Ramapough Mountain Indians - Effort To Gain Federal Recognition

Effort To Gain Federal Recognition

In August 1978, the tribe filed a petition of intent for federal recognition.r Since then Native American activism has led to the development of casino gambling on tribal trust lands to generate revenue and support economic development. The late twentieth-century efforts to gain federal recognition by landless eastern tribes, who have been generally without reservations or trust lands, have met with new opposition from parties opposed to potential casinos - both private competitors and federally recognized tribes who operate their own facilities in states that allow gaming, and citizen groups concerned about the proliferation of gaming.

The Ramapough Mountain Indians submitted its petition for recognition with supporting documentation in 1990. One of the consultants advising the tribe, Roger D. Joslyn, a certified genealogist, has traced Ramapough members to people of the 18th century and concluded that tribal members were descended from the historical Munsee tribe.

The Stockbridge-Munsee Community of Wisconsin, the Munsee-Delaware Nation of Canada, both Lenape nations;, and the Iroquois Six Nations of Canada, who had migrated from New York State during and after the American Revolution, filed statements included with the Tribe's petition encouraging the US Government to recognize the Ramapough.

In April 1993, Donald Trump (a casino owner) and two Bergen County United States Representatives said that "the Ramapo would bring in Indian gaming associated with organized crime." U.S. Representative Marge Roukema testified to the Senate Subcommittee on Native American Affairs on October 5, 1993 about the Ramapough Lenape Indian efforts to gain recognition. She said that, since tribal representatives had approached her in the 1980s seeking a private federal bill for recognition, their "sole interest" appeared to be to establish casino gambling in Bergen County.}} She feared that Indian gaming in New Jersey would bring organized crime with it. On November 17, 1993, Roukema and U.S. Representative Robert Torricelli publicly announced that the Ramapough had been denied recognition by the BIA, although the draft final determination had not yet been reviewed by the Assistant Secretary of Interior. The Ramapough requested an investigation of the agency leak and were ignored. The Ramapough do not hold any land as a reservation that could be used for a gambling site.

The BIA gave the Tribe an opportunity to respond to its Proposed Finding of December 8, 1993, which said its documented petition did not satisfy all the regulatory criteria. It identified areas of weakness and provided extensions requested by the Tribe. Finally in December 1995, the agency issued its Final Determination, which concluded that the Ramapough Mountain Indians had failed to meet three of seven criteria for recognition; namely, that it did not provide adequate proof of descent from a historical tribe, nor of genealogical, social and political continuity since 1950. The latter two issues were of concern since 1950, when the BIA felt that the tribe had not demonstrated a distinct Indian culture different from its neighbors. They said: {{quote|In making this Final Determination, the BIA has reviewed the evidence used to prepare the Proposed Finding, the RMI response to the Proposed Finding, and additional research conducted for the Final Determination by BIA staff. None of the interested party or third party comments were directed to the specific genealogies of the RMI progenitor families. None of the interested party or third party comments provided substantive proof that the earliest proven RMI ancestors descended from a historical tribe of North American Indians. Therefore, the third-party comments were not directly pertinent to criterion 83.7(e). ...

None of the outside observers cited in the RMI Response provided documentation of actual tribal descent. Statements of generically "Indian" characteristics are not equivalent under the 25 CFR Part 83 regulations to documented descent from "a historical Indian tribe or from historical Indian tribes that combined and functioned as a single autonomous political entity." Statements concerning more general "Indian" descent are not in themselves adequate to meet criterion 83.7(e), and must also be evaluated in the full context of the available evidence. ...

In conclusion, the origins and parentage of the earliest genealogically proven ancestors of the petitioner are not known. The petitioner has not demonstrated that their earliest documented ancestors were members of a historical North American Indian tribe, nor has the petitioner documented that their earliest proven progenitors descended from any known historical tribe of North American Indians. Without documentation, the BIA cannot make an assumption, on the basis of late 19th-century and early 20th-century ascriptions, that these unknown RMI ancestors were members of a historical North American Indian tribe. The petitioner has not presented acceptable evidence that the RMI descend from a historical Indian tribe, or from tribes that amalgamated and functioned as a single unit, either as individuals or as a group."

The Ramapough, who are opposed to gambling, appealed the BIA's decision. On November 2001, the Ramapough presented their case to the Court of Appeals. The BIA conceded that the Ramapough are Native American:

"At oral argument before the Court of Appeals, the BIA conceded that the RMI (Ramapough Mountain Indians) are Indians, but asserted that the Tribe provided no evidence of descent from the Aboriginal Lenape Indians, who are the only tribal group ever to have occupied the region."

John "Bud" Shapard was the former chief of the Bureau of Research at the BIA from 1978-1987, when the regulations were written. Asked to review the Ramapough's case after the BIA declined their petition, in 1999 he said, "It's pretty clear they've got an Indian community as strong as some that have been recognized. There's no question about that."

Alexa Koenig and Jonathan Stein wrote an article published in 2007 in which they reviewed the process of federal and state recognition, and factors affecting both. They noted the effect of the development of Indian gambling. They wrote,

"The current political environment threatens to further slow the achievement of federal recognition, as legislators and citizens in various communities band together to oppose recognition for fear that newly recognized tribes will establish a casino in their community. This opposition is sometimes financed by competing Indian casinos, adding additional money and political muscle to an already uphill fight. Unfortunately, this is unfairly hindering recognition opportunities for longstanding tribes and standing in the way of such tribes acquiring much needed non-casino related benefits, such as federal grants and governmental immunities."

They noted that many states had initiated their own processes of recognition of tribes and are building new relationships with the people. The Ramapough Lenape Indians had been recognized by New Jersey but not by New York, which as a policy matter does not separately recognize tribes, nor by the federal government.