BLOOMINGTON - Eighteen members of the Kickapoo reservation in northeastern Kansas visited the McLean County Museum of History on Saturday to open the museum's new exhibit, "The Unconquerable: Photos and History of the Kickapoo Indians."

The exhibit features photos taken of Kickapoo Indians in Kansas in 1906 by German photographer Ernest L. Hoppe, who was hired by the museum's first paid curator, Milo Custer. Although it is unknown where the Kickapoo tribe's original ancestral lands lie, the tribe lived in Central Illinois from the first half of the 18th century to the 1830s. The tribe's name is Algonquin for "He who moves about."

"It just makes me feel good that people here still talk about the Kickapoo," said Verna Simon, spokeswoman for the Kickapoo tribe in Kansas. "So much in our culture is about respect for elders and for tradition. To have non-Indians give us respect, that makes me feel good."

The Kickapoo tribe was among the more conservative Native American tribes in all North America, said Bill Kemp, museum librarian/archivist and exhibit curator. Kemp also stressed the resilience of the tribe. "Unlike the Illinois and other 'lost' tribes, the Kickapoo avoided political and cultural collapse," he said.

"They constantly opposed forced removal and acculturation, and by doing so, helped ensure their survival into the 21st century," he said during a presentation before visitors viewed the exhibit.

Some members of the tribe remained in Central Illinois until the mid-1830s despite the 1819 Treaty of Edwardsville, in which the Prairie Kickapoo ceded their lands in Central Illinois in exchange for a new home on the Osage River.

After Kemp's presentation, Simon presented a Kickapoo flag to Bob Watkins, president of the McLean County Historical Society. The flag featured a bald eagle and a figure in a canoe traveling on a river. She also presented the newly crowned Kickapoo princess, Ashlyn Conklin, 12.

Simon stood in the exhibit room with her sister, Cheryl Simon, looking at a photo of two Kickapoo sisters, one of whom was named Wahwahso. Verna Simon said she wondered if her Indian name, Wewesa, was originally spelled with an O at the end instead of an A.

Anthony Castro, 36, from the Kickapoo reservation, also seemed intrigued with the photos. He stood in front of a picture of four Kickapoo men, including his grandfather, Arthur Whitehouse, who had been the guide and translator for Hoppe.

"It's pretty amazing I came down here," he said. "I'm glad I did it. We had a picture we got on the Internet, but I didn't know he came here to Illinois."

The exhibit will remain at the museum through June 6, 2009.