Native leaders blast construction of Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ on land they call sacred

TALLAHASSEE Fla AP Florida Republican Gov Ron DeSantis administration is racing ahead with construction of a makeshift immigration detention facility at an airstrip in the Everglades over the opposition of Native American leaders who consider the area their sacred ancestral homelands A string of portable generators and dump trucks loaded with fill dirt streamed into the site on Thursday according to activist Jessica Namath who witnessed the activity The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents trailers and other temporary buildings at the county-owned airfield located in the Big Cypress National Preserve about miles kilometers west of downtown Miami A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Exigency Management which is helping lead the project did not respond to requests for comment State administrators have characterized the site as an ideal place to hold refugees saying there s not much there other than pythons and alligators Indigenous leaders who can trace their roots to the area back thousands of years dispute that and they re condemning the state s plans to build what s been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz on their homelands For generations the sweeping wetlands of what is now South Florida have been home to Native peoples who in the current era make up the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida as well as the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons as various have suggested the Big Cypress is the Tribe s traditional homelands The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress wrote in a announcement on social media There are remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages in Big Cypress as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites Cypress testified before Congress in We live here Our ancestors fought and died here They are buried here he commented The Big Cypress is part of us and we are a part of it Critics have condemned the facility and what they call the state s apparent reliance on alligators as a assurance measure as a cruel spectacle while DeSantis and other state officers have defended it as part of Florida s muscular efforts to carry out President Donald Trump s immigration crackdown Tribal leaders and environmentalists are urging the state to change discipline noting billions of dollars in state and federal funds have been poured into Everglades restoration in latest years an stake they say is jeopardized by plans to house several transients at the site for an undetermined amount of time Indigenous leaders and activists are planning to gather at the site again on Saturday to stage a demonstration highlighting why the area is sacred and should be protected not destroyed This place became our refuge in time of war It provides us a place to continue our values and traditions Miccosukee leader Betty Osceola wrote in a social media post announcing the demonstration And we need to protect it for our future generations she added