(Chapter 17 was just posted at www.tribes.patrickmead.net)

When you think of New Jersey, what comes to mind? If you’ve never been there and all your information about NJ comes from TV you might think it is one huge cesspit of crime, urban blight, gang warfare, and not much else. You’d be wrong. New Jersey has beautiful farmland, miles and miles of flowers, some beautiful beaches, and mountains that are worth a long trip to see.

And those mountains aren’t uninhabited. There, right in the back yard of some of the most densely populated urban areas in the US, are wild, largely unexplored mountain redoubts. New Jersey folk are proud of their little State and there is a cottage industry in collecting trivia about every part of their present and past. "Weird New Jersey" is a fantastic magazine that is found in every bookstore in the state. It only publishes occasionally, but it is worth the wait. Used copies go for full price on Ebay.

One story that appears from time to time in Weird New Jersey, as this or that person wanders off the beaten path, concerns someone stumbling across the Ramapo Mountain people. A couple of teen boys will be out for a day of driving and fun, not paying much attention to where they are going, when they get into the Mahwah area of the mountains and find themselves surrounded by a strange looking people who, if they speak at all, have their own language (known to linguists as Jersey Dutch) and who do not welcome outsiders. These people are the Jackson Whites, or the Ramapo Mountain People. Some call them the Ramapo Indians but recent writers argue that there is little or no Indian in them. Their enclaves are hard to find even though they are only 30 miles from New York City.

They have Dutch names, but dark skin. They sued — Thurgood Marshall was their lawyer — two years before Brown vs. Topeka to be allowed entry into white schools. Their language is a polyglot made up of English, Dutch, and words that are only spoken and understood in the few miles that makes up their territory. There are several theories as to their origin, some of them fantastical or nasty. One of the most commonly told — and believed — is that a man named Jackson had been contracted by the British Army occupying New York during the Revolution to provide 5000 camp followers — prostitutes. He recruited 3000 prostitutes from the slums of London and finished with 2000 more from Jamaica. After the war was lost, the British didn’t take these poor women with them and the local people drove them out of town. They fled to the Ramapo Mountains and were taken in by the remnants of Indian tribes located there. Their offspring were the first of the Jackson Whites.

The problem? There is no historical basis for this legend. Some (disputed) DNA tests indicate little or no Indian blood in the group. So who are they? Some have said they are a mixed blood people made up of Hessian mercenaries (who also didn’t get a ride home when the game was over), camp followers, freed slaves, and mountain people. That may be likely, but I’d hate to put money on it at this time. It would explain their Dutch names as well as the name they were called for most of the last two hundred years — Jackson Whites. "Jacks" was a generic term in the 1700’s for "hill people" but also for "freed slaves."

They are clearly racially mixed — bronze skinned, curly hair — usually black, but often pure white, with blue eyes, wide, African noses, broad lipped. Inbreeding has caused some problems with piebaldness, webbed hands, extra fingers, albinism and frequent mental retardation. Some of them have become activists trying to get status for the group as Native American. They have been unsuccessful in this for a host of good reasons (DNA and history don’t back them up). If you want to follow that particular battle there are sites run by the Lenape Nation; they are the recognized Indian tribe that claims the Ramapo.

In the 1800’s and early 1900’s several clergymen tried, one at a time, to help the Ramapo out of their constant isolation and poverty. Each one of them — to my knowledge — were moved out of that diocese by their church’s headquarters. They were considered an embarrassment to their denomination since they spent so much time with the Jackson Whites. The most complete bibliography of every article, book, and term paper written on the Ramapo is found at http://www.netstrider.com/documents/whites/.

While descriptions of their communities often bring hate mail accusing the writer as racist and ignorant… here goes. Most of them live in isolated ravines or on the sides of mountains. The poverty is incredible. Indoor plumbing isn’t universal, though that situation is improving slowly, and old cars, discarded appliances, and trash litter their yards and communities. Strangers are often met with stony silence and malevolent stares — which is completely understandable when you see how some people come into their yards just to stare, take pictures, and laugh at them. It isn’t a nice place to visit… and it may not BE nice to visit. Complicated, isn’t it? Some Ramapo have taken to attacking (verbally and in print) anyone who mentions the inbreeding or physical problems, but there are plenty of medical journals backing up that assertion, complete with photos and suggested surgical solutions.

It is estimated that there are only 2000 Ramapo left. It is expected that their tribe will decrease, but slowly, for although they are 30 miles from Manhattan, it takes nearly three hours to get up into their area. They are incredibly isolated and unknown, even after two hundred years. We may never know their exact origin, or their exact racial makeup, but we know they are there and they deserve respect and privacy. One writer spent a year with them before putting pen to paper and his book "The Ramapo Mountain People" is available on Amazon. As a rule, the Ramapo do not welcome visitors or the curiosity of academics.

And those of you who were told you were Black Dutch? While that almost always means Romany (or gypsy), it was also a term used by the Jackson Whites/Ramapo Mountain People when they left their enclave and wanted to establish themselves in the larger community. It was a way to explain their appearance, their language, and their ways without linking them to a people much ridiculed and reviled.

But they weren’t the only ones. Several hidden peoples have used the term "Black Dutch" as a cover. Next time…