To Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe, the Lands Around Alligator Alcatraz Are Sacred, Pythons and All

MIAMI—Less than four miles from Alligator Alcatraz, the Everglades detention site where the Trump administration aims to incarcerate and deport thousands of undocumented migrants, is the chickee hut where Betty Osceola has lived all her life. After dark she can see the light emanating through the wilderness from the facility.

For many generations, Florida’s Miccosukee people have inhabited the soaring cypress swamps and sweeping sawgrass prairies of this remote region of the Everglades, a watershed that spans much of the peninsula and is responsible for the drinking water of thousands of Floridians. During the First and Second Seminole Wars, in the first half of the 19th century, the indigenous people were pushed deep within the watery wilderness and found sanctuary on the tree islands sc