Kenekuk the Kickapoo Prophet

Most of the Indians whose names we remember were warriors—Tecumseh, Black Hawk, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo—men who led their people in a desperate defense of their lands and their way of life. But as Alvin Josephy has written, “Some of the Indians’ greatest patriots died unsung by white men, and because their peoples were also obliterated, or almost so, their names are forgotten.” Kenekuk was one of those unsung patriots. Leader of the Vermillion Band Kickapoos and Potawatomis from the