Administrator’s comment:

Vermont has not had a Governor who has ever cared about the improved life for the State's Native Americans since Governor Thomas P. Salmon.

It would be amazing to see one elected to office this time around.

Order gives native groups some breaks

Thursday, October 02, 2008

BY CLAIRE HEININGER

Star-Ledger Staff

Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday signed an executive order designed to improve life for the state's Native American groups and move them toward official state recognition as tribes.

The governor's action adopts the recommendations of a committee created after the fatal shooting of a member of the Ramapough tribe in Mahwah more than two years ago.

The New Jersey Commission on American Indian Affairs was ordered to carry out the recommendations, which include developing job-creation programs and crafting legislation that would protect religious observances and civil rights.

The order also lays the groundwork for legislation that would grant recognition to the tribes, but would not allow them to run casinos.

"They are a significant community that has deep roots," Corzine said of the some 50,000 to 70,000 New Jersey residents who belong to the Ramapough Mountain Indians, Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Indians and the Powhatan Renape Nation. "Government needs to do better at recognizing the rights, needs, history and cultural identities of these groups."

The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has twice rejected the Ramapough's bid for federal recognition as a tribe, which also would give them the right to establish casinos. The bureau found that the Ramapough failed to document that they are descended from American Indians and had continuously maintained a distinct community since the time of European settlement.

"Gaming has been a red herring to suppress the true needs of our people -- an extremely ugly red herring," said Ramapough Chief Dwaine Perry, who joined other Native American leaders in Corzine's Statehouse office yesterday.

The committee, which released its report in December, was formed in the months after a State Park Police officer fatally shot 45-year-old Emil Mann of Monroe, N.Y., during an altercation in a wooded area of Mahwah in April 2006. Tensions between the Ramapough and local law enforcement flared after the episode, which led to meetings among state officials, tribal leaders and Corzine.

The governor yesterday acknowledged the "very serious and unattractive set of circumstances" that prompted the executive order.

"It is long since time for all of us to move forward in making sure an important part of New Jersey's cultural history and present is addressed," he said.

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