Betty Osceola

Last updated
Betty Osceola
Betty Osceola 2019.jpg
Osceola at Lake Okeechobee (2019) by Lisette Morales
Born
Betty Osceola

(1967-08-08) August 8, 1967 (age 57)
Ochopee, Florida, U.S.
Occupation(s)Airboat Captain and Everglades Educator
Known for Everglades education and clean water advocacy
Website https://buffalotigerboats.com/

Betty Osceola (born August 8, 1967) is a Native American Everglades grandmother, environmental activist, educator, [1] anti-fracking [2] and clean water advocate. [3] She is a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida from the Panther Clan. [4] Osceola was born and raised in the Everglades. She spent her upbringing living off the land, hunting and fishing with her father. [5] She is an airboat captain [6] and the operator of Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours on Tamiami Trail in Miami, Florida.

Contents

Early life

In January 2019, Osceola revealed details about her childhood in an interview for the American Experience [7] The Swamp series produced by PBS, stating that while she was growing up in the Everglades she lived in a chickee hut with four walls but her mother and grandmother had lived in open huts. When Betty was five, she’d go south into the swamp to play. Spend all day there barefoot, running around. She also shared that her people had once lived off the land planting corn and pumpkin in the islands but these days the waters are so polluted that they are not able to do that anymore.

Prayer Walks

2015-2017: Walk for Mother Earth on U.S. Highway 41

Osceola along with her uncle Bobby C. Billie (1946-2018) [8] founded the Walk for Mother Earth, a grassroots organization attracting people of other First Nations, Glades people, scientists, environmentalists, and concerned citizens. Billie, a spiritual and clan leader (whose official title was Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples), and Osceola lead an annual multi-day prayer walk along a proposed bike path [9] to be built on Florida State Route 41 between Naples and Miami.

The project was designated as the River of Grass Greenway (ROGG) project. Osceola and Billie opposed this construction and set out to educate the public and government officials about the negative repercussions this project would bring to the Everglades ecosystem. Eventually, they spoke at public hearings at the Collier County Board of Commissioners' meeting followed by the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners which concluded in both counties rescinding the project. After Billie's passing, Osceola continues the prayer walks in South Florida.

2016: Standing Rock - Dakota Access Pipeline

Osceola made two trips [10] from the Everglades to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to deliver supplies to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

2019: Prayer Walk around Lake Okeechobee January 26-February 3

Osceola with Holley Rauen, from Pachamama Alliance, organized and lead a group of six participants during a seven-day long and 118-mile prayer walk [11] to bring attention to the water quality issues. During the entire walk she carried a red bandanna attached to her walking stick to bring attention to the missing and murdered Indigenous women. Rauen lead the online prayer group.

2019: Prayer Walk on Historic Loop Road December 7–8

Osceola and Reverend Houston R. Cypress from the Otter Clan, [12] organized and lead a group of over 60 participants during a two-day long and 31-mile prayer walk in the historic Loop Road in Ochopee, Florida.

2021: Prayer Walk on U.S. Highway 41 January 2-3

Osceola and Reverend Houston R. Cypress [11] organized and lead a group of 41 participants during a two-day long and 36-mile prayer walk on State Road 41, from East to West, in Big Cypress National Preserve in opposition to the EPA State Assumption of Dredge and Fill Permitting under Section 404 of the Clean Water. The group started on East entrance of Loop Road and ended on the second day in Carnestown, Florida.

2021: Prayer Walk around Lake Okeechobee February 6–12

Osceola and Reverend Houston R. Cypress organized a second walk around the perimeter of Lake Okeechobee, [13] with a group of 26 participants for a seven-day long and 118-mile prayer. In addition to praying for the healing of Mother Earth the walk was in opposition to the EPA State Assumption of Dredge and Fill Permitting under Section 404 of the Clean Water.

2021: Big Cypress Hike and Signs Across the Alley Action on April 10, 2021

Osceola organized and lead a group of concerns citizens for a one day hike [14] into Big Cypress National Preserve to educate the public and to protest a proposed oil drilling plan. After the hike protesters lined up on the side of Interstate 75.

2023: Honor the Ancestors around the Miami Circle in Brickell on March 18, 2023

Osceola organized a mile-long peaceful prayer walk in opposition to the developing of a site of historical significance not only for Native American culture but for humanity. The walkers journeyed from Brickell Park, around the Miami Circle, stopping at 444 Brickell Avenue and ending at 77 SE 5th Street, at this last site archaeologists have uncovered human remains, and other artifacts possibly pre-dating the pyramids of Egypt. [15] The site is located in an area that used to be inhabited by the Tequesta people for thousands of years and in the vicinity of the Miami Circle in Brickell, Miami.

Film: Path of the Panther (2022)

Path of the Panther (Documentary), United States, 88 minutes running time. Osceola is featured [16] in this film directed by Eric Bendick and produced by Carlton Ward, Eric Bendick, and Tori Linder. Executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Release date February 24, 2023.

PBS Native America, Season 2 (2023)

Episode: Betty Osceola - Earth Protector. Documentary, United States. [17] Description: Betty Osceola draws on generations of Miccosukee teachings about respecting all living things and protecting the world in which we live. She leads prayer walks to raise awareness of threats to the environment and to organize people to save the Florida Everglades. Airing: October 24, 2023.

Awards

March 2024: Osceola received the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Defender of the Everglades award from the Friends of the Everglades. [18]

January 2018: Osceola received the John V. Kabler Grassroots Organizing Award [19] during the Everglades Coalition annual summit.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everglades</span> Flooded grassland in Florida, United States

The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles (97 km) wide and over 100 miles (160 km) long, flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The Everglades experiences a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Throughout the 20th century, the Everglades suffered significant loss of habitat and environmental degradation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seminole</span> Native American people originally from Florida

The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, as well as independent groups. The Seminole people emerged in a process of ethnogenesis from various Native American groups who settled in Spanish Florida beginning in the early 1700s, most significantly northern Muscogee Creeks from what are now Georgia and Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everglades National Park</span> National park in Florida, United States

Everglades National Park is a national park of the United States that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River. An average of one million people visit the park each year. Everglades is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States after Death Valley and Yellowstone. UNESCO declared the Everglades & Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and listed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1979, and the Ramsar Convention included the park on its list of Wetlands of International Importance in 1987. Everglades is one of only three locations in the world to appear on all three lists.

The Tamiami Trail is the southernmost 284 miles (457 km) of U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) from State Road 60 (SR 60) in Tampa to US 1 in Miami. A portion of the road also has the hidden designation of State Road 90 (SR 90).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Cypress National Preserve</span> Over 729,000 acres in Florida (US) managed by the National Park Service

Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in South Florida, about 45 miles west of Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain. The 720,000-acre (2,900 km2) Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, became the first national preserves in the United States National Park System when they were established on October 11, 1974. In 2008, Florida film producer Elam Stoltzfus featured the preserve in a PBS documentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miccosukee</span> Native American tribe in Florida who speak the Mikasuki language

The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a federally recognized Seminole tribe based in the U.S. state of Florida. Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities. It received that status in 1957. Today, it has six Indian reservations in Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Restoration of the Everglades</span> Effort to remedy 20th-century damage inflicted on the environment of southern Florida

An ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century on the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history. The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to construct an airport in the Big Cypress Swamp. Studies indicated the airport would have destroyed the ecosystem in South Florida and Everglades National Park. After decades of destructive practices, both state and federal agencies are looking for ways to balance the needs of the natural environment in South Florida with urban and agricultural centers that have recently and rapidly grown in and near the Everglades.

James Edward Billie, known as Chief Jim Billie, is a politician who chaired the Seminole Tribe of Florida from 1979 to 2001, and again from 2011 to 2016.

The Florida Wildlife Corridor is a statewide network of nearly 18 million acres of connected ecosystems containing state parks, national forests, and wildlife management areas that support wildlife and human occupation. The corridor seeks to connect wildlife habitats, reducing their fragmentation and the subsequent declines in plant and animal populations caused by human activities The Florida Wildlife Corridor was conceived by Tom Hoctor, director of the University of Florida's Center for Landscape and Conservation Planning, and Carlton Ward Jr., with further inspiration partly from Lawton Chiles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miccosukee Resort & Gaming</span> Florida resort and casino

Miccosukee Casino & Resort is a 9-story resort and casino located in the western outskirts of Miami, Florida on the edge of the Everglades. It has a colored statue of a young Miccosukee boy outside the front entrance. It has been quoted to be "one of the most unusual resort destinations in Florida" due to the contrast between the Native American village surroundings and the casino. Established in 1999 at a reported cost of $45 million, it is operated by about 400 members of the Miccosukee Tribe. In 2009, it was estimated that the Miccosukee Resort generated revenue of around $75 million a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tampa Reservation</span> Indian reservation in United States, Seminole

The Tampa Reservation is one of six Seminole Indian reservations governed by the federally recognized Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is located in Hillsborough County, Florida.

William Buffalo Tiger was a political leader of the Miccosukee Nation based in the Everglades area of Florida. He served as the first elected tribal chairman from 1962 to 1985, and before that was head of the General Council from 1957 and a chief. His activism led to political organization of the Miccosukee and their gaining federal recognition in 1962 as an independent Native American tribe. They wrote a constitution to govern their people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Osceola</span> Seminole leader in Florida, USA (1919–1995)

Bill Osceola was the first president of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. When the federal government marked his tribe for termination, Osceola came up with the idea of creating a rodeo as a tourist attraction to raise funds. The rodeo earned enough money to pay for tribal representatives to lobby against termination and formally organize as a tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Osceola</span> Seminole leader in Florida, U.S. (1920–1974)

Billy Osceola, was the first elected chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. He became an ordained minister and was extremely influential in shifting the Seminole Tribe of Florida from traditional spiritual practices to the Baptist faith. He was the first elected chairman of the tribe after their 1957 reorganization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JohnBob Carlos</span> American photographer and environmental activist

JohnBob Carlos is an American photographer and environmental activist living and working in Florida. Active since the early 1990s. His work consists mostly of color photography of the Florida Everglades landscape, its people, and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josie Billie</span>

Josie Billie was a Mikasuki-speaking Seminole medicine man, doctor, and Baptist preacher. Billie was a member of the Panther clan of the Seminoles in southern Florida. He actively collaborated with American anthropologists and researchers like Ethel Cutler Freeman, Frances Densmore, Robert Greenlee, Robert Solenberger and William Sturtevant. Billie served as a public spokesman for the Florida Seminoles and created recordings of traditional folk songs and information about the traditional Seminole religion. As of 2017, his camp is part of the Tribal Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County Road 833 (Florida)</span> Road in Florida, United States

County Road 833 (CR 833) is a 53-mile-long (85 km) county road near the Florida Everglades. Located in Broward and Hendry counties, it connects Miccosukee Indian Reservation and the Big Cypress Indian Reservation with agricultural land south of Lake Okeechobee. It is known as Snake Road in the Miccosukee Indian Reservation, Josie Billie Highway in the Big Cypress Indian Reservation, and Sam Jones Trail in unincorporated Hendry County. CR 833 was previously designated State Road 833 (SR 833).

<i>Path of the Panther</i> Environmental conservation documentary

Path of the Panther is a documentary directed by Eric Bendick that follows National Geographic photographer Carlton Ward Jr. as he documents the conservation efforts to protect the endangered Florida panther and its habitat in the Florida Everglades. The panther coexists with other wildlife in ecosystems increasingly threatened by development and habitat fragmentation.

References

  1. ↑ "People of the Everglades after Hurricane Irma". News Press. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Video interview with Betty Osceola by Julie Dermansky". Desmog. 15 November 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Photo Essay Poisoning The River of Green Grass". The Intercept. 29 April 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Grandmothers Rising Up for Mother Earth". Natural Awakenings. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Osceola's River of Grass". Path of the Panther. 29 March 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Matty's Airboat Tour of the Everglades". Vice. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  7. ↑ "The Swamp Stories: Betty Osceola". PBS. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Indigenous leader Bobby C. Billie dies". News-Press. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Bike path through the Everglades". BPB. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  10. ↑ "Grandmother drives to North Dakota Reservation". BPB. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  11. 1 2 "Defending the Sacred". The News-Press. Retrieved February 27, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Everglades Activists Plan Prayer Walk". MutComm. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Lake O Prayer Walk". WGCU. 16 February 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Hikers Protest Proposed oil Drilling". TheNewsPress.
  15. ↑ "Potential Tragedy with Major Archeological Finding". News10. 13 February 2023.
  16. ↑ "The Path of the Panther". GrizzlyCreekFilms. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  17. ↑ "Betty Osceola". PBS. Retrieved October 15, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Betty Osceola receives award". Friends of the Everglades. 10 April 2024.
  19. ↑ "Betty Osceola receives award". Treasure Coast. 12 January 2018.


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