Aboriginal people in Florida do not want the “Alcatraz des Alligators”

The Seminole and the Florida miccosukke fear the repercussions of the construction of a prison for undocumented migrants in the heart of their ancestral territory.

There are around fifteen traditional villages in the national reserve of Big Cypressin southern Florida, where the Trump administration has built in record a new detention center nicknamed Alcatraz of alligators.

Several of these communities are only a few kilometers as the crow flies from the nature reserve, underlines the secretary of miccosukee, William Osceola.

Nearly 500 members of the community live in the territory, and there would be much more if it was not so difficult to build on these marshy land, he explains on the phone. But even if we do not live there, we use the earth to all kinds of ends, traditional and customaryhe adds. Miccosukee notably use wood for the construction of traditional shelters ( chickees) or harvest plants and hunt animals for their personal consumption.

Near the detention center are in particular two ceremonial terrains and a camp where William Osceola used to bring his students when he taught, to teach them harpoon fishing.

They have already installed a barrierobserve M. Osceola. [On ne peut plus se rendre] Where we were going to look for leaves to build our traditional huts and medicinal plants. It is a little bit of our history that is no longer accessible.

Sacred land

Extending over 729,000 acres (just under 3,000 km²), the national reserve houses a diversified fauna, including the Panther of Florida, a threatened species.

The detention facilities, large tents and modular buildings occupy the site of a disused airport, used for driving training.

The two communities opposed prison, just as they opposed the airport, a battle won, in part, in the 1970s.

Marcellus Osceola Jr., chairman (chief) of the seminoles of Florida, which has more than 4000 members, said that the organization supported its members who protested against construction on a site that they consider a sacred and essential land to the ecosystem of Everglades Florida .

Hundreds of people have been demonstrating for several days near the site.

Their opposition is based on the need to protect and preserve Evergladesas well as seminole culture and our lifestyleadded the leader Osceola, in a statement dated July 2.

Any development on the airport site would cause irreversible damage to both the seminole people and our environment.

The seminoles of Oklahoma, the greatest seminole government recognized by the Federal, support this position. The community is from Florida, and although forced to exile at 19^e A century, it has a very strong link with its ancestral territory.

I sincerely intend to be in solidarity with efforts [du chef des Séminoles de Floride] To safeguard this important area, recognizing its deep cultural meaning and the imperative to preserve it for future generationswrote the chief of the seminoles of Oklahoma, Lewis J. Johnsonin a press release.

These lands are not empty wild stretches or simple background canvas for political decisions: these are living lands and which breathe, deeply linked to the cultural, spiritual and historical identity of the miccosukee and semino peoples of Florida.

A civic duty

It is our civic duty to protect the environmentunderlines William J. Osceolades Miccosukee. If we are alive today, it is only because the earth has offered a refuge and security to our people during the semino wars [au 19^e siècle]. So we have to preserve it.

Environmental organizations Friends of the Everglades (The Friends of the Everglades) and the Center for Biodiversity have filed a prosecution against the Department of Internal Security, the Immigration and Customs Service, the Florida emergency management division and the county of Miami-Dade. The detention center project has not been the subject of any environmental assessment as required by federal law, and the public did not have the opportunity to comment, they argue.

Florida republican governor Ron Desantis invoked emergency powers to seize the land of the airport, overflowing the approval of the county of Miami-Dadewhere it is located.

The natives, for the moment, do not envisage prosecution. They want to ensure that the file is solid before attacking the government, explains William Osceola.

We examine all the optionshe adds. Regarding the demonstrators, they do not encourage them, but will not prevent them either. We are not going to restrict the freedom of expression of our memberssaid Mr. Osceola.