Miccosukee Tribe Receives Historic $15 Million EPA Grant 

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida accepted the largest single grant check in tribal history as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented the tribe with approximately $15 million on Friday, September 20. 

“This is the single largest grant the Miccosukee Tribe has ever received in the history of our tribe,” said Talbert Cypress, Miccosukee chairman. 

Cypress, along with other tribal leaders and EPA officials, gathered in the Miccosukee Administration Building on Old Tamiami Trail in Miami Friday morning at a press conference to announce and celebrate the grant. 

The EPA grant is to be used toward greenhouse gas reduction measures, according to a September 13 press release from the EPA Region Four press office.  

The grant will be used to purchase electric school buses, electric vehicles for employee shuttles, solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations, and other initiatives to reduce climate pollution.  

“This puts the tribe in the driver’s seat of their environmental efforts,” said John Nicholson, EPA Region FourChief of Staff.  

The EPA’s competitive grants are to help communities through economic inflation while making environmental improvements, Nicholson said. This is made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, he said.  

This IRA was signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 16, 2022, becoming the largest federal investment in clean energy and climate action.  

The tribe’s grant money will be used not only for more sustainable transportation but also to help build new homes during a tribal housing crisis, said Miccosukee housing coordinator Nicholas Tigertail-Cypress.  

EPA grant stipulations require particular housing materials, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LEED materials, said Tribal attorney Edward Ornstein.  

The grant will help house tribal members in environmentally sustainable ways and reduce the costs of having a home, which often includes a traditional chickee style structure behind a home as well, said Ornstein.  

The grant may not cover the costs of a chickee for each home, but Tigertail-Cypress lauded that traditional building style as well, with its all-natural, long-lasting materials. Chickees are open-sided housing made of cypress poles with a palm-thatch roof. 

There are 170 tribal homes and 140 more are needed, said Tigertail-Cypress.  

The grant will likely fund the construction of 25 homes, said Ornstein.  

The younger generation was also offered an opportunity to speak at the press conference. 

“It’s very beautiful here, as you can see,” said Darla Cypress, chairwoman of the student business council of the Miccosukee Indian School, as she gestured from the podium toward the view of the Everglades through the window beside her. “And I’d like to keep it that way. Just as I grew up with beauty around me, I’d like other kids to experience it,” she said. 

EPA officials each received sweetgrass baskets from the tribe as a thank you.  

The new solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations will be helpful for tribal members who often commute from the central point in the Everglades to Naples on their west side and the metropolitan areas of Miami on their east side, said Assistant Chairman Lucas Osceola.  

The Miccosukee Service Plaza along I-75 in Ochopee was among the first to include Tesla supercharging stations to service electric vehicle commuters traveling across the Everglades. The additional new charging stations made possible by the grant will be particularly helpful for electric vehicle models that may have shorter driving ranges, said Osceola. They will allow for electric vehicle drivers to take U.S. 41 more conveniently as an alternative to I-75, he said.  

Sidebar 

Visit the Free Miccosukee Indian Village Event 

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida hosts the annual American Indian Day Festival at the Miccosukee Indian Village, 500 US-41, Miami, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PMon Saturday, September 28, and Sunday, September 29. The event is free and offers an immersion in the culture of Native American tribes with music and dance performances, alligator encounters, indigenous crafts, food vendors, and other festivities. The celebration honors indigenous nations and their contributions to the world.