Florida Everglades, USA

The Florida Everglades were much more interesting than I thought they would be.

Firstly, the Miccosukee Indian Tribe
We wanted to visit the Miccosukee who live in the Florida Everglades because they were having their annual arts and craft festival on the last week of the year. Like a lot of First Nations casinos they let you park in their lot for free, which we took advantage of while we visited their festival.
The tribe ended up in the everglades because during the Indian Wars of the 1800s, about 100, mostly Mikasuki-speaking Creeks, never surrendered and hid from the federal police in the Everglades, protected by the alligators. there are now over 600 that are direct descendants of those who escaped capture.
The Miccosukee used to live in small groups in temporary “hammock style” camps in the Everglades. The airboat ride took us to visit a couple of these islands.
They stuck to themselves for about a hundred years, resisting assimilation. Then, after the Tamiami Trail highway was built in 1928, the Tribe began to accept the New World ways.
To ensure that the federal government would formally recognize the Miccosukee Tribe, Buffalo Tiger, a leader of the Tribe, led a group to Cuba in 1959, where they asked Fidel Castro for, international recognition as a sovereign country within the United States. It was granted.
On January 11, 1962, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior approved the Miccosukee Constitution and the Tribe was officially recognized as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, legally establishing their tribal existence.

First Nations from around USA and Canada met up here.

The Everglades is a 60 mile wide100 mile long river flowing in from Lake Okeechobee to the north. A sawgrass prairie, “River of grass” it used to be about 50% bigger, but has been reduced because of construction, farming and drainage projects. Even so it is magnificent, as far as you can see a sawgrass prairie, most of it is quite shallow with a hard limestone floor and layer of top soil, so the water is beautiful and clear. A really interesting place to camp and watch the alligators right outside your door, the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles coexist, Crocs around coastal areas and alligators more inland where the fresh water is. (American crocodiles are smaller and less aggressive than other species). They don’t often cross paths. It is also North America’s most active breeding ground for tropical wading birds.

New Years Eve
Back in the casino car park, the casino was having a Cuban band playing to bring in the new year, which is no surprise because Miami is full of ex-Cubans. Derek and I dropped in to check it out. Salsa dancing - everyone was dancing even the people just walking past stopped to listen and join in a bit.
Flights booked for Cuba, looking forward to it.