A Field Report
by Rev. Houston R. Cypress, Otter Clan
Board of Directors
Love The Everglades Movement

On the recent 4/20 Everglades research trip, I was concerned with updating the organizational understanding and practice of indigenous solidarity of the Love The Everglades Movement.  Our praxis.
 
I brought along my co-founder Jean Sarmiento, and a small group of friends who are also community leaders in the arts, such as Ray Orraca, multidisciplinary artist Franky Cruz, creative visionary and renaissance man DAZE of HIGHMERICA, artist Sofia de Cardenas, native plant landscaping leader Sunkeeper Environmental Solutions, and a heavyweight in creative literary publishing, so we could have a friendly discussion about the status of Miccosukee Hemp visioning.
 
We met up with TRISTAN TIGERTAIL, a gentleman from the community of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.  Tristan played an important role in setting up the regulatory framework for the Tribe’s entry into Hemp Production.

It’s been almost a year since the USDA approved the Miccosukee Hemp Plan.
Click this link to read the Miccosukee Hemp Regulations:
https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/MiccosukeeTribeHempPlan.pdf

Our airboat took off at about a quarter to 4pm.  Overcast, it’s been about a week that the rains have been returning to South Florida.  Droplets here and there, but no rain at all that day, as grey as it was.  The Dry Season is ending.  Soon it will be a New Water Year.  And the Indians will be celebrating special religious festivals to honor the Circle of Life.  In spite of it all, there’s always reason to celebrate our relationships with Nature.
 
As we zigzagged across the wetland home of the Miccosukee people, we stopped and said hello to a straggler alligator, as most of them have been congregating in the canals to the west, according to Tristan, who was also our airboat driver.  Jean reminded us of the challenges that high-water levels bring, and the ways that it negatively impacts tree island plant and animal life.

We cruised to a nearby Miccosukee village, and by 4:20pm, we were in-joying an eclectic gabfest about indigenous sovereignty, the economy of plant medicines, and yummy fruit snacks.
 
I don’t know what it is about the River of Grass, but when you’re out there, conversations inevitably turn to healing and medicine.  The conversation opened up by speculating on the potential for hemp plants to improve water quality, and turned to evidence of hemp cultivation on land to improve soil quality.  The focus zoomed in on the specific healing capacities of cannabinoids such as CBN and CBG as well as others.
 
I was impressed at this latest iteration of indigenous self-determination.  As we talked about the various interpretations and expressions of Treatment as a State, we discussed how that term was interpreted by the Miccosukee Tribe to create exemplary environmental regulations pertaining to Water Quality and Phosphorus, Flows and Levels, and Nonpoint Source Pollution Management.

As we rounded out the Everglades airboat ride with a visit to the edge of the Big Cypress forest, I thought of Betty Osceola, the Panther Clan Grandmother and environmental educator.  She always says that’s one of her favorite spots to visit by airboat:  the transition zone between the River of Grass and the Big Cypress forest.
 
Betty Osceola recently announced her newest brand with a Facebook post:   RedWoman CBD.  Betty will sell her CBD products at the 2021 Motorcycle Swamp Rally this weekend in Ochopee.

Betty explains, “RedWoman CBD will have a booth.  We will be showing our CBD Flower along with CBD Delta 8 Flower and Delta 8 prefilled cartridge pens.”  All of her products are lab-certified and she will provide a lab sheet with each purchase.
 
The 2021 Motorcycle Swamp Rally is an interesting choice to launch a CBD product line.

The venue for the event is the Trail Lakes Campground.  The Shealy Family have been longtime supporters of Betty’s environmental advocacy efforts.  As Gladesmen, they honor many generations of living in and caring for the Big Cypress forest and the Greater Everglades.  They have offered use of the campground on many occasions to support the public who attends the spiritually-based direct actions that Betty has organized over the years.  It’s a place that offers a variety of cabins, camping amenities, guide services, and intrigue, to all their visitors.

The Motorcycle Rally promises to be a rollicking good time with live musical performances by Cypress swamp musical legend RAIFORD STARKE, with footstomping good tunes by THIRD WHEEL, and SOUTHERN STAMPEDE.

Miccosukee family are keeping the legend of IONA'S FRY BREAD vibrant with their mouth-watering Indian Burgers.  And make sure to take home some of that famous SKUNK APE HOT SAUCE available in 3 flavorsl

Cruise on over to the 2021 Motorcycle Swamp Rally this weekend.  Saturday and Sunday, April 24 & 25, 11am to 6pm on both days.

As I reflect back on the 4/20 airboat ride with Tristan, I’m excited about the healing potential of the Greater Everglades. Soon it will be a site for cultivating hemp products that complement a healthy lifestyle through the Miccosukee Hemp project.  Tristan embraced my friends and opened up about business, culture, and his dreams for the future of the Miccosukee community.  Other community members, like Betty Osceola, have been manifesting their own CBD-infused dreams.
 
When it comes to environmental conservation, indigenous rights are everyone’s rights.  When we support the Miccosukee position on Everglades matters, we are supporting the indigenous-led science that underlies meaningful Everglades Restoration efforts.

A healthy Everglades supports the Miccosukee cultural practices, and benefits everyone else through the many ecosystem services that it provides, including the refreshing of the aquifer where our drinking water is drawn from.

How fascinating that the next steps in Everglades conservation include supporting Hemp cultivation by an indigenous community!

by Jean Sarmiento, Coordination Circle,
Love The Everglades Movement

What we’re doing in the Everglades:

• efforts to raise awareness;
  
• get people involved;
  
• thru their own media;
  
• the Responsibility belongs with us all;
  
• being here and supporting our Indigenous brothers and sisters.
  

There are parallels that exist throughout the world.

In Northern California, for example, the Indian Nations there that are going through the same struggles, now amplified by the States Drought.

So we do our part here in South Florida contributing to the well-being of our Environment. The further into the future we go the more prevalent the issue of Water will become and we see it already in more and more publications. http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/11/18/water-wars-21st-century/

"It is easier to flush toxins from the river valleys than to remove toxic ideas that cause them from human minds. In the order of healing, it is human consciousness that must first change." 
- Ken Carey, Return of the Bird Tribes

And as far as I’m concerned healing and recycling are the biggest jobs.

We are ALL made of this Water, whether you like it or not.  And because of that, this Water ties us all together.  And so it is through these Waters that we can transmit and deliver this message of Love – appreciation penetrating the very core of our beings

This Love is the highest principle of cohesion and surely trumps any draconian system of control we are under. Allow this force to be our guiding light.

May the boundaries that impede humanity be dissolved!

And on the Strength and Authority of Universal Law we act to steer this planet to its deserved harmonious state. 

by Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

The Film, Recording & Entertainment Council (link) is one of South Florida’s most important economic development organizations serving the Entertainment Industry and over the weekend FREC held its 11th Annual Star Gala recognition ceremony at the Magic City Casino.

The Star Gala (link) recognizes industry professionals and organizations whose careers and bodies of work establish South Florida as a significant region for developing a career in this commercial sector.  There is a thriving community of people here in South Florida and it is important to note just who they are and what they have done.

The nature of entertainment necessarily highlights those on stage, or in front of the camera, or in the spotlight, and so the unique work of the Star Gala is to highlight the talent and expertise of those behind-the-scenes.  The types of categories that this event notes include the work of choreographers, lawyers, recording executives, producers, directors, make-up artists, casting directors, recording studios, up-and-coming talent, and so many more.

Love The Everglades Movement, like FREC, is a member-driven organization.  Our work is concerned with offering opportunities for people to connect with the Everglades and thereby inspiring positive change in the broader society so that we can achieve goals such as improved water quality in the Florida Everglades.  Many of us are artists, and so the methods that we’ve been using reflect our skills.  We understand how our artistic projects communicate complex messages across multiple dimensions, so we’ve been eager to invite influential people to participate in our excursions and events.  Our understanding of the influential embraces people such as teachers, event planners, spiritual leaders, political organizers, etc.

We also strive to cultivate a community of people concerned with Everglades matters using an approach that is respectful of local mores – which we are discovering is not an easy task.  This work has required us to learn new languages, to go outside of our comfort zones, and to confront obstacles of all types.

LTEM began with a vision that Jean Sarmiento (link) was blessed with as a result of his dedication to his spiritual and ceremonial work.  Since the fall of 2012, our work has evolved:  from Everglades excursions, to art exhibitions, inter-faith prayer rituals, benefit concerts, short films, interviews with print/radio/television/internet media, and an eclectic symposium.

Our Summer Symposium 2014 (link) was the culmination of all of the projects and community networking that we’ve been involved in since our efforts began.  Our program and attendance reflected that.  It was also an event that was free to attend so that there would be no barriers preventing people from getting engaged in Everglades advocacy – FREC took note.

At the Star Gala, event hosts such as Trina Robinson of NBC 6 and world-renowned artist Laurence Gartel took time to highlight my achievements in film, television and art, as well as my community work with the Love The Everglades Movement as a prime reason for the honor.

So, I would like to share this honor with everyone who has been involved with LTEM in one way or another since our work began, including all those who’ve been on our Everglades excursions, everyone who has prayed for the water, all the friends we’ve made in all the different communities that we’ve visited, our benefactors and sponsors, and all the members of the Coordination Circle (link).  Nuff Respect!

Another honoree that was noted for Best Film Festival was Filmgate Interactive (link).  Filmgate is an event that showcases and develops transmedia projects – projects that are expressed across multiple media platforms.  Diliana Alexander, Executive Director for Filmgate, invited LTEM to collaborate on their filmmaking workshop.  Diliana wanted to use her resources to express an environmental and humanitarian concern for the Everglades and the Miccosukee community while providing artists from around the world with an opportunity to hone their skills using cutting-edge technologies.  You can see the result of this collaboration by clicking THIS LINK.

The Star Gala was a blast!  Some of us from the Coordination Circle who attended had an opportunity to rub shoulders with the professionals of the South Florida entertainment industry.  And I had a great time, with Dudley Alexis of Epyllion Films (link), in putting together the tribute video honoring Irene Marie of modeling agency fame for her Lifetime Achievement Award.  Love The Everglades Movement was in great company.

by Geovanny Perez & Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

Hello everyone.  I'd like to thank THE RIVERS COALITION, THE RIVER WARRIORS, AND C4CW for inviting me to speak today; I truly feel honored to do so.  I'm also excited to be able to connect with all of you, even if under such dire circumstances.

As for the matter that brings us here, I have found it necessary to participate in the effort to restore the Everglades because it's where my home (including my clan and Tribe) and heart resides.  In my lifetime I've seen many destructive changes to our lands, such as the disintegration of tree islands, the disappearance of game animals, the increase of pollution in water, and the erosion of the Everglades.  Because our culture is tied to the land (our ceremonies, our medicines, and many other spiritual practices), we are witnessing the gradual disappearance of our culture.   We are losing our roots.

But we know there is hope; we can certainly steer this thing in the right direction, but it will take incredible coordination and resolve to manifest our dreams.

This is where our spirituality comes in.

Personally, I don't believe spirituality to be superstition or hollow, self-promoting, self-serving, self-comforting cliches.

Instead, it is about wisdom, insight, strength, patience, trust, and compassion, and in the face of great uncertainty and potential doom, this is exactly what we need.  There are many great sages that have explored the struggles of the human condition in such a mysterious universe, peering deeply into our very being and place in the universe.  There is much to learn for the sake of our global as well as local ecosystems.

With Love the Everglades Movement, LOVE is central to our cause because we do not want to be ruled by fear or anger.  In fact, we know we cannot afford to be mindlessly distracted given what's at stake and the amount of time we have to make things right.  We know that anger and fear, especially in a crisis situation, may galvanize some, but it can also blind us, divide us, perpetuate the delusion that we are factions bent on defeating one another, and thus undermine these important efforts. 

In getting to know some of you, I've heard from you about other groups involved in this issue, and those comments have been disparaging.  We are supposed to be the SOLUTION to this problem, otherwise our divisions are poison in the water.  We do not have the luxury to bicker, but we can overcome this, in fact, we MUST overcome this.  As someone with an outside perspective, this entrenched rift is off-putting, but it is also all too familiar, so I sympathize with you even as I am critical (our Tribe has been witness to entrenched bickering slowing the Everglades restoration effort to a glacial pace).

So how are we to overcome this bickering? -- this factionalism?  Love & Respect is a good place to start.  We have youngsters here among us and we must set a good example for them.  Let's show them how to have a civil and civilized dialogue with one another.

Let's also continue to have forums for discussion, so we can increase understanding of our concerns and priorities and proposals for action.

Let's also ask for help from our friends, people such as you.

And let's not be afraid to disagree.  Let's welcome disagreements and critiques as opportunities to learn where our proposals can be strengthened and improved.

Let me offer an example of constructive critique within a context of civilized discussion.  Plan 6 and the Southern Flow way -- a very important proposal with definite room for improvement.  The Holey lands are an area designated as O.F.W. -- Outstanding Federal Waters.  From what I've read on Plan 6, there is not enough discussion or information about this important area:  the Holey Lands, an area with very stringent regulations.  Plan 6 would bring MORE WATER at a REDUCED QUALITY than is currently allowed and protected for.  So the question that Plan 6 must answer to move forward with broader support is:  How do you propose to degrade Outstanding Federal Waters with water from Lake Okeechobee?

I also have a request for my friends:  I need your help to address the L-28 Interceptor Canal.  The failure of CEPP to move forward was very disappointing to all of us.  But CEPP didn't do enough because it failed to address the L-28 Interceptor Canal.  CEPP was concerned with bringing New Water into the system, but the L-28 Interceptor Canal is currently bringing 40% of the waters coming into the area, and it's bringing water in with a disgustingly high concentration of Phosphorus.  By the time the waters pass through the Water Conservation Area 3A, the waters have been naturally filtered out and nearly meet the desired goal of 10 PPB of Phosphorus.  So what this means is that Miccosukee territory becomes a De Facto Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) and that is not right.  So I'm asking for your help to raise awareness and push for action regarding the on-going problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal.

As for the factionalism within our environmental movements, well those of us from Love The Everglades Movement pledge to work from a place of Love & Respect with each and everyone of you.  WE WILL NOT TAKE SIDES.  We will continue to express our Love and Respect for these waters.

We continue to pray for the purity of the waters flowing from the Kissimmee River Valley, through Lake Okeechobee, over the River of Grass, and out beyond Florida Bay.

We continue to pray that compassion flourishes in the hearts and minds of the decision-makers and stakeholders involved with Everglades Restoration.

We continue to pray for the growth of the community concerned with Everglades Matters -- because the Everglades matters.

And we will continue to stand with you in prayer for the integrity and vitality of the Circle of Life.

These are the challenges we are called to meet -- with hope, grace, and diplomacy.

By Jean Sarmiento,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement.

It was much nicer than I had envisioned, even more meaningful to me than I thought it would be.
        Last year in April we borrowed a few gallons of Water from a sacred island in the Everglades the area is known as "Water Conservation Area 3A" Homeland of the Miccosukee people.  One of big issues we face as Floridians is the unnatural water levels in the Glades and its detrimental effects on the land, where we now see too much Water in the North and not enough Water in the South reaching Florida Bay.
        Our intent is to pray with these waters, caring for them, they have been to many prayer circles, many sweat lodges, many ceremonies, have touched the hands of many different beautiful men, woman and children who each has bestowed their love and gratitude unto these Waters, these very same Waters each and everyone of us depend on everyday to survive.  These very same Waters that will determine our continuation here on Earth.
        So we set out to Florida Bay with love, gratitude, appreciation in our hearts and gently released the Waters in a symbolic gesture of "Water reaching the bay" to connect with the land and offer our love our forgiveness, to hear our pleas and assist us in dissolving the boundaries that hinder humanity's progress, maybe, just maybe, we won't have to learn this lesson the Hard way.
        Let's give this Water the Respect it deserves!  I don't care if you think you're cute or you're a Diva or a tough guy gangster, el guapo, Rick Ross or you work for the government, if you're an Army Corps guy, if you have Money or if you're black, blue, pink.  It doesn't matter:  Appreciate this Water while you have it in such abundance because I guarantee you -- not maybe, or If -- I Guarantee you'll be crying for this water if it wasn't around.
        Thank you to all the men and women and children, past and present, who labor to bring light unto this world.