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The Ramapough Mountain Indians

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Ramapo Mountain Indians

The Ramapough Mountain Indians (also known as Ramapo Mountain Indians or the Ramapough Lenape Nation) are a group of approximately 5,000 [1] people living around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York. Their tribal office is located on Stag Hill Road in Mahwah, New Jersey. As of January 2007, the Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation is Dwaine Perry.

Until the 1970s, the tribe was frequently referred to as the "Jackson Whites", which, according to legend, was shorthand for "Jacks and Whites". Folk belief was that they were descendants of runaway and freed slaves ("Jacks" in slang) and whites (including Dutch settlers and Hessian soldiers) who had supported the English during the American Revolution, and were forced to flee to the mountains after the end of the war. This name and its associated legends are rejected as pejorative by the group. New Jersey Historian David Cohen found that the old stories about these people were legends, not history. He states "it became increasingly obvious that, not only was the legend untrue, it was also the continuing vehicle for the erroneous and derogatory stereotype of the Mountain People."

The members of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation describe themselves as the descendants of the Lenape and Munsee peoples, with varying degrees of African, Tuscarora, Dutch, and other caucasian ancestry. The Ramapough also claim common ancestry with other aboriginal American tribes in the north and west. The Ramapough claim that their ancestral language was Munsee, but the community was known to have spoken English and Jersey Dutch in the past, and speak English today.
Source: Wikipedia

The Ramapough Mountain Indians

Submitted by L. Guy Burton

Although the Ramapough Mountain Indians have resided in the Ramapough Mountains for more than three hundred years, there is very little documentation in New York or New Jersey that refers to the tribe.

There are many reasons for this, starting with the lack of a written language by the Lenape people. The written history of the native people in this area was always left to the non-native community to write, and with their ignorance of Lenape ways and language, their documentation was seldom accurate. Therefore, we rely on our oral history more than the writings found in the history books.

Most of the Europeans that came to Lenapehoking didn't understand that the different bands of natives that lived throughout New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania were all part of the whole Lenape Nation.

The bands were known by the places they resided, therefore Europeans thought they were different Tribes. Each band had their own chief or Sachem, whom represented them. Although he was the representative, the majority of the Band made decisions.

In time, most of the Munsee migrated north. The few individuals and families that stayed behind began making decisions for themselves. This caused even more confusion among the newcomers, and more trouble for the natives.

The Lenape didn't believe anyone could own the land or water. They believed that would be like someone owning the air. You could only own what you can hold in your hand and even that was for sharing. They believed the Creator put the land and water here for the survival of all people. Land couldn't be owned by one person, or group of people.

They also believed that all things on Turtle Island had a life. The plants, animals, and even the rocks would give their life so the people could survive. When the whites wanted to buy the land, the natives thought they wanted to give them gifts for sharing the land with them.

Of course the new settlers didn't look at things in the same way, so when they "bought" the land, they would take action against the Lenape if they tried to use any part of it. When they realized what the settlers had in mind they began to refuse, but land speculators found ways of getting the land away from the Indians.

It didn't matter if the signor was anyone of importance among his people, or if he had any claim to the land, as long as they put their mark on a deed, saying he was the rightful owner. They would also tell the person signing the deed that the boundary was at a different location than it really was, so the natives had no idea that the deed turned over rights to thousands of acres.
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The Ramapo Mountain People

By David Steven Cohen.
Northwest of Manhattan where the New York-New Jersey boundry crosses the tree-covered ridges and hollows of the Ramapo Mountains there is a group of about 1,500 racially mixed people who have long been referred to as "Jackson Whites." The author lived among the Ramapo People for a year, conducting genealogical research into church records, deeds, wills, and inventories in county courthouses and libraries. His research established their racially mixed ancestry and the special family and kinship system that evolved in their isolated location so close to New York City. 6x9 285 pages biblio b&w illus Paper $24.00
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Jackson Whites

The name applied to a group of people of mixed descent (African, European, and Native American) living in the Ramapo Mts. along the New Jersey-New York state line.

The origins of these people have for years been surrounded by myth and legend, e.g., that they are descended from a mixture of the Tuscarora, Hessian deserters, women kidnapped in England by a man named Jackson, and runaway slaves.

Research suggests that the origin of these people is to be found among remnants of the Algonquin, early white settlers (mainly British and Dutch), and free, landholding blacks who pioneered the Hackensack River valley before migrating to the Ramapo Mts. in the early 19th cent.

The term Jackson Whites probably developed as a result of the continued joint reference to the mountain people as Jacks (an 18th-century term for freed slaves or blacks in general) and Whites, i.e., it became Jackson Whites by elision. Source: Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

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