Lenni-Lenape Tribal Recognition - Press Editorial

  

President Andrew Jackson would have loved Gov. Chris Christie. Christie didn't need bloodshed or an Indian Removal Act to obliterate three tribes in New Jersey. He just quietly told the federal government none exist, contrary to a legislative resolution.

But today, as for the past 400 years, native people don't take kindly to their cultural identities being wiped away with pens.

The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation of about 3,000 members based in Bridgeton this week filed a civil-rights lawsuit in federal court against the state and Christie administration for saying in a federal filing in 2012 that New Jersey doesn't recognize a native N.J. tribe.

Nonetheless, a state Legislature resolution in the early 1980s recognized the Lenni-Lenape nation. A bill to formally recognize the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Ramapough Lenape and the Powhatan Renape tribes of New Jersey passed the Assembly in 2011 but failed to clear the Senate.

The New Jersey tribes aren't recognized by the federal government. Without state recognition, they would be considered by the federal government to be social groupings.

Christie's people, including Attorney General John Jay Hoffman, haven't responded, either in court or in public, so the motivation for the assertion isn't clear.

The lawsuit says that the loss of recognition would potentially cost the Lenape $260,000 a year from items labeled "American Indian made," $600,000 in federal health grants and $650,000 in tribal employment. That would be a loss for South Jersey's economy, too.

It's not Christie's first disrespect to the tribes. Soon after he took office in 2010, his administration booted the Powhatan Renape off what had been the Rankokus Indian Reservation for decades and annexed the land back to Rancocas State Park in Burlington County. It didn't just spell a financial loss to that tribe from its annual powwows, museum and cultural center, but also a cultural loss to the public.

The administration's 2012 assertion that no state-recognized tribe exists came from the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, in reply to the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Board's standard inquiry to the state Commission on American Indian Affairs for any additions to the state's list of recognized tribes.

Christie may fear that the three tribes - the Lenni-Lenape, Ramapough Lenape and Powhatan Renape - could someday attempt to enter the gambling industry. Yet the three signed a joint resolution in May 2011 rejecting any American Indian gambling enterprise.

The Indian Affairs Commission is in the state Department of State, while Gaming Enforcement is a division of the Attorney General's Office. How did a federal cultural board's request for data wind up in another department? That's not a question of the pending litigation but one that might interest the public.

If the Christie administration thinks these groups don't deserve state recognition or that the state should leave tribal recognition to the federal government, then it should make that case and let residents and their representatives participate in the decision. Otherwise, the prior degree of state recognition should stand. Change by isolated filing is inappropriate.

Likewise, if the tribes want more formal recognition, the path is through the Legislature and governor, not via a lawsuit.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/obscure-filing-and-lawsuit-aren-t-ways-to-change-status/article_e7eeb149-002d-58a7-9736-ba8dcac6cc11.html

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http://gadfly01.blogspot.com/2015/07/lenni-lenape-tribe-sue-christie-nj.html