The only sounds were the water lapping on the sides of the four airboats floating beside a small island deep in the Florida Everglades, the call of a heron somewhere, and the voices of our Miccosukee guides. The boats floated on dark water, cluttered with small islands or clumps of grass, and the sky was a giant bowl arcing over us from horizon to horizon, steel blue and dotted with small clouds.

Except for the airboats, there was no indication of civilization anywhere. Yet, to our guides this was home, a place of fond memories of a simple life of hunting, fishing and living with nature. But, it was those things no more.

"Once," said our lead guide, the venerable Buffalo Tiger, a tribal elder, "I could drink from these waters." He swept his arm around the horizon to indicate where he could drink. "But no more. The white man has poisoned them with his refuse. I hope that one day, I will be able to drink here again."

An alligator surfaced beside one of the air boats. "Don't put your hand down, or it will try to take a bite," he warned us.

We were on a tour with the Florida Humanities Council. We had come out from Everglades City to Buffalo Tiger's airboat station on the Tamiami Trail, to see old Florida. In the process we received a lesson in how the new Florida wars on the old without even intending to do so.

That war is being fought out in the courts of Florida and the United States these days, as the Miccosukee try to enforce clean water standards on the South Florida Water Management District, the state and federal government.

The Associated Press recently explained the issue in a news story. It said this:

"The South Florida Water Management District's pump west of Fort Lauderdale dumps as much as 423,000 gallons a minute of polluted runoff from suburban lawns, farms and industrial yards into the Everglades, including 189,000 acres the state leased to the tribe and promised to keep in its natural state.

"The district was sued in 1998 by the Miccosukee and Friends of the Everglades under the federal Clean Water Act.

"At issue was whether the district should be required to get permits for water pump facilities.

"District officials contend that they are only moving water that already has pollutants, protecting nearby areas from flooding, and didn't need special permits. The Bush administration, in supporting the district, argued to the Supreme Court that permits were not required when water from one navigable body was channeled into another navigable body of water.

"An appeals court had sided with the tribe and ordered the South Florida Water Management District to apply for permits. The Supreme Court on Tuesday voided that decision and ordered the lower court to reconsider the case and take the Bush administration argument into account."

When the suit began it was a classic David vs. Goliath story. The 500-member tribe against the combined might of the district, state and federal agencies, with only the law on which they could depend. Now 14 states are siding with the Miccosukee.

Still, the case has some odd aspects. The latest argument by the Water Management District and state is that the matter is outside the court's jurisdiction because no permits are required to move polluted water from one navigable body of water to another navigable body of water. The argument has a grim impact for people living along the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, because it means the district, state and federal agencies may not feel any urgency to stop the pollution of our waters because they are navigable.

The concept of the Everglades as a navigable body of water is interesting, because the River of Grass is mostly used by native canoes and airboats, and no other large vessels. Calling the 'Glades a "navigable body of water," is a real stretch of definitions and can only be for the benefit of those interests that don't want the water cleaned up anytime soon.

Buffalo Tiger is aging, and if something is not done soon to clean up the Everglades, he may never be able to drink from his ancestral waters. But civilization proceeds outside the circle of his horizon, churning out its wastes, and dumping them in the most convenient form into the waters of the Everglades without real regard for the environment and the native people. Historians will ask, "So, what is new about that?" The sad answer is, "Nothing!"