Historic buyout would protect nearly 420,000 acres of land the tribe considers sacred
Miles below Big Cypress National Preserve, land of elegant cypress trees festooned with air plants, there is oil.
Not a ton of it, but enough to spark a small domestic drilling industry that continues today, decades after the land became the nation’s first national preserve and the federal government bought it all up.
The environmental effects of the drilling, ranging from thousands of gallons of spilled oil to threats to the local water supply, have long prompted buyout offers from the state and federal government.
But a new plan, hatched by the Miccosukee tribe and a nonprofit, might mean the end of future prospecting and drilling on hundreds of thousands of acres of land within Big Cypress, a crucial part of Florida’s Everglades.
The deal, which has been quietly in the works for nearly two years, includes an inked agreement with the politically powerful family that holds all the rights to hunt for oil and gas within the preserve’s boundaries. And this time, the Miccosukee feel like success is in sight.
The Collier family, descendants of the land baron who owned much of the real estate in the county that bears his name, has agreed to sell much of its vast holdings of mineral rights within the preserve to the federal government — for the right price.
That would protect nearly 420,000 acres of land the Miccosukees consider sacred. It’s what sustained and protected the tribe when soldiers chased and harassed them a century ago. It’s where many make their living, and it’s the final resting place for some tribal members, including modern ones, in traditional burials.
“A lot of these areas have cultural significance for us. And the more we see that damaged, the more it hurts the tribe culturally,” said Talbert Cypress, chairman of the Miccosukee tribe. “It’s important for us to keep it as intact as possible.”
read more: https://ictnews.org/news/miccosukee-tribe-works-to-end-new-drilling-in-everglades