Jack Stevens: The Unmentioned, Other Victims of “Alligator Alcatraz” – Indians

Photo credit: Amy Green, Inside Climate News

The Trump Administration is continuing by other means the Indian wars of the 19^th century.

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida joined a lawsuit filed by environmental groups aimed at stopping development of President Trump’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” incarceration facility for undocumented migrants in the Everglades. A federal court is slated to hear the tribe’s complaint next Wednesday in Miami.

Some 450 tribal members live on a reservation and another 100 reside in villages, including one within 1000 yards of the detention facility.

Construction of the site is just the latest impingement on Miccosukee sovereignty. After the First and Second Seminole Wars, the tribe has been relocated twice, finally taking refuge in what is now the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. After the wars, only 195 Miccosukee members survived.

“Most of our tribe practices the traditional culture, and so that relies heavily on the Everglades and the national preserve,” tribal Chairman Talbert Cypress told Amy Green of Inside Climate News. “That’s where we go to gather our medicines. That’s where we lay people to rest, and that’s where we have our ceremonies out there. So for us it’s a place that really just brings us together, and it’s a part of who we are.”

Completion of the site puts all of that, plus tribal water sources, at risk. The facility houses 2,000 inmates and can be expanded to handle 4,000. An environmental impact study has never been done on the project.