Many scholars have gone on record, submitting letters and affidavits suppoting the Ramapough, most notably by Certified Genealogists and Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists Roger D. Joslyn and Henry B. Hoff; and Roy Scheulen, the Past President of The Genealogical Society of Rockland County. Although their bid for federal recognition was denied, the Ramapough have been granted state recognition. Many documents on the record for both state and federal recognition pointedly dispute Cohen’s assertions about the Ramapough’s ancestry, and clearly lay out other evidence that supports their assertions. Take for instance then State Assemblyman William Cary Edward’s state document “Declaration of Cary Edwards,” dated November 3, 1995:
“ The ultimate conclusion of the New Jersey State Assembly and Senate was that the totality of the evidence indicated that Cohen’s conclusions were erroneous and that the Tribe did in fact have Indian heritage and that a closed reservation type community existed, reaching back to pre-Revolutionary times.”
- William Cary Edwards, NJ State Assemblyman
This clip shares statements of support from federal and state officials that counter the claims made against the Ramapough by Atlantic City Gaming intesters and in the 1974 The Ramapo Mountain People book.
This clip shares other evidence that supports continuous and continued Native presence in New Jersey.
A number of Indigenous communities in North America have faced similar doubts about their ancestry, including the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina (Lowery, 2010). Jean O’Brien’s book Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England, explores how the writing of local histories was used to erase living Native people from the historical record. Reverend Norwood suggests that there can be “an emotional stronghold because of the desire of many to be done with the painful history of how indigenous populations were treated” (Norwood, 2007, p.22).
“ If it is a ‘thing of the past,’ then the burden of current culpability regarding how tribal communities are still being treated is nothing that need be considered. The fallacy also allows scholars and cultural enthusiasts to treat an area’s indigenous culture as a thing of the past and not as a living reality. The authority of a continuing tribal community over the presentation of its own cultural heritage is easily overlooked and arrogantly disregarded by those who hold to this error.”
- Reverend John R. Norwood
ADDITIONAL SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS CAN BE FOUND BELOW.
HERBERT C. KRAFT, PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY
“In my judgement, based on more than thirty years of studying prehistoric and early prehistoric peoples of New Jersey, southern New York, and eastern Pennsylvania, and having seen the extensive evidence prepared in support of this case, I am more than ever convinced that a goodly number of Ramapough Mountain peoples are of American Indian extraction, most likely Munsee-speaking bands that originated in northern New Jersey and southern New York State.”
ROGER D. JOSLYN, CERTIFIED GENEALOGIST & FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS
“I have assisted the Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe (Ramapough Tribe) in the research and preparation of genealogical documentation, both as proof of the Indian ancestry of tribal members and as proof of the ancestral link between the current Ramapough Tribe and historic Munsee Indian Tribe.”
ROY SCHEULEN, PRESIDENT GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY
“In light of the exhaustive documentation compiled by Roger Joslyn and verified by Mr. Hoff on Ramapough genealogy, as well as the local historical expertise of Rockland’s many local historians, we find the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ conclusion that the Ramapoughs have no Indian lineage preposterous.”
HENRY B. HOFF, CERTIFIED GENEALOGIST & FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF GENEALOGISTS
“It is my opinion that Mr. Joslyn’s work is of the highest quality. His reputation as one of the finest genealogists in the United States is certainly enhanced by his Affidavit…”
CARY EDWARDS, NEW JERSEY STATE ASSEMBLYMAN
“I personally spent 4 to 5 months researching the Tribe’s case for State and Federal Recognition, and examined many documents, newspaper articles, writings of local historians, archaeological evidence, and scholarly accounts before I came to the conclusion that the Tribe, indeed, had an almost unassailable legal and historical claim to recognition as an Indian Tribe with the right and need to be so recognized.”
NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE
“Whereas. The New York State Legislature publicly and formally supports the Ramapough Mountain Indians in their struggle for recognition as the Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe”
BRUCE BABBITT, FORMER SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR (1993-2001)
“The Ramapough Mountain Indians are the descendants of a group of Algonquin people known as the Munsee, and have maintained a continuous presence in New York and New Jersey since the early 17th Century."
THE NATIONAL COALITION FOR INDIAN SOVEREIGNTY
“The Ramapough meet the standard required by law, by any fair interpretation of it! It is my opinion that the current situation between the Non-Recognized Tribes and the BAR would have been avoided altogether had we been treated fairly in the first place!”
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE COMMUNITY
“The Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians, is strongly supportive of the efforts of the Ramapough Mountain Indians to be federally recognized, and by this letter authorized by our Tribal Council, we urge your office to provide such recognition.”
MUNSEE-DELAWARE NATION
“In consideration of Historical information linking our people to the Ramapough Mountain Indians, we support the Ramapough in their efforts to attain their full rights under United States Federal Law as an Indian Tribe.”
SIX NATIONS COUNCIL
“The Six Nations of the Grand River have reviewed historical documentation of the Ramapough Mountain Indians and are pleased to support their application for Federal recognition as an Indian Nation under United States Federal Law.”
NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS
“WHEREAS, the Ramapough Lenape Nation is a sovereign entity that predates the United States, recognized as such by the State of New Jersey, with rights to self-government, culture, religion, and a clean and healthy land, water, and environment…”
