Dead wrong: the Miccosuckee Tribe ... by gimleteye

An American citizen dies on a roadway on Indian Tribal lands, and Tribal authorities withhold results and information related to the crash from state officials and the victim's family. It is not a pretty picture but it gets worse.

The Miccosuckee Tribe live in the historic Everglades. Their ancestors were mercilessly chased there and hunted down by the American military. That much is historical fact. But yesterday's wrongs do not justify today's mistakes by the Tribe.

Its leadership represents a very odd combination of authority and weakness. It is a powerful land owner of property outside tribal boundaries, purchased with big profits from its gaming operations. It exerts its influence on the public interest in odd ways, including an obstructionist role on key points related to restoring the Everglades. Its distrust, for instance, of anything to do with science policy supported by Everglades National Park and the US Department of Interior is absolute and seems less tied to ecological ethics than its desire for a full gaming license from the US government.

What is indisputable is that the Tribe's influence extends well beyond its borders. The Tribe is a large property owner on the other side of Tribal lands in Miami-Dade County, including land outside the Urban Development Boundary. These investments push its influence deep into county government.

The Miccosuckee have plenty of company among Indian Tribes in the downside risks of dependency on gaming rights. Gambling and its revenue stream creates social distortions and political fiefdoms based, not on principal or moral values or even the rule of law, but greed and hubris.

This may sound like a harsh judgment against a nation's historic wounds, but I cannot draw another conclusion from the awful case of a Kendall woman who died in a car crash on Tribal lands and whose death and accident investigation was botched by Tribal authorities, including defiance of a subpoena.

"Furry, 31, died when her pickup truck collided with an SUV driven by a Miccosuckee Indian on Tamiami Trail five miles west of Krome Avenue. ...'You can only imagine, here we are seven weeks later, and we still have zero factual information,' William Fury, Tatiana's brother, said Tuesday. 'If this was so cut and dry why all the secrecy?'

The Herald Miami article reports, "The tribe contends the documents are sovereign property exempt from state law." The Tribe has taken the position that news stories about the Miccosuckee's tribal system are 'misguided' and reflect 'a perpetuation of a biased and racially motivated misperception of Native Americans and tribal governments.'

Unfortunately, the Tribe is dead wrong. Likely this is a case of a few tribal leaders at the head of the Tribal hierarchy who appear to have no tolerance for dissent in their own ranks. They have done a grave disservice to their people, not to mention the aggrieved family. What is the Tribe hiding? Who are they protecting? This case points out the need for public disclosure of what goes on in an insular fiefdom insulated by secrecy and gambling hush money.