This story originally ran on March 3, 2025 and was re-aired on August 25, 2025.
Tribes in Florida are fighting to stop a new immigration detention center in the Everglades. In this encore episode from March, Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke with Cheyenne Kippenberger, a member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, about what the area means to Indigenous people.
Kippenberger, a former Miss Indian World, works as an advocate for Indigenous and environmental issues in Florida and across the country. She says that Indigenous people in the area have built a deep relationship with what is an increasingly unique and important ecosystem. The Everglades provides drinking water for over eight million people, roughly a third of the state. It is also home to hundreds of animal species, including ones that are endangered or cannot be found anywhere else. Climate change is threatening all of this.
“We're ground zero for climate change in Florida,” Kippenberger said. “It's really scary. Our home is at risk and our ways of life are at risk.”
