Trump used his veto power this week, rejecting a measure to give a Native American tribe more control over a portion of the Everglades.
What the Bill Does
Called the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, it would have added a small village called the Osceola Camp to a section of the Florida Everglades that the Miccosukee Native American Tribe has control over. "It ensures the Miccosukee Tribe has the autonomy to protect their homes, land and their way of life,” according to Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez who supported the bipartisan bill.
Why Trump Vetoed It
In a message to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said the project benefits “special interests” — and accused the tribe of not cooperating with his immigration policies.
What They Did
Earlier this year, the tribe joined a lawsuit challenging an immigration detention center in the Everglades referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz.
Bottom Line
By Trump's own admission, he vetoed the bill because they disagreed with one of his policies, a policy whose legality continues to be challenged in court. And saying it benefits 'special interests' is disingenuous given that congressional bills generally benefit particular groups, regions, states.
Miccosukee Tribe partners with Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation to safeguard lands as part of ‘moral obligation’
The tribe is looking to buy and protect environmentally significant lands, including some that once provided refuge, in a groundbreaking partnership agreement with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation. The corridor is an ambitious project to connect 18m acres (7.3m hectares) of state and privately owned wilderness into a contiguous, safe habitat for scores of imperilled and roaming species, including black bears, Key deer and Florida panthers.
Tribal officials say they will work with the foundation and other partners to “explore the acquisition and stewardship” of land within the corridor considered important to the tribe and its community.
The agreement, announced at a summit of corridor stakeholders in Orlando last week, comes as a study by the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) found that 60% of federally recognized tribes have lost grants or other federal funds totalling more than $56m since Donald Trump took office in January.
“These services are part of what we receive in lieu of all of the years of what we gave up, our land, our resources and sometimes, unfortunately, our culture and language,” Julie Thorstenson, executive director of the NAFWS, told the Wildlife Society last month.
With government funding drying up, and the future of existing federal land stewardship agreements uncertain because of Trump’s sustained onslaught on the National Parks Service, Cypress said tribe leaders had re-evaluated its work with other partners.
“For good reason, my predecessors had more of a standoffish approach. They went through a lot of the areas where they did deal with conservation groups, federal agencies, state agencies, pretty much not including them in conversations, or going back on their word. They just had a very different approach to this sort of thing,” he said.
“My administration has taken more of a collaborative approach. We’re engaging with different organizations not just to build relationships, but fix relationships that may have gone sour in the past, or were just non-existent.”
He said: “Financially, the tribe will invest some money, but we’ll also be instrumental in finding investors, partners interested in the same thing, which is to conserve as much of our natural habitat as possible while making room for growth and development.
“We’ve shown we can do it in a sustainable way, and our voice can help in shaping the future of Florida as far as development goes because once a lot of the land gets developed we’re not going to get it back."
The Florida wildlife corridor was established in 2021 by lawmakers who approved an initial $400m for acquisition against a multi-year $2bn budget for land conservation. About 10m acres have been preserved, with another 8m considered “opportunity areas” in need of protection, and environmental groups warning large areas could still be lost to development.
The legislature, which is weighing cuts to corridor funding as it attempts to balance state spending, has encouraged commercial investment and partnerships. At last week’s summit, the Disney Conservation Fund announced a $1m grant for training conservation teams and expanding public access to trails and natural areas.
We're in court to force the federal government to protect some of the most important wetlands in America.
Excerpt from this story from Earthjustice:
North of Everglades National Park, under Florida’s high-dome sky, a watery wilderness dotted with tree islands stretches across the flat landscape. This is Big Cypress National Preserve, an ancient chunk of real Florida where rare orchids grow, panthers prowl, and alligators slither in a waterlogged world fueled by tropical rain.
If you are a member of the Miccosukee Tribe, this is sacred land. But if you are a Texas oil company, this (like the rest of the planet) looks like a great place to drill.
The wild thing is, Burnett Oil Co. of Texas might just pull off its scheme to drill in this part of the Greater Everglades. The Environmental Protection Agency under former President Donald Trump paved the way by shirking its responsibility to protect Florida’s wetlands and handing it over to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in 2020.
Florida developers had long called this state takeover their “Holy Grail,” because they can use their political influence to speed up development in environmentally sensitive areas. At Big Cypress, Burnett Oil is seeking state permits to destroy wetlands for drilling infrastructure and roads. The preserve is protected as part of our national parks system, but some of the mineral rights below ground are privately owned.
While we deploy the power of the law, the Miccosukee Tribe, which depends on the 729,000-acre preserve for medicine, recreation, food, and shelter, is using on-the ground activism to call attention to the threat to Big Cypress.
“‘Preserve’ means keeping it as pristine as possible,” says former Miccosukee Tribe Chairman Billy Cypress. “The unknowns are numerous, and you can’t take this back if there’s a mistake.”
