Over 200 years ago, the Miccosukee tribe have been known by its characteristic way of fighting to protect their territory. First, the Spaniards, and then even worse, the Anglo-American who tried to exterminate the Miccosukee’s Indians almost two centuries ago and who eventually left them no other option than to live in a very small place in ancestral areas of the Everglades in Miami. The Indians seeking for a decent style of life had to adapt themselves to sleep in hammocks. Their houses were called “chickees” and were made of wood, plaster, thatched roofs, and perhaps raised on stilts. After all this battle and years of persecution, they started to establish their permanent home and look for a better life style. On 1950, the tribe flew to Cuba with the purpose of asking the president Fidel Castro for international recognition as a sovereign nation. Nine years later, Cuba recognized them and short after they were officially recognized by the United states on 1952 after on a letter was sent to the UN and to the president of the United States at that time; Dwight D. Eisenhower. The tribe did not stop there, with a strong desire of complete dependence and self-sufficiency, the Miccosukee’s opened their own facilities including their own clinic, court system, schools and their own police department. The tribe now has less than a thousand members who are distributed around or near Miami in four locations: Tamiami Trail Reservation, Alligator Alley Reservation west of Ft. Lauderdale, and two Krome Avenue reservations. They own a total of about 100,000 acres of land. They also own and operate many restaurants, gift shops, stores, gas stations, and the big moneymaker, the Miccosukee Resort and Casinos Owned and operated by the Miccosukee Seminole Indian tribe of Florida, They opened their luxurious gambling resort along the south Everglades in 1999. This a nine stories building with plenty of facilities and it is admired by its modern structure. The resort counts with a variety of accommodations. It has 302 deluxe rooms, 56 luxurious suites, a banquet space with up to 500 guest space, 1,700 gaming machines, indoor swimming pool featuring a sauna and a Jacuzzi, a …show more content…
The best part of all of this is their strong desire to succeed in foreign land and how they keep expanding and growing culturally. I believe this is something to admire; members of this tribe are now recognized as perseverant and for their strong desire of self-sufficiency.
Back then, when the Indians sought refuge among the hammocks of the Everglades and the war was still going, the troops never stopped following them, they were killed and captured, and their little houses were burned. "They hunted us with dogs," says Virginia Poole, a tribal member who at age 50 is considered an elder entrusted with responsibility for passing on Miccosukee history.
When people disagree with the accommodation of this tribe in Miami, most of them don’t know all the difficulties this tribe had to go through. They not only were kicked out from their original place of establishment but they were forced to move in a region of pure Nature. We need to keep I mind that this conditions of life style were extremely dangerous, they were exposed to infections, animals persecution around the Everglades and the weather conditions changing