Painting by Stormy Osceola While holed up seeking "Sanctuary" from Uncle Sam at the Miccosukee Embassy here in Miami, I got to reading a story in our local New Times. Apparently something called the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has concluded in a study out this month that the Everglades is in deep shit. Of 241 natural wonders assessed around the world, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Smoky Mountains, the Everglades was the only one in the United States to make that list. Climate change, altered water flow, and invasive species are the main contributors to its perilous predicament. All of these factors are man-made.
"Woo-hoo! We're Number One!"
The locals here live on the edge of the Everglades but rarely think about it. If anything it gets in their way. There's something called the Urban Development Boundary that developers are constantly urging our elected officials to push further west so people can travel faster on new roads to buy needful things for their new homes in what was once Everglades. So far that line has held but for how long is anyone's guess.
Fighting encroaching developers has been one of the main missions of the New Seminole since its founder Busimanolotome Osceola dreamed it up one day many moons ago (the other one is rescuing the Everglades by taking it back by any means necessary from the "Outside." If you read my last book, you know that didn't turn out too well). After meeting his son Nokosee in the middle of nowhere during an Everglades fire, it became mine, too. (But not right away. I may be a slow learner, but I am a true believer now in "The Cause.") My Nokosee books trace that evolution of me not caring and then joining the NS to fight back to "save the swamp." Sure, some, like my parents, might tell you that I only saw "the light" after seeing Nokosee; that it was my raging teenage hormones that made me do it. And you know what? That's true. BUT I did come around on my own to put it right up there with loving Nokosee. And now our daughter, Haalie.
When I think of her, I think about the Everglades. It brought Nokosee and me together and it cradled the birth of our daughter. Knowing that, I can't let anything happen to them and will fight to the death to protect them.
"Woo-hoo! We're Number One!"
The locals here live on the edge of the Everglades but rarely think about it. If anything it gets in their way. There's something called the Urban Development Boundary that developers are constantly urging our elected officials to push further west so people can travel faster on new roads to buy needful things for their new homes in what was once Everglades. So far that line has held but for how long is anyone's guess.
Fighting encroaching developers has been one of the main missions of the New Seminole since its founder Busimanolotome Osceola dreamed it up one day many moons ago (the other one is rescuing the Everglades by taking it back by any means necessary from the "Outside." If you read my last book, you know that didn't turn out too well). After meeting his son Nokosee in the middle of nowhere during an Everglades fire, it became mine, too. (But not right away. I may be a slow learner, but I am a true believer now in "The Cause.") My Nokosee books trace that evolution of me not caring and then joining the NS to fight back to "save the swamp." Sure, some, like my parents, might tell you that I only saw "the light" after seeing Nokosee; that it was my raging teenage hormones that made me do it. And you know what? That's true. BUT I did come around on my own to put it right up there with loving Nokosee. And now our daughter, Haalie.
When I think of her, I think about the Everglades. It brought Nokosee and me together and it cradled the birth of our daughter. Knowing that, I can't let anything happen to them and will fight to the death to protect them.
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