Ownership of ancestral site returned to Ramapough Lenape Tribe

“The Land Conservancy of New Jersey bought the land and donated it to the Ramapough. (NJ Spotlight News)

In northern New Jersey, ownership of 54 acres of land around Split Rock Mountain was officially transferred this week to the Ramapough Lenape people, who long used it as an ancestral site. The Land Conservancy of New Jersey raised more than $300,000 from private donors to buy the land from the Rockland County Sewer District. The Conservancy donated the land to the Ramapough, who previously owned part, but not all, of it.

Click here for the video coverage from NJ Spotlight News.

Aaron Davis, president of the Ramapo Munsee Land Alliance, said, “So many years, we’re losing property. This is one property that we can’t afford to lose because it’s so sacred to Native Americans.” David Johnson, an archaeologist who studies native cultures around the world, says the Ramapough revere Split Rock Mountain, and he’s glad this land is back under their control after years of neglect.”

Chief Dwaine Perry and some of the Lenape community. Visit https://ramapomunsee.net/ for more information on the the Ramapough Munsee Lenapes in Hillburn and Northern NJ.