Prehistoric Native Americans at Ringwood Manor

The following excerpt was taken from Ringwood Manor, Home of the Hewitts, by Edward Ringwood Hewitt, Trenton Printing Co., Inc., 1946.

Indians were, of course, the first occupants of the lands of Northern New Jersey. They were a tribe of the Nation of the Delawares called "Leni Lenape" by the Algonquin tribes living to the north of them � a name which means, in their tongue, "Old Women", because they were poor fighters. The Indian settlement nearest to Ringwood was located at Pompton, along the banks of the Long Pond River or Wanaque, which is now called the Greenwood Lake stream, an ideal location for an Indian village, because from there they could ascend the valleys of three rivers, and also travel by canoe to tidewater with only two carries � one at Little Falls, and another at Paterson Falls. The landing on the Passaic River bank at Passaic, below Paterson, bore the Indian name of Alquaquanac for over two hundred years.

Indians cultivated corn on the flat lands near Pompton and hunted the surrounding forests. Primeval hardwood forests do not furnish large amounts of food for the support of big game, because the ground is mostly covered with leaves, with little undergrowth for animal feeding. For this reason the Indians are reported to have often burned the forests in places to make more food for game. Deer and bear must have been fairly numerous, while beaver inhabited all the streams where they could make their dams. Many of the valleys still show signs of having been beaver meadows. Wild turkeys were surely numerous, as they had plenty of feed from the great crop of acorns from the many oak trees. I knew people, when I was a boy, who had shot wild turkeys and said that they were once in great flocks. Tremendous flights of wild pigeons passed over this part of the country in September, and the Indians must have netted vast numbers of them as did the white settlers later. I, myself, saw and shot some of the last of the wild pigeon flocks. Trout were in all the streams, and many of the lakes. This must have been an Indian paradise, until invaded by the white man.