Paved With Good Intentions: How the Road Through the Everglades Harmed the Seminole and Miccosukee

While we celebrate the construction of the Tamiami Trail as a “miracle of modern engineering” that connected Florida’s coast and opened Southwest Florida to tourism, we often fail to acknowledge the reality that there were indigenous people living in the lands the road was built through. The Tamiami Trail not only displaced the native population, but it also had devastating and irreparable effects on their culture — socially, economically, and spiritually. In this talk, Museum Manager Thomas Lockyear attempts to tell “the other side of the story” and explores the concept of the Everglades as “stolen land”.