Dave Scheidecker News Today

Tampa Emancipation Day is May 6, marking the 159th anniversary of the city’s enslaved people being set free.

Since its first survey in 1877, Egmont Key has lost more than half of its land mass. While some worry that losing the island would be an incalculable loss to Gulf Coast Florida’s cultural heritage and ecological resources, others believe the best way to manage the island is to let nature run its course.

In the 1800s, the U.S. Army used Egmont Key to imprison Seminole captives, and historians have described conditions on the island as a concentration camp. Over the last decade, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has launched a robust investigation into this period of Seminole removal to piece together and better understand this little-known chapter.

Turtle Mound, the tallest shell mound in the mainland United States, is an example of what it looks like when proactive measures are taken to preserve and monitor a coastal mound. But for this mound and hundreds of Indigenous cultural sites in Florida, archeologists are asking how long they can race against erosion.

On Friday, March 18, Billy Elton, an Elton John-Billy Joel tribute band, is returning to Neuqua Valley to perform a concert to benefit three teacher memorial funds.

As people across the nation celebrate Indigenous People's Day, the Seminole Tribe of Florida encourages people to recognize and honor their local history.