Indians in the Ramapos: Survival, Persistence & Presence

by Edward J. Lenik

Indians in the Ramapos is a cultural history of the Native American presence within the Highlands region of Northern New Jersey and southeastern New York. Indian peoples occupied this mountainous region for thousands of years prior to European settlement, and their descendants continue to do so today.

Some historical accounts indicate that Indians were gone from the area by the early 1800s. Following the Treaty of Easton in 1758 at which the Indians relinquished their remaining lands in New Jersey, many of them moved westward traveling through and temporarily settling in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas Arkansas, and Texas, finally settling in Oklahoma. Other Indians from the Highlands region moved north to counties in upstate New York, to Wisconsin and to Ontario, Canada.

Many, however, stayed behind in the Highlands region. Early European settlers in the region established farms and villages in the fertile valleys along the many rivers. These new settlers harvested the forests for wood for building, tools, and fuel and the bedrock itself for iron, but they lived, farmed and built their homes, mills, forges and furnaces in the lowlands. The remnant native groups retreated to the mountainous uplands and established a community virtually invisible to the newcomers below. These people took their identity from the mountains themselves, hiding the Indian heritage lest they be removed to the west.

This book is about Indian people and their history in the Highlands. It assembles in one volume information collected by the author and others in many disciplines. Much of what is covered here is from the archaeological record. This record reveals thousands of year of human occupation and use of the mountains. It reveals that point at which a new group of people, the European explorers and settlers, arrived with a new material cultural, which included a written language. Also presented is material from the written record and traditions handed down among the Ramapo Mountain People.

Published by the North Jersey Highlands Historical Society, the book contains 124 pages and 21 illustrations.

Edward J. Lenik is president of Sheffield Archaeological Consultants of Butler, NJ and the author of many books and articles on topics from petroglyphs to iron mines. He is past president of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation, the Archaeological Society of New Jersey and the North Jersey Highlands Historical Society.

Founded in 1952, the North Jersey Highlands Historical Society takes as its mission the collection, preservation and interpretation of the cultural history of the Highlands, a mountainous region in Northern New Jersey that contains a portion of the Ramapo Mountains. The interests of the Society range from prehistory through the present day. The NJHHS publishes a yearly historical journal, The Highlander, as well as books and pamphlets on regional history.