Florida State University will host “Two Tribes of Florida: A Shared Environment,” a symposium featuring tribal members from the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, and others.

The event is a partnership with the tribes and FSU’s Native American Indigenous Studies Center.

A reception will be held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 16 at the Florida Historic Capitol Museum in Tallahassee. Registration is encouraged.

The symposium will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 17 at FSU’s Miller Hall. According to the event’s website, the symposium will explore issues that the tribes face, including how their history is presented, how their cultures are maintained, and how they have maintained an essential role in guiding the state into the future.

The symposium is free and open to the public. It will conclude with a celebration of Seminole artist Erika Deitz’s painting “Osceola Vision” from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the student union.

For more information, visit nais.fsu.edu/TwoTribesSymposium.

Symposium agenda

Friday, Jan. 17 Miller Hall (DeVoe L. Moore Center at FSU)

8:30 a.m. Coffee and Registration

9 a.m. Welcoming remarks (Dr. Andrew Frank, Director of NAIS Center)

9:15 a.m. Tribal Stewardship of the Environment of Florida (Chaired by Dr. Kathleen Powers Conti, FSU History Department)

• Michelle Diffenderfer, Esq. (President and Shareholder, Lewis Longman Walker, representing Seminole Tribe of Florida)

• Edward R. Ornstein, Esq. (Deputy General Counsel & Tallahassee Embassy Director, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida)

10:15 a.m. Everglades Restoration (Chaired by Dr. Eren Erman Ozguven, Director of Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center, FSU College of Engineering)

• Tina Osceola (Executive Director of Operations, Seminole Tribe of Florida)

• Kevin Cunniff (Chief Sustainability Officer, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida)

11:30 a.m. Indian Removal Era (Chaired by Dr. Christine Rizzi (FSU, History Department)

• Dave Scheidecker (Senior Historian Seminole Tribe of Florida)

• Dr. Jason Daniel (Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida)

1:30 p.m. Indigenous Education (Chaired by Dr. Stacey Rutledge FSU, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies)

• Michele Thomas (Administrative Assistant Pemayetv Emahakv Charter School, Liaison to Glades County School District, Seminole Tribe of Florida)

• Lymarie Muniz (Chief Education Officer, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida)

2:30 p.m. Language Preservation (Chaired by Dr. Kristin Dowell, FSU, Art History)

• Diane Smith (Director of Brighton Reservation Culture Program, Seminole Tribe of Florida) & Francine Osceola (Director of Tribal Language Programs, Seminole Tribe of Florida)

• Sec. William “Popeye” Osceola (Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida)

3:45 p.m. Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge (Dr. Tyler McCreary, FSU Department
of Geography)

• Juan Cancel (Assistant Director, Seminole THPO) and Lonnie Billie (Cultural Advisor, Seminole Tribe of Florida)

• Betty Osceola (Judge & Everglades Advisory Committee, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida)

4:45 p.m. Concluding remarks.