Members of the Miccosukee Tribe and longtime Everglades residents are speaking out against Alligator Alcatraz, a detention facility that they said threatens the land, water and cultural heritage of Big Cypress National Preserve.
“Water is our relative and sometimes we have to connect with that water and connect with that environment. And the only way to do that is actually go in,” said tribal member Betty Osceola, standing in the same waters that generations of her family have called home.
A threat to nature and culture
Osceola, who leads airboat rides and walking tours in the area just a mile south of the facility, said what was once described as temporary now looks permanent.
“Here we are surviving and thriving out here and here they are again trying to describe this as a wasteland, that nobody could survive out here. But we’re still out here trying to defend this area,” she said…