Latest news with #MiccosukeeTribeofIndiansofFlorida
Miami Herald
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Miccosukee Tribe moves to join environmental lawsuit against Alligator Alcatraz
The Miccosukee Tribe is seeking to join a lawsuit against the state and federal governments over the hastily built migrant detention facility in the Everglades — a place the Miccosukee call home. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida filed a motion on Monday to join nonprofits Friends of the Everglades, Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice as plaintiffs in the lawsuit that accuses the state of Florida and federal agencies of skirting environmental regulations to build Alligator Alcatraz. 'The Tribe remains committed to ensuring its traditional lands are not used as a detention facility,' the tribe said in a statement. Florida is operating the facility in Big Cypress National Preserve, a federally protected section of the Florida Everglades. 'If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,' Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a video posted on X in June announcing the site. But the Miccosukee beg to differ. There are over a dozen traditional Indian villages surrounding Alligator Alcatraz, including one village and school bus stop 1,000 feet away from the facility's entrance, according to the tribe's statement. Traditional ceremonial grounds and 11 villages are within three miles of the facility. 'The Miccosukee Tribe is committed to ensuring that our ancestral lands in Big Cypress will not become a permanent detention facility,' Talbert Cypress, the Miccosukee chairman, said in a statement issued Tuesday. 'We have reached out to the State and Federal governments and expressed our concerns, but we have not yet been advised of a closure date. As a consequence, we must take legal action to compel the parties to remove this facility, given its outsized budgetary, environmental, community safety, and logistical impacts. We are hopeful that the administrations will change course and preserve these lands.' The Miccosukee argue in their motion to intervene that 'the construction and operation of a detention facility without necessary environmental studies potentially poses a substantial threat to the rights and interests of the Tribe and the livelihood of Tribal members who live adjacent thereto.' The Miccosukee people have traveled from north Florida to the Everglades to fish, hunt and hold sacred ceremonies 'since time immemorial,' the document states. The Miccosukee were relocated to the Everglades during the Seminole Wars. The state of Florida has legally recognized the Miccosukee's right to live on and use the land, including Big Cypress, for over a century, the motion says. Though the detention facility is expected to hold thousands of people in a sparsely populated area, the state and federal governments have not conducted any studies to determine how the construction and operation of Alligator Alcatraz will impact the nearby village residents and students at the Miccosukee Indian School, court documents say. The tribe argues that the detention facility is likely to impact the daily lives of village residents, with concerns that include water pollution and significantly increased traffic on the two-lane Tamiami Trail, which residents rely on to evacuate during emergencies. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said Alligator Alcatraz will have 'zero impact on the Everglades.' But environmental groups and experts say the facility puts endangered and threatened species in the area, like the Florida panther, the bonneted bat and Everglade snail kite, in serious danger. Immigration advocates have also raised concerns over the facility. Detainees, many of whom have no criminal record, described harsh and disgusting conditions inside the facility, like massive bugs, extreme heat and malfunctioning toilets, during the first days of operation. Immigration attorneys told the Herald they can't contact their clients.
The Guardian
29-01-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Outcry from Native American tribes after Florida company tries to give artifacts away
Native American tribes in Florida have accused a development company of freezing them out of a discussion on the future of a trove of historical artifacts from a downtown Miami construction site, and hawking them around the US without their consent or knowledge. Representatives of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the American Indian Movement of Florida told the Guardian that they were angered by the Related Group's approach to a number of out-of-state universities to see if they were interested in curating and housing the relics believed to be from an ancient Tequesta Indian village. More than a million mostly fragmentary items that experts say date anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 years ago are currently stored at Related's office in the Brickell neighborhood where the company is building two residential tower blocks, and where they were uncovered in archaeological digs since 2021. The site is a stone's throw from the Miami Circle national historic landmark, known as the city's Stonehenge, which was discovered in 1998 along with similarly aged artifacts including pieces of pottery, tools, and animal bones and teeth. Some scattered human ancestral remains were recovered where Related was clearing land, and reburied off-site in consultation with local tribal leaders, but otherwise, the representatives say, they have not been listened to. The tribes say Related has broken an agreement made with the city of Miami in 2023 to present an action plan to preserve, catalog and display significant parts of the collection locally in exchange for being allowed to press ahead with the development. They also feel betrayed by the company's exploration of a possible new home for the artifacts by offering them to educational institutions far from their origin, including the University of California, Berkeley. That occurred, the tribes say, at the same time Related broke two deadlines to present a plan to deliver on a promise made to the city by the company's founder Jorge Pérez two years ago of 'doing the right thing for this community'. 'They won't listen to the tribes, to the descendants of the ancestors, that we don't want the artifacts displayed or shopped around to universities, but put back into the ground,' said Betty Osceola, an environmental activist and Miccosukee tribe member. 'They haven't had any meaningful discussion with the tribe. They're looking more at it from an archeological standpoint, and not from the tribes', or as an indigenous person. In their mindset it's OK to put these items on display, in our viewpoint we want them reburied somewhere, and there hasn't been any type of discussion as to where that location would be.' Osceola said another disappointment was how Related had 'downplayed' the discoveries, at least until the 2023 agreement. 'From the beginning we understood the importance of that area and how it's connected to Miami Circle, which is protected, that it's all interconnected with the sites on the north side of the Miami River as well. But there was some downplay of the significance, [they said] no, it wasn't connected,' she said. 'Now they realize the connection, they're acknowledging the significance, but it's frustrating they didn't listen to us, not taking credence in what we had to say.' Robert Rosa, chair of the American Indian Movement of Florida, said the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes were still waiting to see a promised full inventory of items in Related's possession. 'They said both tribes would be able to go through every artifact so they can determine what is a a patrimonial item and a burial item, but that hasn't happened,' he said. 'They're trying to be sly about it and send it away for 'research'. Well, the tribes don't want research. They want everything reinterred. You have all these archeologists here, all they want to do is dig and make a name for themselves and preach and tell the Native story without being Native.' Related did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment. At a meeting of the city of Miami's historic and environmental preservation board earlier this month, the company's land-use lawyer, Iris Escarrá, said the approach to external institutions was exploratory and preliminary. 'We were just asking for proposals to see what opportunities are available. This is nothing more than that,' she told members, according to the Miami Herald. Related, the newspaper said, promised to deliver a detailed plan, including proposals for exhibition spaces along Brickell's waterfront, at the next board meeting on 4 March. The company said it planned to link its site with the Miami Circle landmark via an educational pathway it intends to call the Tequesta Trail. Meanwhile, the University of Miami (UM) and Florida International University say they are still waiting for a response to their joint proposal for a conservation and research center in the city. 'The action plan is the guarantee the public has of access to some of the information from the capital of the Tequesta, the largest indigenous pre-contact settlement in South Florida,' said Traci Ardren, professor of anthropology at UM. 'What they showed at this last meeting was very disorganized. They're not speaking with museum curators, they're not speaking with scholars, they're not speaking with the archeological community, and most importantly they're not speaking with the local indigenous population. 'It's extremely disappointing they would consider farming out the curation of the artifacts to an institution outside of South Florida. Reaching out to other universities and institutions is inappropriate for lots of reasons, but fundamentally it's about their unwillingness to fund this educational component. It costs money to do this work.'
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Outcry from Native American tribes after Florida company tries to give artifacts away
Native American tribes in Florida have accused a development company of freezing them out of a discussion on the future of a trove of historical artifacts from a downtown Miami construction site, and hawking them around the US without their consent or knowledge. Representatives of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the American Indian Movement of Florida told the Guardian that they were angered by the Related Group's approach to a number of out-of-state universities to see if they were interested in curating and housing the relics believed to be from an ancient Tequesta Indian village. More than a million mostly fragmentary items that experts say date anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 years ago are currently stored at Related's office in the Brickell neighborhood where the company is building two residential tower blocks, and where they were uncovered in archaeological digs since 2021. The site is a stone's throw from the Miami Circle national historic landmark, known as the city's Stonehenge, which was discovered in 1998 along with similarly aged artifacts including pieces of pottery, tools, and animal bones and teeth. Some scattered human ancestral remains were recovered where Related was clearing land, and reburied off-site in consultation with local tribal leaders, but otherwise, the representatives say, they have not been listened to. The tribes say Related has broken an agreement made with the city of Miami in 2023 to present an action plan to preserve, catalog and display significant parts of the collection locally in exchange for being allowed to press ahead with the development. They also feel betrayed by the company's exploration of a possible new home for the artifacts by offering them to educational institutions far from their origin, including the University of California, Berkeley. That occurred, the tribes say, at the same time Related broke two deadlines to present a plan to deliver on a promise made to the city by the company's founder Jorge Pérez two years ago of 'doing the right thing for this community'. 'They won't listen to the tribes, to the descendants of the ancestors, that we don't want the artifacts displayed or shopped around to universities, but put back into the ground,' said Betty Osceola, an environmental activist and Miccosukee tribe member. 'They haven't had any meaningful discussion with the tribe. They're looking more at it from an archeological standpoint, and not from the tribes', or as an indigenous person. In their mindset it's OK to put these items on display, in our viewpoint we want them reburied somewhere, and there hasn't been any type of discussion as to where that location would be.' Osceola said another disappointment was how Related had 'downplayed' the discoveries, at least until the 2023 agreement. 'From the beginning we understood the importance of that area and how it's connected to Miami Circle, which is protected, that it's all interconnected with the sites on the north side of the Miami River as well. But there was some downplay of the significance, [they said] no, it wasn't connected,' she said. 'Now they realize the connection, they're acknowledging the significance, but it's frustrating they didn't listen to us, not taking credence in what we had to say.' Robert Rosa, chair of the American Indian Movement of Florida, said the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes were still waiting to see a promised full inventory of items in Related's possession. 'They said both tribes would be able to go through every artifact so they can determine what is a a patrimonial item and a burial item, but that hasn't happened,' he said. 'They're trying to be sly about it and send it away for 'research'. Well, the tribes don't want research. They want everything reinterred. You have all these archeologists here, all they want to do is dig and make a name for themselves and preach and tell the Native story without being Native.' Related did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment. At a meeting of the city of Miami's historic and environmental preservation board earlier this month, the company's land-use lawyer, Iris Escarrá, said the approach to external institutions was exploratory and preliminary. 'We were just asking for proposals to see what opportunities are available. This is nothing more than that,' she told members, according to the Miami Herald. Related, the newspaper said, promised to deliver a detailed plan, including proposals for exhibition spaces along Brickell's waterfront, at the next board meeting on 4 March. The company said it planned to link its site with the Miami Circle landmark via an educational pathway it intends to call the Tequesta Trail. Meanwhile, the University of Miami (UM) and Florida International University say they are still waiting for a response to their joint proposal for a conservation and research center in the city. 'The action plan is the guarantee the public has of access to some of the information from the capital of the Tequesta, the largest indigenous pre-contact settlement in South Florida,' said Traci Ardren, professor of anthropology at UM. 'What they showed at this last meeting was very disorganized. They're not speaking with museum curators, they're not speaking with scholars, they're not speaking with the archeological community, and most importantly they're not speaking with the local indigenous population. 'It's extremely disappointing they would consider farming out the curation of the artifacts to an institution outside of South Florida. Reaching out to other universities and institutions is inappropriate for lots of reasons, but fundamentally it's about their unwillingness to fund this educational component. It costs money to do this work.'
