The first Southern Kickapoo migration occurred around the time that the tribe was settled in Kansas. They traveled across the Great Plains, fighting the Seminole in Florida around 1837 and traveled into Texas in search of horses from the Comanche. In 1850, they agreed to act as a buffer between Mexicans, invading Texas settlers, and the Lipan, Comanche, and other tribes in northern Coahuila. As a reward for their service, the Mexican governor awarded them a land grant at Hacienda del Nacimiento near the settlement of Santa Rosa (now known as Múzquiz). At the peak of their strength, the southern Kickapoo, numbered about 1500, and by 1860 were living in a swath from the Canadian and Washita Rivers in Indian Territory to the Sabine and Brazos Rivers in Texas to the Remolino River in northern Mexico.