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Unconquerable: Photos and History of the Kickapoo Indians

presented by Bill Kemp

The Kickapoo, a fiercely independent people, inhabited this stretch of Central Illinois when the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 1820s.

The Kickapoo, a fiercely independent people, inhabited this stretch of Central Illinois when the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 1820s. This talk will cover their movements across the prairie, their lifeways, their interactions with early settlers, and their forced removal to reservations west of the Mississippi River. This talk will also include rare 1906 photographs of Kickapoo living in Brown County, Kansas. These photographs were commissioned by Milo Custer, an early curator of the McLean County Historical Society.

Bill Kemp of the McLean County Historical Society will deliver the talk. William F. “Bill” Kemp has served as Librarian/Archivist for the McLean County Museum of History since 2003. In December 2005, he began penning a local history column published in each Sunday’s Pantagraph. This “Page from Our Past” column quickly gained popularity and garnered attention for the Museum.

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