A Day with the Kickapoo

November 17, 2006
By SW TEXAS LIVE
Special to LIVE!

No story about Eagle Pass is as intriguing as that of the Kickapoo Indian Tribe situated just south of town.

The Traditional Kickapoo Tribe of Texas has operated the Lucky Eagle Casino since 1996, and in October, a sad chapter in Indian casino affairs came to a close when federal prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain with the casino’s original operators over corruption and tax evasion charges. The casino is still open for business with a new group in charge, and the crowds appeared as large as ever when I visited the reservation October 30th.

But the Kickapoo legacy in these parts is about more than just casino gambling and charges of rampant corruption. Ray Bernal, the tribe’s chief administrator oversees both the casino operations and all other aspects of the 125-acre reservation. Bernal is working through a period of intense media scrutiny. And with the casino constantly on the front pages with the corruption trial ending last week, he wanted to steer our conversation away from the topic. That’s when he introduced Ruben Elizondo, Jr., 22, a rising star on the reservation. His title is “secretary,” he said, and he reported to a “supervisor.” With Bernal’s insistence, Ruben agreed to help LIVE! research a story on “agriculture.”

Ruben’s charge was to take care of the fledgling Kickapoo farming operation. Today, the tribe produces hay, red top cane, and pecans in an orchard with 349 trees. Ruben knew the exact number. “We got caught by too much rain and didn’t have enough equipment to finish bailing all the hay,” Ruben explained, driving down the length of a hay field dotted with rotting bales, ruined before they were sold. “Next year, we’re going to plant alfalfa instead. It doesn’t get hurt by too much rain,” he said.

Driving around the reservation to chat with workers, Ruben explained his ancestry.

The French first “discovered” the Kickapoo Indians in the 1600s in the region between Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, Ruben explained. Wars with the Iroquois over the years forced the Kickapoo to flee to what is now Wisconsin. To this day, the tribe is nomadic, spending seasons cultivating agriculture and hunting game, although today cultivating agriculture means earning a living as a migrant worker in most cases. Eventually, white settlers “discovered” Wisconsin and by the mid-1800s, the Kickapoo were dispersed into smaller groups and placed on reservations. Some fled to Texas and eventually, Mexico.

Mexican Kickapoo, from whom the inhabitants of the Eagle Pass reservation claim lineage, arrived here during the time immediately following the War of Texas Independence. They fled to Mexico after Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar, who succeeded Sam Houston, declared Texas “off limits” to all Indians. The Mexicans greeted the Kickapoo with open arms. Ruben explained that Kickapoo fought alongside Mexican soldiers. “That’s how we got our Mexican surnames,” he said. “We adopted them from soldiers in the Mexican army who our ancestors admired.”

In Mexico, the Kickapoo served their new country raiding white settlements along the Texas-Mexico border. They also repelled attacks into northern Mexico from raiding Comanche Indians from south Texas. “We were a buffer between the Mexicans and the Comanche,” explained Ruben.

For the Kickapoo’s efforts, the Mexican government awarded the Kickapoo a land grant that by 1850 the nation consolidated into a reservation in El Nacimiento, located just west of Ciudad Musquiz in Coahuila, or about 130 miles southwest of Piedras Negras and Eagle Pass. The settlement remains home to most of the world’s Kickapoos to this day. But other tribes of Kickapoo live in Oklahoma and Kansas, as well.

Ruben’s history was told to him by his father, and his father’s father, from generation to generation. It is a testament to the traditions the Kickapoo still hold today. But there’s more.

Near the end of the Civil War, a band of Kickapoo fled Indian Territory in Oklahoma to join their relatives in Mexico fearing being drawn into the white man’s war. While camped on the banks of Dove Creek, just to the west of the current site of the San Angelo municipal airport, Mathis Field, they successfully repelled attack of Confederate Calvary and the Texas militia. In fact, the Kickapoo conquered the advancing forces. The Kickapoo tribe continued the trek into Mexico to join their relatives, but spent the next 15 years using the Battle of Dove Creek as justification to raid pioneer settlements north of the Rio Grande. In 1887, the U.S. Army Fourth Calvary set out from Fort Clark near Brackettville to crush the Kickapoo. The U.S. Army mission was successful and the border grew safer for settlers.

The Mexican Kickapoo remained peaceful in El Nacimiento for years, primarily surviving on agriculture and hunting. When drought struck in the mid-1900s, the Kickapoo learned the ways of the migrant worker and have made the trek from El Nacimiento to the U.S. to join the harvest from May to November of each year. For many years, the nomadic Mexican Kickapoo disregarded political boundaries and camped below the Eagle Pass International Bridge in traditional huts known as “wickiups.” Except, bowing to the modern times of the 20th Century, they built their wickiup huts using discarded cardboard instead of grass and dirt.

January 8, 1983, the U.S. government officially granted lands near El Indio, Texas to the Mexican Kickapoo, and they became identified to United States authorities as the Texas Band of the Oklahoma Kickapoos, thereby becoming eligible for federal aid. Although the tribe receives U.S. aid, they consider themselves a sovereign nation and are allowed to travel freely between the U.S. and Mexico.

The Kickapoo struggled with agriculture in Texas until 1996 when they hit pay dirt by capitalizing upon casino gambling in their Lucky Eagle Casino.

The Lucky Eagle Casino is touted by the tribe as the only legal casino in the State of Texas, with throngs of people visiting daily to participate in its “Class II” gambling offerings. The Lucky Eagle Casino is restricted from offering all Las Vegas-type games because the State of Texas refuses to negotiate a treaty to bring their status to “Class III.” So, instead of craps, roulette, and blackjack, the casino relies on video poker, bingo, and a poker game of “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The Class II restrictions dictate that house cannot play against the gamblers, so the games are limited to competition amongst other gamblers only.

Proceeds from the casino were intended to go towards improving the standard of living for all Kickapoos, including those living in the ancestral home in El Nacimiento. Big plans and promises were made with the original casino’s opening, and Kickapoo then-chairman Raul Garza, also known as Makateonenodua (“Black Buffalo”) was touted as a visionary for the Kickapoo.

Not all went as planned, according to news reports. Frequent complaints of mismanagement of casino funds and intimidation of tribal members agitated the tribe. So much so, that by 2002, a young Kickapoo named Melina Anico began a letter writing campaign to her elders. Her argument was that despite the millions of dollars generated by the casino, elders lacked blankets, food and indoor plumbing in their traditional land and ceremonial site in El Nacimiento.

According to news reports, casino manager Isidro Garza, who is not a Kickapoo or related to Raul Garza, earned $500,000 per year plus a percentage of casino income. A former Eagle Pass city manager, Isidro Garza was deep in debt when he became involved with the tribe in the mid-1990s, and quickly became Raul Garza’s right-hand man.

Isidro leveraged power and money to dabble in politics. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Henry Bonilla and also managed his son Timoteo Garza’s successful 2002 run for the Texas House of Representatives.

Garza’s regime was alleged to have used intimidation by of casino security guards against the angry Kickapoo wanting a change in leadership.

Despite the obstacles, on October 28, 2002, an overwhelming majority of the members of the Kickapoo Tribe voted to oust their tribal leadership. Each voted by walking to the other side of a sidewalk in front of the Kickapoo administration building on the Eagle Pass Reservation as a “vote of conscience.”

Federal indictments of seven of former leaders of the tribe followed. The trial of the Kickapoo Seven began in Del Rio in federal court this past spring, but finished in Waco last month. The group was accused of stealing over $900,000 from the tribe.

The trial abruptly ended October 24th with five of the defendants negotiating a plea bargain; one defendant (Joe Ruiz, the former lawyer for Isidro Garza) was acquitted, while Isidro’s son Timoteo Garza still faces charges of tax evasion.

Pleading guilty to the lesser charges were former tribal Chairman Raul Garza; former tribal manager Isidro Garza Jr., his wife Martha Garza and son Timoteo Garza; and Lee Martin, the former casino manager. They are scheduled for sentencing on January 31, 2007. None of the crimes carry a sentence greater than five years in prison and/or $250,000 fine. All are hoping not to end up in jail.

Meanwhile, the Kickapoo were left with a $20 million debt from the debacle, according to the Houston Chronicle. Lucky Eagle Casino’s General Manager today is Juan Gonzalez, a Kickapoo. Gonzalez still remembers growing up living in a wickiup underneath the Eagle Pass international bridge.

In October 2004, Gonzalez and the new leadership opened a new 110,000 square foot casino building with high expectations, though three years overdue because of the extenuating circumstances.

Gonzalez and the new leadership are determined to use the profits from the casino to improve the living standards of the tribe. “We’re the good guys here,” Gonzalez told the San Antonio Express-News during the grand opening ceremonies. Assuring that the money is being properly managed, he said then, “We are trying to comply with everything. We cannot afford to have problems, because we have a lot of needs for our tribal members.”

Although there is no preset profit-sharing arrangement between the casino and the Kickapoo members, the casino management uses profits to provide education, health and nutrition benefits as well as casino jobs. Of 450 people employed at the casino, 90 of the 500 Kickapoo on the Texas reservation work there. The money from the casino is also used to pay any Kickapoo $1,000 if they pass the General Education Diploma, or G.E.D. exam.

It must be working. Ruben and his peers are very proud that they have earned their G.E.D.

Ruben’s job is to work with his supervisor, Rudy Garza, to turn a profit with the agriculture operations. They have a spattering amount of old farm equipment to work with, but a beautiful and bountiful pecan orchard to harvest. “This year we have a bumper crop of pecans,” Garza explained. “But we only have one tractor to harvest it. So we have to use more manual pickers,” he said.

Scattered throughout the orchard were twelve or thirteen migrant workers bagging pecans that had fallen on the ground. Nearby is a John Deere 1650 tractor with a pecan harvester attached to the PTO driving down the aisles of tall trees. Workers, most of whom are Kickapoo, make twenty cents per pound and the average take for each worker is around 240 pounds, neatly stacked in red burlap sacks. Ruben follows a forklift with a scale attached to each group of bags. The worker watches intensely as Ruben reads the scale and records the weight on his clipboard. The results of Ruben’s measurement determine the worker’s pay for that day.

Rudy Garza told me that since he started working for the Pecan Farm five years ago, no new machinery has been purchased. “We have enough equipment for a 20 or 30 acre orchard,” he said. “But our orchard is much larger than that! The council members say there is no money.” Garza is hopeful the council will approve some basic equipment purchases in November, possibly from casino profits.

Ray Bernal is pushing the young Kickapoo farmers to make the farming operations stand on their own. “Ruben and the rest of them are real sharp young men,” he said.

Until agriculture stands on its own, it is clear that the casino plays a large role in the welfare of the Kickapoo in Eagle Pass. “My mom is Julia Anico and she works as a technician at the casino,” Ruben said. What would happen if the casino were to close? “She’d probably have to go back to migrant work to survive,” Ruben concluded.