikapú language belongs to the algonquiniana family; it is still being spoken in Coahuila as a means to communicate between them. In Sonora it is now unused

CRAFTMANSHIP
Nowadays, it consists in manufacturing “tehuas” or moccasins, with deer skin and embroidered with beads.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
 First of all is hunting, by which they self provide of meat and furs. For centuries, the kikapú were excellent hunters. During the period of January through April, hunting has a ritual meaning. As a second economic activity they farm wheat, oats, corn, beans and squash.