State of New Jersey acknowledges and reaffirms its historic recognition of the Ramapough Lenape Nation and Powhatan Renape Nation
The Ramapough Lenape Nation and Powhatan Renape Nation had their state recognition reaffirmed March 18 by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. Both nations were officially recognized as Native American tribes by New Jersey beginning in 1980 according to two settlement agreements signed by the tribes and the Attorney General.
The settlement agreements come in the wake of the state’s largest tribe—the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation — winning their six-year federal and state civil rights battles. The tribe filed a complaint alleging that former New Jersey Attorney General Hoffman “violated its civil rights under the New Jersey [and the United States] Constitution and breached duties imposed under the common law” in undermining its status. The tribe had also alleged that the Attorney General’s actions “have and will deprive it of benefits under various federal statutes and programs.”
Greg Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC, legal counsel for the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, observed, “Because the three tribes were so similarly recognized and then mistreated, it only makes sense that all three should now see their recognition reaffirmed and share in a better future.”
Read the entire article at Indian Country Today.
Pictured: Dwayne Perry, Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation of New Jersey. (Photo: Ramapough Lenape Nation).