Lenape win stay of desecration for ancient New Jersey site

VERNON, N.J. – Ancestral remains of the Lenni Lenape were protected from town bulldozers as a New Jersey judge extended a restraining order June 6 and tribal leaders filed suit against Vernon Township officials.

Public opinion appeared to rally behind the Lenape at a township council meeting May 31 and a June 5 “peace march” attended by representatives of northeastern tribes and the regional American Indian Movement.

At the June 6 court hearing in Morristown, Judge Kenneth MacKenzie rejected a town challenge to his temporary stop-work order and allowed the Nanticoke Lenni Lenape tribe to join the suit. He asked the parties to draft a permanent order for his consideration.

Judge MacKenzie first granted the injunction May 23 on a complaint from local archaeologist Richard Patterson, acting as his own lawyer.

“We got everything we asked for,” Patterson said.

On the day of the first hearing, town bulldozers were digging a 215-foot-long, 16-foot-wide trench at the site, called Black Creek Village. Patterson, who has studied the 23-acre site for 10 years, said it showed signs of habitation going back 10,000 years.

At the town council meeting on May 31, history professor Jess A. Le Vine from Brookdale Community College said the village very likely included numerous burial grounds. “The Lenape were very careful about their burials,” he said.

Patterson said that by a very conservative estimate of one burial a year over 5,000 years, the site contained the remains of more than 5,000 Lenape ancestors.”

Local Lenape leader Urie Ridgeway and AIM activist Santos Hawk’s Blood have been conducting prayers and pipe ceremonies at the site. The proposed court order would allow Lenape descendants free access to the site for religious ceremonies, Patterson said.

Patterson and two local reporters are facing criminal trespass charges for visiting the site after the May 23 hearing. They were arrested by township police as they tried to photograph damage done by town bulldozers. The case was scheduled for trial June 12, Patterson said.

“We’re requesting a change of venue,” he said. “We want to get out of Vernon. The judge and prosecutor are both appointed by the mayor.”

Town officers defended their actions at a contentious three-hour council meeting May 31 at which the Vernon Civic Association presented seven possible alternatives that would preserve Black Creek Village.

The town’s original plan for a 180-acre Maple Grange Community Park would place football fields, a roller hockey rink and a Little League baseball complex over the ancient site.

One speaker, a candidate in upcoming town elections, complained about “the Native Americans who were paraded in here.” Yet American Indian speakers met friendly applause from an apparent majority of the audience.

James Mascetta, from the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki people in Franklin, Mass., told the council, “It’s interesting that you want us people to trust you.

“Since we have been dealing with white people, we have been lied to, robbed, raped and pillaged.”

AIM leader Hawk’s Blood seemed to provoke the council the most. “Give us your name,” said councilman and former mayor James Kilby as he started to speak, “whatever your name is tonight.”

Hawk’s Blood, an Apache who said he appeared at the request of the Lenni Lenape Council, replied, “Tonight I’m Zorro.”

Deputy Mayor Janet Morrison then chided him for his “flip” attitude. “This is a serious matter,” she said, apparently referring to the possible presence of a burial ground. “I would like to see some of this seriousness.”

After the meeting, township attorney Joseph Ragno gave a simple explanation for the town’s resistance to compromise. “A lot of money has been spent for the purchase of the land. We’ve actually put just under a million dollars into it.”

In spite of the Town Council’s attitude, the June 5 marchers met a predominately friendly response from townspeople. A group of 90 or so Lenape, local residents and AIM supporters from five states started the march from the Rickey & Son farm behind a drum and the International Indian Unity flag. By the time it reached town hall, another 30 from town had joined.

“Some people parked their cars to join the march,” Patterson said.

“The issue that is adding people all the time is the desecration of the burial ground. The conscience of the ordinary citizen is a very powerful thing when it’s awakened.”