Thanks to Ana Goñi-Lessan for fine reporting, and thanks to the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida for exposing Alligator Alcatraz and working to preserve and protect their ancestral lands from development. From USA Today Network:
'Keep it as it is': Miccosukee seek to protect North Florida homelands from development
Ana Goñi-Lessan- The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is working to preserve Lake Miccosukee, one of the state's last untouched prairie lakes.
- This lake and the surrounding land are the ancestral homelands of the Miccosukee people, who were displaced to South Florida.
- While development is not an immediate threat, officials and the tribe are acting now to protect the culturally and environmentally significant area from future growth.
A few miles to the east of the Florida Capitol lies one of the last, if not the last, untouched prairie lake in the state.
And the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is trying to keep it that way.
“The Everglades is a really important refuge that saved the Miccosukee, but this is where the Miccosukee are from,” said Edward Ornstein, deputy counsel for the tribe.
The lake, about 5 miles by 1 mile, looks a lot like the Everglades. It’s a shallow, grassy lake, similar to the “River of Grass,” teeming with wildlife, including fish, wading birds and alligators.
It’s also totally untouched. There are no developments along its bank, except for a few boat landings and a section of property that was once antebellum plantation land, now called Ring Oak Plantation.
These waters, and the land surrounding it, are the homelands for most of the Miccosukee, who were forced to resettle in the wetlands of South Florida during the Seminole Wars.
Now, after facing years of war, displacement and discrimination, the Miccosukee, one of two federally recognized tribes in the state, have begun to establish a public presence in their Florida homelands.
Preserving Lake Miccosukee, an area of cultural significance and environmental concern, from future development, is on their to-do list.
8 million acres to go
On a recent fall afternoon, the tribe and the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation invited state agencies and local officials to take an airboat ride on Lake Miccosukee.
The two groups are working together to conserve the lake and the surrounding areas and add them to the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a connection of protected lands and waters throughout the state.
But to complete the system of adjoining spaces, the corridor still needs to conserve another 8 million acres, either through partnerships with state agencies or through county conservation easements.
Representatives from state agencies and county officials got a tour of the lake, stopping by culturally significant spots to listen to Ornstein and Michael Frank, a member of the tribe, talk about the importance of the tribe's homelands.
Currently, much of the land to the east of the lake is protected by conservation easements or the Florida Forever program, the state’s land acquisition program. Currently there are six projects with applications on the 2025 Project Acquisition List for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Rural and Family Lands Protection Program within proximity of Lake Miccosukee.
Those include the properties of Ring Oak Plantation and Robbins Park. However, those applications aren’t ranked high — 338 and 333, respectively, out of 428 applications — and there are still over 6,000 acres of land that are either state-owned or privately owned, but they have no conservation protection.
There are dozens of culturally significant sites around the lake. Just across State Highway 90 are the Letchworth-Love Mounds, named after the former property owner, who originally called them the Miccosukee Mounds.
"Evidence the state keeps indicates a long occupation dating back thousands of years," said Brandon Ackermann, a public lands archaeologist with the state's division of historical resources. "This really is just a jewel of an area."
While development isn't an immediate threat, the time to act is now, said Mallory Dimmit, CEO of the Corridor Foundation.
"The opportunity exists, and conservation can take a long time," Dimmit said. "It's an obviously very beautiful and wonderful place to live that's not far from Tallahassee and surrounding areas, and it will continue to be in demand."
Brian Welch, who has served on the Leon County Board of Commissioners since 2020 and is a history teacher at Chiles High School, said the tour of Lake Miccosukee was like a field trip.
"There's no immediate plans to develop around this area, so I get their concern being 40 years from now or 50 years from now, and that's the timeframe you have to think in when you consider the history of the development of South Florida," Welch said.
I think it's important for people in Leon County and North Florida to understand the historical, cultural significance of these lands to the broader American experience," he added. "You think about the fact that these civilizations that lived in this very area where we live predate Egyptian ancient civilizations. So I don't think most people realize ... the historical significance of where we live, work, play and raise our children."
'People are coming'
There's a road near Lake Miccosukee off of State Highway 90 called Little Egypt Plantation Road.
The area was known as Little Egypt because of all the mounds in the area, Ornstein said.
During the airboat tour, Ornstein pointed and identified specific tribal towns on the banks of the lake that were active and inhabited when Gen. Andrew Jackson raided and massacred the Miccosukee during the First Seminole War.
Today, the Miccosukee are fighting another battle against development and pollution in the Everglades. Frank's uncle used to say "We won't win it, but we have to fight anyways."
But up here, it's different.
"For now," Frank, 68, said. "People are coming."
"This is clean water," he added. "What you see here is very valuable. It's nature, it's not fake, it wasn't produced by the government or anybody. It was here a couple of centuries ago, a thousand years ago, and it's here today. Look around you and see what you can do to keep it as it is."
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
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