Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
A nation today
Background
Its members are often called Trail Indians because most of them lived along the Tamiami Trail. The Tribe is federally recognized, and it won that recognition in January 1962 after years of campaigning, the same year a group of Seminoles won separate recognition as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, according to the Seminole Tribe of Florida's own history page. In 1971 the Tribe became one of the earliest Native Nations in the United States to take over services usually run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and it runs its own police, court, clinic, and education system. The Miccosukee Reserved Area Act of 1998 recognized a strip of land on the northern edge of Everglades National Park, along the Tamiami Trail, as a federal Indian reservation and the home of most of the Tribe. The Tribe's 1962 constitution requires it to protect its natural resources, and it works on water quality and Everglades restoration in South Florida.
Visit and learn
Miccosukee Indian Village and Village Museum
A tribal cultural site in the heart of the Everglades, with craft and alligator demonstrations, and a museum opened in 1983 that preserves Miccosukee history and culture through historical documents, archival photographs, and original artifacts. The Tribe posts current hours on its own site.
American Indian Day Festival
The Tribe's annual American Indian Day Festival, held in September at the Miccosukee Indian Village, is free and open to everyone. The Tribe posts the current notice on its own site.
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida's own site
Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.
Parks on its homelands
Everglades National ParkTree islands are the only ground in the Everglades that stays dry through the wet season, and NPS records that the Miccosukee and the Seminole used many of them. A number are still worked as hunting camps by airboat operators in the East Everglades, inside this park. Source
Affiliations
Co-stewardship agreements for South Florida's parks and refuges
In 2024 and 2025 the Tribe signed co-stewardship agreements with federal partners connected to Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, including opportunities related to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
Sources
- https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-01-30/html/2026-01899.htm
- https://miccosukee.com/miccosukee-tribe-history/
- https://www.semtribe.com/government/introduction
Checked September 2026.