Opinion ID: 175346
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Historical Backdrop of the Litigation [1]

Text: The Miccosukee Indians have long resided in the Everglades. [2] The Miccosukees' historical association with their neighbors the Seminole Indians was tempered by the fact that the Miccosukees spoke their own language, Mikasuki. The federal government formally recognized the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida in 1962. Tribe members live and work on several reservations within the Everglades. Geologists estimate that the Everglades formed about 5,000 years ago. [3] The Indians called the place Pa-hay-okee, meaning Grassy Water. A British cartographer labeled it the River Glades, and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas suggested that later mapmakers substituted the word Ever for River. [4] The name Everglades appeared on American military maps during the Seminole Wars. The Everglades covers much of the half of Florida south of Orlando. Historically, water moved southward from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee, then south and southwest into Florida Bay. [5] From Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico, the land declines almost imperceptiblyon average only three inches per mileso that the water forms a shallow, thirty-mile wide river, moving slowly southward. [6] In bad weather the water did not always move so gently. A hurricane in September 1928 caused a breach of the Okeechobee levee, drowning upwards of 2,000 farm workers. [7] The tragedy increased public awareness of the dangers of uncontrolled Everglades waters. At the same time, the population of Florida was continuing to grow, and with it the demand for land, food, and water. In 1948, Congress passed the Flood Control Act, Pub.L. No. 80-858, 62 Stat. 1171, 1176, authorizing the Central and Southern Florida plan to control flooding in the Everglades, and promote agriculture and water supply. The effect of the series of levees and canals that followed was to shunt more water out through the east and west coasts of Florida, and drastically reduce the southward flow through the Everglades. The Tamiami Trail (the Trail), also known as U.S. Highway 41, was the first highway to cross the Everglades. Its name derives from the cities at its ends, Tampa and Miami. Construction began during the First World War and took more than a decade to complete. When workers were not battling the swamp, they were using dynamite to break through the rock beds on the Naples side. [8] While the newer Interstate 75 to the north, called Alligator Alley, carries more vehicles across the Everglades every day, the Trail remains a vital road and hurricane evacuation route. Some of the east-west portion of the Trail runs along the northern boundary of Everglades National Park. [9] Although the Trail remains an impressive engineering achievement, it poses a substantial environmental challenge. It acts as a dam to restrict water from flowing south into Everglades National Park and greatly reduces the flow into the Shark River Slough, the main water corridor of the Everglades. Moreover, to preserve the roadbed from erosion, engineers found that they had to lower water levels of the surrounding swamp. The restricted water flow was subsequently blamed for vast losses of wading birds, fish, and native plants.