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 to come from San Antonio, Laredo and Piedras Negras, Mexico. Lupita Jimenez, an elderly tribal member who says she doesn't remember her age, likes the casino plan. A graceful, well-groomed woman, Ms. Jimenez plays cards with her women friends. 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 in their homes. 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, about 60 miles southeast of Del Rio.