User:Lisdip1/sandbox

Betty Osceola
Born	Betty Osceola (1967-08-08)August 8, 1967 Ochopee, Florida, U.S.A.
Occupation(s)	Airboat captain and Everglades educator
Known for	Everglades education and conservation, clean water advocacy

Betty Osceola (August 8, 1967) is a Native American grandmother, Everglades conversationist, anti-fracking and clean water advocate. She is a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida Panther Clan and of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Osceola was born and raised in the Everglades and is an airboat captain and operator of Buffalo Tiger Airboat Rides on Tamiami Trail near Miami, Florida.

Early Life

In January 2019, Osceola revealed details about her childhood in an interview for the American Experience 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 with her family and that her mother would move around Florida for employment sometimes working picking citrus around Lake Okeechobee and at tourist attractions making baskets and sewing quilts. 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.

Walk for Mother Earth 2014-2017

Osceola along with her uncle Bobby C. Billy (1946-2018), a spiritual man, founded the Walk for Mother Earth. This is a grassroots organization attracting Native Americans, Glades people, scientists, environmentalists and concerned citizens. Osceola and Billy held and lead an annual multi-day prayer walk along a proposed bike path on State Route 41 between Naples and Miami designated as the River of Grass Greenway (ROGG) project. Osceola and Billy opposed this construction and set out to educate the public and government officials about the negative repercussions to the Everglades environment. Eventually they were heard during public hearings at the Collier County Commissioners followed by Miami-Dade County Commissioners voting to rescind the project.

Healing Lake Okeechobee Prayer Walk 2019

Osceola organized and lead a week long and 140-mile prayer walk around the perimeter of Lake Okeechobee to bring attention to the water qualities issues.

Awards

In January of 2018, Osceola received the John V. Kabler Grassroots Organizing Awards during the Everglades Coalition annual summit.

References

• [1] Treasure Coast, Environmental, Everglades Coalition, January 2018.
• [2]Grandmothers Rising Up for Mother Earth, Natural Awakenings (2018), by Linda Sechrist, May 2016.
• [3] Broward Palm Beach, Miccosukee Grandmother drives to North Dakota Reservation to Protest Pipeline, Jess Swanson, August 30, 2016.
• [4] Broward Palm Beach, Outdoorsmen and Native Americans pair up to oppose a bike path through the Everglades, Palm Beach, 2016.
• [5] Sierra Club Florida, News, Hundreds Gather at Summit, Florida.
• [6] Treasure Cost, Everglades Coalition 2018.
• https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2019/01/23/lake-okeechobee-prayer-walk-everglades-caloosahatchee-river-red-tide-blue-green-algae-chad-gillis/2655669002/
• https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2018/04/10/indigenous-environmental-leader-bobby-c-billie-dies/500123002/
• [7] News-Press, March 27, 2018.
• [8] The Wild Hunt, Pagan and Indigenous Leaders heal the water, Miami, Florida, January 2019.

External links

• [9] People of the Everglades Survive and Thrive wake of Hurricane Irma, News-Press, October 11, 2017.
• [10] Video interview with Betty Osceola by Julie Dermansky, November 15, 2015.
• [11] The Intercept, Photo Essay "Poisoning the River of Grass", April 29, 2017.
• [12] Love the Everglades Symposium focuses on Conservation, Seminole Tribune, September 8, 2016.
• [13] Video, Vice "Matty's Airboat Tour of the Everglades", 2017.

Category:1967 births Category:Native American environmentalists Category:Native American women environmentalists Category:People from the Everglades