Kickapoos Play the Casino Card in High-Stakes Bid for Future

On the banks of the Rio Grande, in a village of dusty roads and primitive huts, the Kickapoos inhabit a world long closed to outsiders.

They speak an ancient language and cling to tribal customs. Modern-day life is blended with an age-old religion celebrated during trips to Kickapoo spiritual land in Mexico.

“The tribe loves their language and all the traditions,” said Tribal Chairman Raul Garza, speaking in Kickapoo. “We want to keep it alive as long as we can.”

But Kickapoo leaders are striving for some change. And, bit by bit, it’s coming.

One of the biggest transformations yet occurs this month when the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas opens the $5-million Lucky Eagle Casino, offering poker and high-stakes bingo.

Its supporters say the casino will produce jobs. Some Kickapoos worry, though, that gambling will bring strangers and evil influences into their secluded community.

“I really don’t want it here, and I feel like there is going to be corruption later on,” said Sara Garza, 18, noting that some tribal members use marijuana and inhalants and she fears drug problems could worsen.

Sara Garza, who isn’t related to the tribal chairman, in many ways embodies the progress Raul Garza is working to achieve. She is one of only two high school graduates this year among the 500-member tribe and hopes to attend Southwest Texas State University and become a nurse.

Most tribal members are migrant farm workers with an average education of second grade.

The director of the reservation’s Head Start preschool program estimates that most families make about $7,000 annually. Some survive on as little as $1,700 a year.

Raul Garza contends the casino jobs will help young people earn money for college and prevent Kickapoo families from traveling across the country to harvest crops, with children riding dangerously in open truck beds.

“With the casino, I see a lot of good futures for the young tribe members,” Garza said, speaking through an interpreter.

Kickapoo leaders have entered a five-year contract with Southwest Casinos to finance and run the gaming operation.

The 16,000-square-foot casino, which will accommodate 450 people at a time, is being built on a field on the edge of the reservation. It will have a sports bar as well as a restaurant called “The Kickapoo Kafe.”

The casino will employ about 125 workers at first. Tribal officials eventually want to expand to Class III gaming--including slot machines, dice games and roulette, said tribal administrator Roberto De La Garza.

Casino and tribal officials say they don’t worry about the remote location of the Kickapoo reservation. They are counting on bingo and poker enthusiasts coming from San Antonio, 125 miles to the northeast, Laredo and Piedras Negras, Mexico, just across the border.

In addition to high-stakes bingo and card games such as “Seven Card Stud,” “Texas Hold-em” and “California Aces,” the casino will have 75 “Lucky Pull Tab” machines, similar to slot machines.

The only other Indian casino in Texas is the one run by the Tiguas near El Paso, hundreds of miles to the west. It opened in 1993.

No exact figures are available on how well the Tiguas have done, but De La Garza said the Tiguas’ experience has the Kickapoos optimistic.

“We feel that they’ve done well. They’ve had several expansions in the short time they’ve been operating,” De La Garza said.

Lupita Jimenez, an elderly Kickapoo tribal member who says she doesn’t remember her age, likes the casino plan.

“I’m glad, because I know how to play poker,” she said in Kickapoo. She plays cards with her women friends.

Steve Jimenez, 35, who picks onions for a living, hopes to work for the Lucky Eagle Casino as a maintenance employee.

His home is one of about 40 traditional-style houses, or wickiups, on the reservation. Siding is constructed from cattail stems or boards. Roofs are pieced together from cardboard. Some of the huts are covered with plastic tarp.

Some families have no electricity or running water. Though outhouses are used, the Indians have access to central restrooms and showers.

As recently as the early 1980s, the Kickapoos had no land of their own in Texas and lived beneath the international bridge between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Mexico.

At one time the Kickapoos inhabited the Great Lakes region. Indian removals in the 1800s forced them southward, and one band ended up in Eagle Pass and eventually in Mexico. Others moved to Oklahoma and Kansas.

The Mexican Kickapoos, as they were known, negotiated with the Mexican government for land near Nacimiento, Mexico, 120 miles south of the border, where the group lived until the 1940s.

Drought and a depleted water supply ultimately made living off that land too difficult. The Indians still use the Nacimiento land for religious purposes, including their all-important New Year’s ceremonies in February.

The Mexican Kickapoos were recognized by the U.S. government as a tribe in 1983, becoming the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. About that time, they acquired their 125-acre reservation with the financial help of churches and charities.

Through the years, the Kickapoos have held firm to their traditional beliefs and for the most part have kept to themselves.

Teresita Garza, daughter of Tribal Chairman Raul Garza, explained that the tribe is composed of clans, each having a different name and specific religious rules to follow.

All tribal members have Kickapoo names connected to their clan. Teresita Garza’s Indian name is “Asoamoacua,” meaning “like a warrior.” The Kickapoos also take Hispanic names. Garza and Jimenez are among the most popular.

Some tribal members speak English, more speak Spanish and almost all speak Kickapoo. Language has been a barrier for many in work and school.

The tribe’s unique language and culture at times have subjected members to some unfriendly treatment in predominantly Hispanic Eagle Pass.

“It was kind of tough going to school here. You can say a lot of people are racist,” said Sara Garza, the recent high school graduate.

Poverty and lack of jobs and education have contributed to substance abuse among some tribal members, counselors say. Inhalant abuse--sniffing spray paint or glue--affects an estimated 20% of the tribe’s adult population.

Because of federal budget cuts, the tribe is losing its $540,000 in annual funding for an inhalant-abuse residential-treatment program.

“That’s the No. 1 problem we have,” said Tribal Chairman Garza, who believes the practice was introduced to his tribe by a Kickapoo who used inhalants at an Indian reservation in Arizona.

Gold and silver spray paint are among the most popular inhalants. So is a type of Mexican glue that some tribal members buy in 5-gallon cans, then sell in smaller portions in baby-food jars.

“It’s the convenient way of getting high. For $1.09 you can stay high for two or three days,” De La Garza said.

Mario Salas, director of prevention and intervention for the tribe, said inhalant abuse began among the Kickapoos 15 to 20 years ago. About 60% of the abusers are men. Their average age is 30.

“It’s like self-medication to some of the problems that some of the adults have,” Salas said. “They do it to forget the problems.”

Tribal officials say they are working to solve the deep-rooted social problems that afflict the Kickapoos. They believe they are making headway.

Twenty new homes constructed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development are awaiting occupancy.

Sabino Garza, the tribe’s human services director, is working with out-of-town groups who want to help. He envisions construction of a “community kitchen” for use by families who have no basic cooking appliances in their homes.

Tribal Chairman Raul Garza views the Lucky Eagle Casino as part of the solution to finding jobs for his people.

“Mostly everything is going on the right track,” Garza said. “I see a lot of progress for the tribe.”