Outcry from Native American tribes after Florida company tries to give artifacts away
Outcry from Native American tribes after Florida company tries to give artifacts away
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Tribes accuse Related development company of freezing them out of discussion on future of trove of relics. Native American tribes in Florida have accused a development company of freezing them out of a discussion on the future of a trove of historical artifacts from a downtown Miami construction site, and hawking them around the US without their consent or knowledge.
Representatives of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the American Indian Movement of Florida told the Guardian that they were angered by the Related Group’s approach to a number of out-of-state universities to see if they were interested in curating and housing the relics believed to be from an ancient Tequesta Indian village.
More than a million mostly fragmentary items that experts say date anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 years ago are currently stored at Related’s office in the Brickell neighborhood where the company is building two residential tower blocks, and where they were uncovered in archaeological digs since 2021.
The site is a stone’s throw from the Miami Circle national historic landmark, known as the city’s Stonehenge, which was discovered in 1998 along with similarly aged artifacts including pieces of pottery, tools, and animal bones and teeth. Some scattered human ancestral remains were recovered where Related was clearing land, and reburied off-site in consultation with local tribal leaders, but otherwise, the representatives say, they have not been listened to.
The tribes say Related has broken an agreement made with the city of Miami in 2023 to present an action plan to preserve, catalog and display significant parts of the collection locally in exchange for being allowed to press ahead with the development.
