The Ramapough Mountain Indians (also spelled Ramapo), also known as the Ramapough Lenape Nation or Ramapough Lunaape Munsee Delaware Nation, are a group of approximately 5,000 people living around the Ramapo Mountains of Bergen and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey and Rockland County in southern New York, about 25 miles from New York City. They were recognized in 1980 by the state of New Jersey as an Indian tribe but have not gained federal recognition. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road on Houvenkopf Mountain in Mahwah, New Jersey. Since January 2007, the Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation has been Dwaine Perry.
The Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation identify as descendants of Lenape, whose regional bands included the Hackensack, Tappan, Rumachenanck/Haverstroo, Munsee/Minisink and Ramapo people. They absorbed peoples of varying degrees of Tuscaroran, African, and Dutch and other European ancestry. The Lenape language in this area was Munsee and the Tuscarora spoke an Iroquoian language but, following contact with European colonists, ancestors of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation were also known to have spoken Jersey Dutch and English. Today they speak English. The Ramapough are working to restore the Munsee language among their members.
The Ramapough Lenape Nation, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, and the Powhatan Renape Nation have a longstanding history of working together to care for members in the State of New Jersey. As of May 2011, the three tribes formed the United State-Recognized Tribes of New Jersey.
Members of the community have participated in litigation against the Ford Motor Company regarding poisoning from a former toxic waste landfill, portions of which were subsequently used in the 1970s as sites for affordable housing for the Ramapough people.
Read more about Ramapough Mountain Indians: Recognition, Earlier Exonym, History, Controversy Over Origins, Governance, Effort To Gain Federal Recognition, Recent Events, Tribal Enrollment, Representation in Other Media
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“At length he would call to let us know where he was waiting for us with his canoe, when, on account of the windings of the stream, we did not know where the shore was, but he did not call often enough, forgetting that we were not Indians.... This was not because he was unaccommodating, but a proof of superior manners. Indians like to get along with the least possible communication and ado. He was really paying us a great compliment all the while, thinking that we preferred a hint to a kick.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)