Florida Asks Congress to Oppose Big Cypress Preserve Wilderness Designation

Residents of Big Cypress National Preserve have been wondering for months, or longer, if and when someone will tell them they are no longer welcome in or near their homes in Big Cypress National Preserve. The risk, they warn, is if Congress approves Wilderness Designation in the Preserve, it will prevent tribes and early settlers from living in their current homes there, as well as prevent visitors in a large portion of Big Cypress. 

Leaders from the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida have been addressing Congress for months in opposition to Wilderness Designation, with a decision now anticipated in November or December, they said.  

“The Wilderness Act must not to be applied to the Big Cypress National Preserve, ever,” said Talbert Cypress, Chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, addressing Congress earlier this summer. 

“The impact of wilderness designations, too often, is to dispossess Native people of their lands in the name of conservation,” he said. 

“As a result, Natives still living on traditional lands have been removed, harassed and convicted of crimes related to their traditional practices under the Wilderness Act,” said Cypress. 

Tribal members and advocates are urging people to contact members of Congress to support two proposed Bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, to forever prohibit Wilderness Designation in Big Cypress National Preserve. Rep. Scott Franklin sponsored House Bill 8206 and Sen. Rick Scott sponsored Senate Bill 4267. 

The National Park Service suggested the designation because NPS is required to review areas to determine if they’re eligible for Wilderness Designation and they found approximately 25 percent of Big Cypress National Preserve’s 729,000 acres is suitable for the designation.  

Wilderness Designation prevents vehicle access, dwellings and humans from inhabiting the area, among other aspects of the provision.  

The Tribes are usually the foremost advocates for conservation in Big Cypress - but not of this conservation method, which would remove them. The Wilderness Act of 1964 authorizes Congress to designate wilderness areas and there are approximately nine million acres managed as such throughout the U.S. Many designations have led to the removal of Indigenous people in their regions. 

“If designation were to pass, I would be forced out of my home where I’m sitting right now,” said Betty Osceola of the Panther Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe, and an Ochopee resident, in a recent live video posted on Facebook.  

“I’m trying to let people know, even today in 2024, tribes are still fighting to stay on their lands,” said Osceola. 

“Our children will not be able to enjoy the fruits of their ancestral lands. They will not see her beauty up close. We will not be able to harvest our medicine. We will not be able to bury our dead traditionally,” Cypress said. 

“Our annual religious ceremonies will only continue on federal lands if we violate federal law. That is injustice and does not reflect the highest ideals of the United States in the 21st century of fulfilling promises made to sovereign tribes,” he said. 

For this and other reasons, many people are calling on Wilderness Designated to be amended. 

“That legislation, when created, has the condition that it’s an area 'untrammeled by mankind,’” said Osceola. 

“I’m living proof this area is trammeled by mankind because I’m actually living in it,” Osceola added, as she sat in a chickee hut outside her home, surrounded by cypress trees, with her dog visiting for a moment in the video posted online Sunday, October 20. 

The word “untrammeled” means manipulated and not deprived of freedom of action or expression; not restricted or hampered. 

“We built, we farmed, we altered, therefore we trammeled,” said Osceola. 

And more trammeling needs to occur, land advocates have said. 

“Unfortunately, it’s going to take further manipulation to manage the invasive plant and animal species,” said Osceola.  

Dredging and filling is needed to build infrastructure and culverts as part of Western Everglades restoration. 

Several lawyers, including from the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and others with the Florida Bar Association, as well as environmental activists, have questioned if the Wilderness Act needs to be updated to prevent racism and allow for better management of the land, species and waterways. 

“Despite the plentiful benefits of the Wilderness  Act of 1964, the very nature of the Wilderness Act negatively impacts Native people,” wrote the American Bar Association in a Nov. 23, 2022 article on Americabar.org. 

South Florida Water Management District officials wrote legislators to warn that Wilderness Designation could prevent progress with Everglades restoration that is underway and is to continue for years.  

Senators Marco Rubio and Scott, along with Representatives Byron Daniels, Mario Díaz-Balart and Franklin, among other legislators, have warned that Wilderness Designation would prevent effective prescribed burns and effective management of numerous invasive species. They are also supporting Florida’s tribes in their opposition to the Wilderness Designation, they said. 

Approximately 200 members of the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes, as well as Indigenous independents who are not members of either tribe, along with Gladespeople, who are non-indigenous people of the Everglades, currently live in Big Cypress National Preserve, according to an estimate by the National Park Service. 

They risk being removed by this designation, much as occurred in the neighboring Everglades National Park. This has continued in numerous locations throughout the U.S. to the detriment of tribal people foremost. 

The National Parks Conservation Association remains the largest supporter of the Wilderness Designation in Big Cypress National Preserve. 

Director of the NPCA, Melissa Abdo, is on leave through November, while NPCA associate director of communications, Kyle Groetzinger, has said there is no one within the NPCA who will make public comment on the Designation and its potential impacts on the tribes and visitors until Abdo’s return.  

It’s possible Congress will vote before then.  

Tribes have been integral in observing and participating in management of the area. Required management that Wilderness Designation would hinder or minimize include prescribed burns and removal of species decimating biodiversity there, including Burmese pythons, melaleuca, pepper hedge, air potato, tegu and numerous other species that require vehicle access, mechanical access and physical removal as well as frequent human presence to oversee and manage the area, Florida officials have said. 

The areas proposed as wilderness include Loop Road, among others, which is near where the tribe has its annual Green Corn Dance and other spiritual ceremonies.  

“In November, am I going to be kicked out of my home?” Osceola pondered aloud. “In November, is the Miccosukee Tribe going to be kicked out of this area?” she asked. 

“If it comes to the point I have to barricade myself in to protect my home, if it comes to that point, I will do it,” she said. 

Protecting Big Cypress is her duty as a Miccosukee, Osceola said.  

“I’m not against protecting a natural area. I’ve spent the majority of my adult life standing for natural areas,” she said. 

“The Big Cypress is the sacred land of the Miccosukee. It is our home and it is our responsibility,” said Cypress. 

Once Wilderness Designation is proposed, as it has been by the NPS, it can be managed as Wilderness until Congress approves or denies the designation, leaving the threat lingering over the people who live there.  

“Don’t just force regulations and designations on my people. Follow our lead. Permit us to guide you to the right path forward in the Big Cypress, our home,” said Cypress to Congress.  

Meet Betty Osceola on Marco Island 

Betty Osceola is the guest speaker at Ecology Exploration Day, 12:00 to 4:00 PM November 16, at Marco Island Charter Middles School, 1401 Trinidad Avenue. Entry is $10 for adults and free for children. The fundraiser with a silent auction is for Rescue Me, an animal rescue and education nonprofit seeking to open an animal shelter. The event includes wildlife organizations, Naples Botanical Gardens, Skunk Ape Headquarters and others.