Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

MIAMI, FLORIDA - The American Indian Movement of Florida (AIM-Florida) condemns the recent verdict in the Miami-Dade County trial of Miccosukee citizen Kirk Billie as an attack upon the sovereignty of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and all Indigenous peoples.

Kirk Billie's actions were solely within the purview of the Miccosukee Tribe to determine punishment. The Miccosukee Tribe handled the situation according to their traditions and laws, which have existed since time immemorial. The 224-year-old United States of America attacked the sovereign rights of the 500 citizen Miccosukee Nation by arresting and then trying Kirk Billie for a second time, this time in Miami-Dade County court. Prosecutor Reid Rubin showed his disdain for Indigenous national sovereignty by having Miccosukee citizen Sheila Tiger kidnapped and held prisoner for days to compel her testimony in this case. Further Mr. Rubin contemptuously tried to force Mr. Billie's parents to testify against him.

While some may see this as simply a case of the state of Florida seeking justice, in reality this case has nothing to do with justice. This case was about the imposition of the State of Florida and its laws upon the sovereign Miccosukee and its people. This case was about flagrantly ignoring the Treaty of Macrombie Worth, under which the state had no jurisdiction in this matter, and flaunting their ability to ignore and violate the sovereign rights of the Miccosukee

This trial must be seen in the totality of the ongoing war against Indigenous peoples and Indigenous sovereignty by the United States, state, and local governments.

The American Indian Movement since its rebirth in 1968 has stood unwaveringly in support of the sovereign and treaty rights of Indigenous Nations. In no treaty and in no agreement has any Indigenous Nation surrendered its sovereignty to the colonial settler states imposed upon them. Had this trial simply been about the actions of Kirk Billie it would have garnered neither the profile, nor the attention it received from the State of Florida and the media. Instead this was a trial about the imposition of the will of the colonial settler state and the state of Florida upon the Miccosukee people. Such flagrant violations of sovereignty cannot be ignored or tolerated.

AIM-Florida stands in full, complete and total support of the Miccosukee Tribe and the Miccosukee people and offers our assistance in their struggle to maintain their sovereign rights in the face of a hostile state and a hostile America by whatever methods are necessary to do so.