In middle school, we learned that most of South Jersey was settled by the Lenni-Lenape Indian tribe. There is even a high school in Burlington County named “Lenape.”
A new lawsuit by the tribe’s descendants suggests that Gov. Chris Christie and his staff were absent when they studied these Native Americans, many of whom now live Cumberland and Salem counties. The Legislature, if it heard the history lesson, fell asleep before it ended.
Tribal lawyers say they filed a civil rights action against the state and Christie because New Jersey’s formal recognition of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape as a tribe has mysteriously disappeared.
The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape are best known to outsiders for the colorful pow-wows it holds in Pilesgrove Township. More than exhibitions of traditional dress and ceremony are at stake, however, if the tribe’s official recognition, first granted in 1982 by legislative resolution, has been revoked.
Tribal members could lose $240,000 in annual income if they can’t market craft items as authentic, according to the lawsuit. Also, about $600,000 in health care grants — this is federal, not state, funds, — could be withdrawn.
The state attorney general’s office won’t answer questions about the suit, which claims that the Christie administration has stopped communicating with the tribe over the issue.
A 2011 legislative effort to reaffirm recognition of the Lenni-Lenape and two other tribes died after Assembly passage. The bills were reintroduced in the next session, but went nowhere. If there are any current bills, we can’t find them.
Why is this happening? Why all the silence?
Suspicions include fears that the tribe would try to open a casino, although its charter and religious beliefs specifically exclude it. In 2001, the Division of Gaming Enforcement apparently told the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Board that New Jersey had no native American Indian tribes. Did then-Atlantic City casino moguls exert unfair influence? (Yes, you, Mr. Trump.)
Also, in 2012 the Bridgeton Library had to cancel, over a threat of violence, a lecture by Dr. Marshall Becker. In earlier statements, the anthropology professor challenged the Nanticoke-Lenni-Lenape’s claims to Native American descent. The Bridgeton talk was eventually rescheduled. But Becker said in a Times interview that his research was only preliminary.
First, clarify the tribe’s current status. There’s no reason the administration can’t do so publicly. If the Lenni-Lenape are in limbo, end any doubt with legislation recognizing them. If evidence that they’re not “real,” turns up, recognition can be rescinded. For now, it’s senseless to deny the tribe the meager public benefits to which it lays claim, and for presidential aspirant Christie to stand accused of civil rights violations.
Read the article at nj.com.
Image: Stephanie Maksin | For NJ.com.