Ramapough Mountain Indians - Governance

Governance

The Ramapo Mountain Indians have had a chief and council form of government. In 1978 they organized a non-profit. That year they filed a petition with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs of intent to gain federal recognition as a tribe. They further organized into clans for self-government: the Wolf, the Turtle and the Deer, related to their three main settlements of Mahwah and Ringwood, New Jersey; and Hillburn, New York.

The tribe approached its New Jersey Assembly member, W. Cary Edwards, to seek state recognition. After several months of research, Edwards and Assemblyman Kern introduced Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 3031 (ACR3031) on May 21, 1979. It passed the Assembly and was passed by the Senate on January 7, 1980.

Edwards later said that debate in the assembly related to the Cohen book; he noted that he and other supporters of recognition had to demonstrate the historical basis of the Ramapough. At the time, the state had not developed its own criteria or regulations related to tribal recognition. The state resolution also called for Federal recognition of the Ramapough, but is non-binding in that regard. Indian activism had led to other peoples seeking official recognition; the state of New Jersey also recognized the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape and the Powhatan Renape, both descended from Algonquian-speaking tribes.