Government
Location of Big Cypress Indian Reservation, Florida.
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Hendry County, Broward County
• Governing body	Seminole Tribe of Florida
Area
• Total	81.972 sq mi (212.306 km²)
Population
• Total	591
Time zone	UTC-5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
Website	Seminole Tribe of Florida: Big Cypress

Seminole Casino Big Cypress
Seminole Casino Big Cypress Directions

The Big Cypress Indian Reservation is one of the six reservations of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It is located in southeastern Hendry County and northwestern Broward County, in southern Florida, United States. Its location is on the Atlantic coastal plain. This reservation lies south of Lake Okeechobee and just north of Alligator Alley. It is governed by the Seminole Tribe of Florida's Tribal Council, and is the largest of the five Seminole reservations in the state. Facilities on the reservation include the tribal museum and a major entertainment and rodeo complex.

The land area is 81.972 sq mi (212.306 km²), including the 12th-largest cattle operation in the country.^[1] A resident population of 591 persons was reported in the 2010 census. The reservation is also called 'Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation' or 'Big Cypress Reservation'. It lies adjacent to the north side of the largest section of the Miccosukee Indian Reservation in western Broward County.

Nestled deep in the heart of the scenic Florida Everglades, the Big Cypress Indian Reservation is a top Florida Everglades adventure attraction. Also, our Everglades destination is owned and operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. On behalf of the Seminole Police Department I’d like to welcome you to our webpage. I am proud to lead the men and women of the Seminole Police Department who not only take pride in our mission and the community we serve, but strive to continually improve the quality of life for the citizens.

Tourism and entertainment[edit]

Seminole patchwork shawl made by Susie Cypress from Big Cypress Indian Reservation, ca. 1980s

The tribe owns two tourist attractions here: Billie Swamp Safari, and Big Cypress National Preserve.

The American rock band Phish held their millennium concert at the reservation from December 30, 1999 to January 1, 2000. With 85,000 people in attendance, it was the earliest and largest sold-out millennium concert. Phish performed three sets of music on the 30th, an afternoon set on the 31st, and an unprecedented 'Midnight To Dawn' set, which ran from 11:50pm until sunrise on January 1, 2000.

The entertainment complex is surrounded by 350 acres for outdoor events, in addition to a newly renovated rodeo arena with seating for 3,000 people. Stables have stalls for 86 horses.

The tribe constructed the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum, which opened in 1997. In 2005 it was the first tribal museum to receive accreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM), and is a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate.

In popular culture[edit]

Charles 'Trip' Tucker III, (short for 'Triple', since he is the third generation of his family to be named Charles Tucker), played by Connor Trinneer, is a fictional character in the television series Star Trek: Enterprise. According to Star Trek lore, 'Trip' had a sister who was killed by the Xindi along with 7 million other Humans in the year 2153. The CGI depiction of the attack on Earth in The Expanse (Star Trek: Enterprise episode) shows that the beam hits Florida in Moore Haven and cuts directly south, through the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in Hendry County, to Cuba, until reaching South America.

Notes[edit]

^'Red Barn, Glades County, Florida', National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, accessed 26 December 2011

References[edit]

Eda.gov [1]
Big Cypress Reservation, Florida United States Census Bureau

Coordinates: 26°17′39″N80°58′09″W / 26.29417°N 80.96917°W

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Big_Cypress_Indian_Reservation&oldid=920334324'

(Redirected from Brighton Reservation)

Entrance to reservation

Seminole Casino in Brighton

Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, located in northeast Glades County near the northwest shore of Lake Okeechobee. It is one of six reservations held in trust by the federal government for this tribe. The reservation has a land area of approximately 146 square kilometers or 36,000 acres^[1] and a 2000 census resident population of 566 persons.

Some residents of the reservation speak the Muscogee language (or Creek), which is different from the Mikasuki language of other Seminoles and the Miccosukee tribe.^[2] Fewer than 200 people on the reservation speak Muscogee, which is the largest number of speakers in Florida and outside of Oklahoma.^[3] The Muscogee language is considered 'definitely endangered' by UNESCO.^[3]

The Florida guide referred to a 'Seminole Village' in 1939, south of the town of Brighton, on a 35,660-acre reservation:

Here approximately 100 Indians are employed on CCC projects in road building, fencing, water development, and revegetation. All this group are Cow Creek, or Muskogee, differing in language from the Big Cypress Indians of the west coast, who are Mikasuki. Reservation Indians farm the center of cleared hammocks and herd some 800 head of Hereford and Angus cattle on a subsistence basis. Families live in groups of palm-thatched chuckoos, 10 feet by 12 feet, containing raised sleeping platforms covered with mosquito netting. One chuckoo serves as the family dining room, another as the kitchen. Both children and adults receive instruction in the village school, which is equipped with modern facilities, including a community workroom and shop, men's and women's showers, and a laundry.^[4]

— Federal Writers'Project, 'Part III: The Florida Loop', Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State (1947)

To serve the Seminole cattle business, 'The Red Barn' was built in 1941 with help from the Civilian Conservation Corps. Hurricane Wilma damaged the roof, which was replaced in 2005.^[5]

The Seminole Tribe of Florida operates the Brighton Seminole Casino here, a 27,000-square-foot casino with 375-slot and gaming machines, a seven-table poker room, and high-stake bingo seats, with full service restaurant and lounge.^[6] The reservation also is used for part of the tribe's cattle operations, the 12th-largest in the country.

Other reservations[edit]

The other five Seminole Tribe of Florida reservations are:

Big Cypress Reservation, the largest territory, including 81.972 sq mi (212.306 km²), in Broward and Hendry Counties^[7]
Hollywood Reservation (formerly called the Dania Reservation), 497 acres (2.01 km²) acres,^[8] Broward County^[7]
Immokalee Reservation, Collier County
Fort Pierce Reservation, a 50 acres (0.20 km²) site in St. Lucie County, taken into trust for the tribe in 1995 by the United States Department of the Interior
Tampa Reservation, located in Hillsborough County

Seminole Casino Big Cypress

Notes[edit]

^'Archived Document'(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF

Seminole Indian Casino Big Cypress