Miami’s little-known Indigenous history

Miami is one of the US' youngest major cities, but it's built atop one of America's oldest Indigenous civilisations. Now, a series of discoveries are unearthing its little-known past.

Miami, Florida, is renowned for its flashy clubs, Art Deco design and eclectic Latin and Caribbean culture. Yet, most visitors today have no idea that Miami – one of the United States' youngest major cities – is built directly over one of America's oldest Indigenous civilisations. 

From roughly 500 BCE to the mid-1700s, what is now Miami was inhabited by the Tequesta civilisation, one of the first people to occupy south-eastern Florida. The Tequesta settled near the mouth of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay and built a thriving coastal society alongside a far-reaching trade network. Today, South Florida, and to a broader extent, all of Florida, is located on Tequesta, Seminole and Miccosukee Indigenous ancestral lands. And as the region's population has rapidly grown in the last few decades, archaeological discoveries found along the Miami River area have shed new light on Miami's little-known Indigenous history. 

Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee tribe (which emerged after the Tequesta, but whose history predates Columbus), has been working for years to educate newcomers and visitors about the Miami area's Indigenous past. Alongside groups like the Love the Everglades Movement and the Eco Preservation Project, Osceola explained how the rising waters of the surrounding Everglades ecosystem due to climate change and human intervention threatens the Miccosukee's ancestral home and way of living.

The Miccosukee (who were originally part of the Creek Nation), migrated from Alabama and Georgia to modern-day Florida before it became part of the United States. Following the Indian Removal Act in 1830, Native Americans residing in the south-east US were forcibly removed to the west, but it's estimated that roughly 100 hid out in the Everglades. Today's present-day Miccosukee, Seminole and members of other Florida tribes are the direct descendants of those who never surrendered and stayed in the Everglades. 

Thirty-four miles west of downtown Miami, Osceola immerses visitors in the region's Indigenous past by leading them through the Everglades at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation with her company Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours. For the past 12 years, Osceola and a team of Indigenous-led guides has been whisking people through the wetlands' vast cypress domes, "tree islands", mangroves and hardwood trees while educating them about the Miccosukee. According to Revered Houston Cypress, a Miccosukee artist and activist, in the tribe's language, the word Everglades is Kahayatle ("shimmering waters"). 

Osceola's airboat tours were started in the late 1980s by William "Buffalo" Tiger, the last traditional Miccosukee chief, whose dream was to educate people about the tribe's surroundings in the Everglades. As part of the tour, visitors get to visit Tear Island, where Tiger's family once lived. Guides explain how Miccosukee families lived in stilted, thatched "chickee" huts on the island.  

Samuel Tommie is an Indigenous artist from the Everglades. His family was one of the last to inhabit the tree islands. "It was a very beautiful paradise, and that was my world growing up. The birds singing, the panthers and the black bears running around. Today, the area is physically struggling but still spiritually dense."

Osceola says that tourists are often surprised that Native Americans "still exist" in the Miami area. "They think Indigenous people are in the history books only, and not living and breathing here today," she said. "We strive to show people the beauty and importance of the Everglades, glimpses of our culture and to let them know we still exist here." 

Osceola is also a prominent environmental activist who has protested against fracking and lobbied for water conservation in the Everglades. In addition to her boat tours, she also educates others about Florida's Indigenous past and their traditional lands through public prayer walks (marches to pray for the water and advocate for the land). She is a member of the Miccosukee's Panther Clan, a creature synonymous with the protection of the Everglades. 

"There is a lot of history of our people and what our tribe has done to advocate for the environment. If you visit the Miccosukee community, you can get a glimpse of our way of life," she said. 

Yet, outside the Miccosukee's community, these traces of the Miami region's Native past are hard to find. "When you visit Miami, there is no indication that Indigenous people ever resided there or are currently in the area unless you visit the Miami Circle," Osceola explained, referring to the archaeological site that's become a National Historic Landmark. "Even then, I'm not sure people really pay attention to the [Tequesta] statue near there."

Discovered in 1998 during construction in Miami's bustling downtown Brickell neighbourhood, the Miami Circle is a 2,700-year-old circular site with 24 holes carved into the limestone bedrock. Also called "America's Stonehenge", it was a trading and ceremonial site for the Tequesta civilisation. National and international public outcry pressured the state of Florida to repurchase the land from the developer for $27m and preserve it as a historical landmark. Although it was saved from being bulldozed to build a high-rise, today, the circle is still not displayed as a Native American monument, and many locals confuse it with a dog park. 

"[Indigenous people] used this area [bordering the Miami River] to hunt, fish, travel and come together in community and celebration. These sites have great history and significance and should be respected and honoured," Osceola said during a recent public prayer walk in Brickell. 

Since 1981, archaeologists have determined that the areas bordering the Miami River in Brickell contain a high amount of ancient Indigenous remains. But in recent years, Brickell has emerged as one of Miami's fastest-growing neighbourhoods, and as more and more high-rises and luxury hotels pop up, developers continue to unearth ancient Indigenous sites – including at 444 Brickell Avenue that was unearthed in 2021. Archaeologists are currently removing the objects so that development can continue, but Osceola and other tribal members have advocated that digging in the area should stop. Their voices, as she and others have said, are being left out of the conversation.

"South Florida has a rich mix of [cultures] and ethnicities, but traditions get lost, and with all the development and new transplants, it's still important to retain who we are, our culture and traditions," said Talbert Cypress, official chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council. "We could be in danger of losing what Miami really is, and just become another big city." 

To date, archaeologists at the Brickell Avenue site have unearthed roughly one million artefacts, including human remains, tools and ornaments made from animal bones and shells, giant turtle remains and discs of shells representing eye pupils dating from 500-600 BCE. But as Osceola and others continue to educate others about their importance, the future of this site remains contested between commercial developers and those advocating for its protection as a historical location. 

Nearby, Indigenous artist and self-proclaimed "amateur archaeologist" Ishmael Bermudez has been advocating for preservation for years. Bermudez, who grew up in a 1920s-era bungalow in the Brickell neighbourhood, has maintained that he is the longest-standing Brickell resident left, and repeatedly refused to sell his home to developers. Yet, earlier this month he felt he had no other choice but to leave his home. 

Bermudez had spent more than half a century excavating his basement and backyard – unearthing artefacts used in ancient Native American rituals, fossils, prehistoric objects and a well with spring water in the process. Over the years, he transformed his humble bungalow into what he calls the Well of Ancient Mysteries, which he sometimes opened to the public. His home had been a rest stop for activists and Indigenous representatives who came into the city to help save the Miami Circle after its discovery in 1998. 

To Bermudez, the value of his home was priceless. "It's not about the money. This is about preserving ancient history," he said, before moving. Over the years, the growing number of high-rises blocked his view of the sunrise each morning. "I only see the stars when I go to the Everglades, not here," he added.

After meeting Bermudez in 2018, local artist Jaqueline Gomez set out to photograph the Native American sites he discovered. "At first, I didn't believe him," she admitted. Then, she spent time researching the history of the Tequesta people and realised Bermudez was serious. "They don't teach you about this in [school]," she added. In fact, Bermudez wasn't surprised when Miami Circle was discovered just six blocks north of his home. 

In 2020, Gomez published The Tequesta of Biscayne Bay, a magazine documenting how Miami's Indigenous sites are still part of the city's landscape. The photographs include Bermudez's home, Miami Circle and Met Square (a prehistoric village found in 2014) among others. "They have found so many other mounds bordering the Miami River," Gomez said. "I still don't understand how the city decided which ones would get protected and which wouldn't." Yet, having grown up here, Gomez is aware of Miami's tendency to bury its past, leaving Native American tribes in a constant battle for their sovereignty and land rights. "It's sort of a losing battle because these developers always tend to win," Gomez added. 

As the last remnants of Miami's Indigenous past continue to get paved over, the risk is that so too will their histories. "If people don't know about, or don't care about the Indigenous sites in Miami, nobody is going to save them," Bermudez said. But as more activists continue to join Osceola's calls to preserve the city's Indigenous past, perhaps visitors will get a better sense of the history hidden just under their feet.

Rediscovering America is a BBC Travel series that tells the inspiring stories of forgotten, overlooked or misunderstood aspects of the US, flipping the script on familiar history, cultures and communities.

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