Community Corner
Ramapough Lunaapes Want The Truth Told About Their Tribe
Native Americans wrestle with the far-reaching consequences of how they are portrayed and described in the media.
The 5,000 Ramapoughs who live on or around Stag Hill in Mahwah and in Ringwood want to set the record straight. They believe they are continually portrayed in a negative light in the media, an article on NJ.com states.
A 2012 “Weird New Jersey” described the Ramapoughs as “motley group of social outcasts” and “renegade Indians” who were “inbred to the point of mutation.”
A literary magazine called “Appleton’s Journal” in 1872 described the Ramapoughs as “fugitive slaves.”
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Dwaine Perry, the elected chief of the Ramapough Lunaape tribe is offended by those descriptions.
Broadcast media has also portrayed the tribe in an unflattering way. The tribe filed a defamation lawsuit last year against the creators of “Out of the Furnace,” a movie that portrays the tribe as violent drug dealers.
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(Pictured: Flag of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation, from Wikimedia Commons)
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