In the Heart of the Miccosukee, the Native American Tribe That Shut Down Alligator Alcatraz

When tourists wearing Alligator Alcatraz T-shirts walked into the Miccosukee Indian Village crafts shop in Florida last week, Troy Sanders, a 35-year-old member of the tribe who works as a museum guide, felt anger. “You have people on the side of the road selling shirts that says, ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ And they come into the store thinking there’s nothing wrong. Saying, ‘Hi,’ being nice. They have a huge detachment from what it all means to us. The Everglades [the vast swamp ecosystem west of Miami] is meant for our tribes, it protects life, it shields it. It’s not meant to detain life,” Sanders says.

The Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center, already notorious for the terrible conditions in which detainees are held, was erected in just eight days at the end of June, just over 12 miles from the Miccosukee people along the Tamiami Trail, the only road connecting Miami, on the east coast, with Tampa, on the west, crossing right through the heart of the Everglades. So in mid-July, the Miccosukee joined a lawsuit filed by environmental groups against national and local governments alleging that the center would cause irreparable damage to the fragile wetland ecosystem that is their home. They have lived there for hundreds of years and have a connection with that wet, unforgiving land that transcends idiosyncrasy; it is a primal, vital, and sacred attachment. The federal court in which the lawsuit was filed finally ordered authorities to dismantle the site within 60 days.