The National Park Service has reached agreements with the Miccosukee Tribe for co-stewardship work at Biscayne and Everglades national parks in Florida.
The agreements signed this week call for joint and cooperative endeavors focused on the natural and cultural resources of mutual interest in the two parks.
“The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida has long been a steward of the Everglades and Biscayne Bay, pre-dating the establishment of the National Park Service,” said Chairman Talbert Cypress of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. “Since the battles in Biscayne Bay during the Seminole Wars and the subsequent creation of Everglades National Park and the eviction of the tribal villages within it, the tribe has worked with the service to reestablish our role in the Everglades and the Bay. We are deeply appreciative of the National Park Service’s commitment to restoring tribal co-stewardship of these lands.”
The agreement with Everglades National Park enables cooperative administration of wildland fire and prescribed burn operations, hydrology and water resources, and visitor services in the Shark Valley area. The Biscayne National Park agreement acknowledges Miccosukee citizens’ rights to traditional fishing and plant gathering within park borders. The agreement also establishes the intent to collaborate on fisheries management, vegetation restoration, resource protection and facilitation of traditional tribal practices.
“This is an historic moment. While the parks have been consulting with the Miccosukee for many years, these co-stewardship agreements take our important relationship to the next level,” said Superintendent Pedro Ramos who oversees the National Park System sites in South Florida. “These landscapes are home to the Miccosukee people, and continuing to provide Miccosukee citizens access to their traditional lands and cultural practices is simply the right thing to do. The infusion of traditional ecological knowledge will benefit our public lands and conservation efforts.”
The agreements will remain in effect for five years, with both parties agreeing to renew in good faith with similar terms every five years, for a total of 25 years, at which time the tribe and Park Service have agreed to revisit the terms of the agreements.
In 2022, the NPS issued guidance to improve federal stewardship of public lands, waters and wildlife by strengthening the role of tribal governments in federal land management. This guidance followed from the Joint Secretarial Order 3403—signed by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture during the 2021 White House Tribal Nations Summit—that outlined how the two departments will strengthen tribal co-stewardship efforts.
The term “co-stewardship” broadly refers to collaborative or cooperative arrangements between Department of Interior bureaus and offices and tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations related to shared interests in managing, conserving and preserving federal lands and waters, a department release said. The over-arching goal is to empower Indigenous communities while strengthening management of these unique places.
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The agreement also establishes the intent to collaborate on fisheries management, vegetation restoration, resource protection and facilitation of traditional tribal practices.
No. The NPS should not be outsourcing its responsibilities to ANYONE Period.
DEI gone wrong.
This agreement "acknowledges" the rights of tribal members to fish and gather plants within Biscayne National Park, presumably outside the constraints of federal regulations applicable to the general public. Perhaps there is a treaty between the tribe and the United States spelling out those rights. But in the absence of such a treaty, NPS lacks the authority to allow tribal gathering without going through the process spelled out in 36 CFR 2.6. And NPS would have no authority to allow tribal fishing outside the bounds of federal and state fishing regs.
If such a treaty exists, let's hear about it.
If it does not, it's another example of the Director's emphasis on co-stewardship encouraging decisions that may be well-intended, but are illegal.
It's also important to note that the NPS can only enter into these agreements with recognized tribes to gather "plants or plant parts"-- not animals, not fish.
If the NPS refuses to abide by OUR laws, why should the rest of us?
"The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida has long been a steward of the Everglades and Biscayne Bay, pre-dating the establishment of the National Park Service,
That's stretching history to a breaking point.
The Miccosukee tribe TRADITIONALLY was based in northern Florida and Georgia--they possibly visited the Everglades and points south to forage. It is true that they eventually moved south to avoid conflicts with white settlers, but that's very recent history.
So, if a [white] family had a long history of mining in or around the Grand Canyon that pre-dated the creation of the NPS or GCNP, will the NPS be willing to enter into a "co-stewardship" agreement with them that would recognize their "traditional" realtionship with the GC?
Once one interchanges the faces to reveal the blatant racism that has infected the NPS (aka DEI), it must be challenged.