The Ramapoughs vs. the World

This article is a travesty.

The author strongly implies that the only reason the The Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the tribe’s application.for recognition was because of the interference of Donald Trump. That is entirely untrue.

Had the reporter contacted Richard Cohen, a distinguished historian who completed his dissertation on the Ramapough Mountain people at Princeton and one of the world's leading authorities on them, readers would have been made aware of the fact that there application was rejected because there is little to no evidence for their continuity with any Indian tribe and considerable evidence suggesting that there is no continuity.

On the contrary, the reporter states definitively "The Ramapough Indians are descended from a Munsee-speaking subset of the Lenape, an aboriginal people of the Mid-Atlantic Region," when that is at best highly contested.

http://www.academia.edu/1225640/The_Name_Game_The_Ramapough_Mountain_Ind...

It is a disgrace that this made it into print.

Great reporting - very interesting article.

Great article, I hope the NYS continues to cover this story. After sending to my family my brother Tom on in Oregon responded:
They need to become state and federally recognized to get unified and build traction for their cause. They need to become more recognized in their surrounding communities as a legitimate tribe, and one worth understanding and supporting, this through education, information and publicly shared ceremonial events. Once they get recognized they should develop a casino (ugly, yes, but necessary) in a location that is approved by the general public at large, and then use this as a vehicle for generating revenues to develop schools to educate their own into positions of power like attorneys, politicians etc. Sounds crazy and a bit unsettling, but this is how it works here on the west coast and the tribes I work with are powerful voices at most tables and give this region some much respected diversity. They need to keep putting logs on that fire.

A bit too ironic that it's called "Pilgrim" Pipeline. Website for Coalition against this company https://stoppilgrimpipeline.com/ "We are losing our living systems, social systems, cultural systems, governing systems, stability, and our constitutional health, and we're surrendering it all at the same time." -Hawken
This is a fight for all of us. This is what it means to be on the right side of history.
And if that's not enough? It's genocidal and racist as all hell.

Thank you for informing the public of another example of injustice. These people are doing nothing wrong other than to live their beliefs; to love and show respect for our earth. In the face of all the documented hazards and ills associated with oil spills, leaks, loss of habitats, loss of forests, the Ramapoughs are standing firm in their love and respect for our fragile planet. My heart goes out to this brave tribe to stand up to the oil industry at a time when we are moving forward rapidly to an era of of 100% renewable energy.

Oil is still necessary for the safety and prosperity of this nation and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future. The oil referenced in this article is presently moved from the fields in the Midwest to Linden's Bayway Refinery by rail and by barge. The question the NYT should find answers for is what do experts in the field of oil transportation say is the safest way of moving oil through densely populated areas?

Unfortunately, I am in a wheelchair. But I remember those days and hiking! I also remember Emma, who was Ramapough Lenape Nation, took care of my Nana, when she was sick, 20 years ago, and her brother, who was chief for a while and lived in Hillboro. I am back in Brooklyn,after five years in West Haverstraw, Monsey, and three years in Chestnut Ridge. I will share of the New York Times web sites and follow with interests the fight.

The Lenape tribes were in Pennsylvania when William Penn came. They are an ancient group of the eastern areas.

Gee, it's hard to understand NYT's writers anymore (I had to read the entirety of the piece to learn what it DIDN'T say). Mr. Remnick doesn't advise us that:

1. The "Ramapough" are NOT a recognized tribe.
2. They do not own any of the land under which the proposed pipeline would run.
3. The Pilgrim Pipeline would carry hydrocarbons from midwest fracking fields to Linden, NJ (a major extant distribution point) -- hydrocarbons that are currentlly transported by rail. Pipelines are much, MUCH safer than rail transport.
4. The Pipeline is still in the planning stage (no permitting applications have been filed).

How can we help?

What an opportunity to right wrongs and do no farther harm to the planet -- what a great choice facing all of us. Stand with the Ramapoughs and the Earth, or oppose them, or do neither. The latter two options are simply ignorant and perilous to everything.

I teach music at an elementary school. Every year, our fourth graders are immersed in a full day workshop with two teachers from the Lenape Nation.

I've learned that you are given a name (e.g. Two Clouds) by elders when you're accepted into the Indian (yeah, you can say Indian) Tribe as a member, regardless of heritage. To suggest that Mr. Williams is illegitimate is ignorant and racist.

Screening and scouring for authenticity (sameness) is no surprise. Everybody's gotta prove where they came from and that they're not terrorists. Fact is, most of the blowing up in America has been done by white Americans .. nuts with guns.

We are no longer a nation of immigrants. Welcome to rounding up illegal immigrants, to a new America where "I [Trump] alone can fix it."

As European immigrants, we plowed over this Nation of Indians; and now, we plan the last 'hurrah' without regard for the people who lived here first. We will displace them and destroy our precious environment.

The highest priority of the Lenape Indians is to love, respect and care for our source of existence. This doesn't preclude living without technology or progress. It does preclude destroying the earth.

I feel the need to apologize, on behalf of my (former) U.S. to this gentle Nation.

Indeed, the article is thought-provoking, touchy and a push to the concerned to redress the grievances of the just 4k strength Ramapough tribe in the mountain around the border of NY and NJ. It is pathetic to know that receiving a loan from a bank is difficult with his/her tribal moniker like Iron Bear and one will be treated differently with his tribal name, Owl. The news about the laying of oil pipeline and the article in a sequel to highlight the dilapidated plight of the Ramapough tribe are the good subject for both GOP and Democratic parties to carry out a Risk Assessment on the subject.
The Qualitative Risk Assessment on the subject has to reroute the oil pipeline without disturbing the normal life of these tribes and also recommend the measures for the upliftment of their life. When a person with a name, "Wolf " has a good reputation in the society there is no room to treat a person named, Owl differently. When we have accepted the " Colour" is equal to the "Color" in the meaning and usage, from where the source of discrimination between Mr.Owl Mr. Wolf had been originated.
Will the oldest democracy of the world set an example by preserving the land of Ramapoughs by detouring the oil pipeline?. May I wish one more Barak Obama from the Ramapoughs to the White House in the next two decades?.
Did the 4K Ramapoughs get the 'Obama Care"?

It is shocking that the Pilgrim Pipeline gets so little attention as it threatens to pollute and mar the whole Hudson Valley from Albany down and into northern New Jersey and is opposed by Scenic Hudson, River Keeper, the Sierra Club and countless civic groups all along the threatened Hudson River. It endangers millions and millions of us who live here including the Ramapoughs. It is high time we woke up and opposed this disaster before it is too late. Your focus in the article is far too narrow but I'm glad to see some coverage of this crucial issue. Please look up Pilgrim Pipeline on line to learn how you can fight it.

Excellent NY Times story about an important footnote of our NYC metropolitan region history. Removing indigenous people was the fundamental rule for expansion of the USA. DNA, whether 1% or 100%, is but a small part of recognition.

Mr. Williams ( Two Clouds ) who is pictured in the article is clearly of African descent even with his Mr. T styled mowhawk. Maybe this is one of the reasons people are questioning legitimacy within the tribe. Remember that Elizabeth Warren maintained she was Native American to gain easier entrance to an elite school!

Many thanks to the NY Times for publishing this valuable article.

One strongly hopes that, together with all the NY and NJ towns planned to be crossed by the Pilgrim Pipeline project, the Ramapough tribe will be successful in defeating this project.

It is also a welcome reminder that the Lenape Indian nation, to which the Ramapough belong, once owned large territories, covering part of all of the colonial states of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York ...the way the Lenape, and other 'First Nations' 'Indian tribes were (mis)treated flies against the very religious and political principles that were advocated by the American colonists...

ironic that the pilgrims are still causing pain for the native Americans. Lets stop this stupidity. just burry the pipeline uner a state highway.

I can see how the group acts like a "tribe" and am willing to accept the idea that many or most of them have Indian DNA. But I am not on board with the idea of Indian run casinos all over the country, just as I am not on board with non Indian casinos all over the country.

"But the tribe’s reclusive lifestyle fueled an already-potent strand of anti-native racism. For years, they have been disparaged as “inbreeds,” “Jackson Whites” and other slurs referring to misconceptions about their ancestry. The issue arises in part from a census classification system in New Jersey. Until 1870, the state allowed for residents to be counted only as white, black free or black slave, causing many Ramapoughs to be misclassified — a gap in genealogy that was filled with fallacies and folk tales by the surrounding white population."

My authority herein is from having visited this area numerous times, and grew up with what is incorrectly being labeled as racism by now, the New York Times. The Ramapo Mountains of Northern New Jersey and New York States, were occupied by the mercenary Hessian Soldiers, who were hired and fought with the British against the Revolutionaries. They are the "white descendants". and

2) the anti-slave Underground railroad terminated in that area of New Jersey.

3) Other tribes lived in the Ramapos, not just Ramapough Indians, such as the Chickasaw. I went to school with a young girl who claimed such a heritage and location.

4) "JACKSON white" is incorrect; it is Jack'SnWhite.

The term was never ever meant as a racial slur. The Ramapo Mts. were impenetrable in the 1960s. The school busing of the Ramapo. kids was racist, they would not bus anyone over the age of 16 from the Mt. to Ramsey or Mahwah high schools.

This T'day I went to Plymouth to hang with the brothers and with the natives. they consider it a day of mourning. I do, too. Even though I was invited many times to go stuff myself with false exceptionalism, I didn't. the whitemen have lied about the people who were already here since the very beginning. It is hundreds of years through the lies already and it is way past time for it to stop. slavery and racism of any kind must stop. there is no excuse for either under any timeframe or in any circumstances. Those things are just plain wrong.

Even in such a timely and necessary story, casual racism can be found. The word "moniker" means "nickname;" Iron Bear is Mr. Perry's real Ramapough name, while Dwaine Perry is his white moniker. Unintended racism, but racist and disrespectful nonetheless.

Two quotes hit me in the face: “I think I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations,” Mr. Trump said.
Later, at a congressional hearing on Indian gambling in October [1993], he said, “They don’t look like Indians to me.”
The biases and bigotry have been there all along; I will go no further in responding.

You make it sound as if Trump was the reason the tribe was not recognized by the Federal government. That clearly cannot be true so why was the tribe not recognized by the Feds? Seems something very lacking in the reporting.

As a lifelong resident of a state with a little bit of everything, I've known of the existence of native Americans in New Jersey's Ramapo mountains for a long time. I've always thought that Ramapoughs are as worthy of federal recognition as any other tribe in America, be they obscure or the household name "Indian" stuff of Hollywood westerns.

But the real issue here is the safety of drinking water not just for a few thousand Ramapoughs, but for a metropolitan region whose access to safe and high quality drinking water would be threatened by the proposed oil pipeline.

It is up to organizations like the Sierra Club, whose work in the greater New York/New Jersey region often leaves much to be desired, to effectively publicize the pipeline's threat to this region's water supply.

By getting the word out, we'll have millionaires marching alongside native Americans, and maybe even some effective help from their attorneys. I only wish I could be confident that the NJ Sierra Club isn't accepting donations from big oil.

Life for everybody is nothing but one prolonged struggle against all the things out there that want to kill you, whether you're an Indian or not. Nothing is sacred anymore expect those who feel they are.

Let's support them in protecting the water.

In a movie, John Wayne said it was a good way of life, too bad.

And it is too bad but progress moves on. For better or worse.

Why are the Ramapough being singled out? They make up about 0.3 percent of the population of Bergen Country and Passaic County, New Jersey, which have a combined population of about 1.4 million. The other residents also drink water, and like the Ramapough, they also use oil and gas.

New Jersey already has 35,674 miles of oil and gas pipelines. The 178-mile Pilgrim Pipeline would increase the total miles by 0.5 percent. Pipelines are the safest and least environmentally damage of transport oil and gas. New pipelines are safer than old pipelines. However, if New Jersey stopped using oil and gas, it wouldn’t need oil and gas pipelines.

I went to high school with some of these people. We knew them as Jackson Whites or Ramapough Indians. They were friendly, assertive and did face discrimination in their daily lives.
I hope they win in their struggle against the pipeline. I agree with everything Michelle from USA says about their plight.

I grew up with the Ramapough as my immediate neighbors and I can fully attest to the racism and hostility they experienced from the community and local government. Several of my childhood friends were members of the tribe, but what I remember most was how they were shunned and mistreated by others in school, including teachers. Yes, all of those racial slurs were hurled at them daily. It is remarkable to me that they have held their traditions together, despite what was clearly a very committed effort by officials and local residents to dissolve their culture. I wish them great strength and endurance in trying to take on an industry that wouldn't hesitate to sue God for the right to fill the earth and sky with more carbon. And, I greatly salute the NY Times for your continued recognition of these very marginalized people, and for finding a way to also point out that our Imposter President knows as much about ethnology as he does about governing - enough to hurt himself and all of the rest of us in the process.

I have visited Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp near Mahwah. The Lenape are welcoming and dedicated to resisting exploitation of lands held by Native Americans. They set up teepees because local ordinances prohibit permanent structures on their land bordering the river--beautiful land. Some owners of multi-million-dollar houses on the hills overlooking their camp object to the camp obstructing their view of the countryside. If you visit the camp, bring water and hot food if you can. Firewood is also needed, and camping supplies of various kinds. Mostly, bring encouraging words and take home inspiration from your visit.

a wonderfully informative and warmly heartfelt feature. thanks for all the hard work that produced it.

Good luck. This country is history. What's true is false and what's false is true.
Forked tongues abound....

How many of these situations have to occur before we realize that we are one people? We are all in this together. The future of our planet is in question, and most of us have not evolved our thinking to try to solve the overarching problem of our long-term survival as a complete human race.
Donald Trump's ignorant, selfish words just punctuate how many white people regard Native Americans, even today. What could possibly be wrong with giving a small group of Native people some rights and benefits from a government that has historically spurned and destroyed a very sustainable way of life?
Speaking with a very wise man who worked on our house this past summer, I heard these words: "Native Americans had it right, and we should have assimilated to their way of life when we came here."
My heart aches for the Ramapough and all Native people who still experience the ravages of historic and brutal attacks upon their humanity.

It's heartening that the NYT includes here an article on the plight of a local Native American tribe.

Over the many years of the New York Times' existence, all too often it has failed to give witness to the deplorable treatment of the Americas' First Peoples by European invaders, whose callous greed towards Native Americans is epitomised by the current so-called President.

This piece would have been stronger if the reporter had spent some time discussing the federal recognition process and why the federal government rejected the tribe's application. Perhaps the Times will do so in a subsequent piece? Federal recognition, or lack thereof, is the elephant in the room here.

I've always been captivated by the tales of these original holdouts who have, against astonishing odds, managed to remain in such an unforgiving area. All this tribe has known for hundreds of years is hostility, yet they continue to hold fast. Hopefully they gain official recognition and control the fate of their land which seems to belong to them more than recent arrivals.