The Ramapough Lunaape Nation is a New Jersey State-recognized tribal body of approximately 5,000 living in Passaic, Sussex, Bergen, Rockland, and Orange Counties. Historical Lunaape homelands encompass all of New Jersey and part of New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The Lunaape were decimated by European diseases and progressively displaced to Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada, although many have returned to their historical homelands. The city of Newark falls within a regional area in which the Lunaape peoples were critical and it overlaps with the watershed that you see in the images below. The Price Institute, in collaboration with the Public History Project (PHP), work with Lunaape folks in giving the life that had been present before colonial contact a full set of meaning and understanding. In collaboration, The Public History Project aims to convey Lunaape history to the larger public and connect the links to the dispossessions of Native peoples with that of enslavement.
Contextualizing Lunaape burial grounds
The areas above are the known locations of Native American burial grounds in lower Passaic River valley (sources Nelson, Pape & Scott, and 1913 Preliminary Archaeological Survey of NJ by Skinner & Schrabisch). All have been covered with urban growth; none are commemorated or preserved. Two were threatened by 2019-2020 work on Dundee Island Park in Passaic; neither was mentioned in the archaeological survey of the site area.
Cemetery Aerial - Location of the burial ground in Passaic (sources Nelson, Pape & Scott) superimposed on a 20th-century aerial photograph of the area.
Mapping Lunaape Food Sources
Estuary Foods - Demonstration of environmental losses as a consequence of city-building. Map developed by KH for PHP.
Food Levels - Showing typical sites of Native American food and cultural material collection. Sketch by KH for PHP.
Lunaape Diaspora and Geography
Lunaape-Mahican Diaspora--Showing the almost-complete removal of Lenape and Mahican people from their homelands by the mid-19th century. Map by KH for PHP.
Lost Oyster Bank - Utilizing the 1776 British Navy map by JFW. Des Barres. Raises the question of whether Native Americans should have been compensated for the loss of a commonly-owned resource, and also whether Ellis and Liberty Islands were ever purchased. Graphic by KH for PHP.
NJ Indian Trails - Showing information from an original in Newark Public Library drawn by Charles Philhower in 1940. Updated map by KH for PHP.
