Re: [Marxism] The Ramapoughs
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I feel like this article really downplayed the racism of the Trump Administration; Trump himself once argued that he had more indigenous blood than the Ramapoughs did (essentially calling them fakers) when he was battling with them over tribal recognition that would have threatened his casino business prospects. That the federal government is defending them under its interpretation of RLUIPA -- a law that has benefits for right-wing Christians just as it benefits minority ethnic/religious groups -- hardly suggests that they're really allies generally, particularly in the primary fight that the Ramapoughs are fighting, which is against an oil/gas pipeline. I feel like the purpose of the article is to steer white liberals away from supporting the Ramapoughs by using guilt-by-association with Trump. Amith R. Gupta On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 9:10 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > (In 2011, I reviewed an HBO documentary titled “Mann vs. Ford” about the > struggle of Ramapough Indians to make Ford Motors accountable for the > toxic spills from their Mahwah plant. You can see the film for only > $2.99 on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4VKDusnSL4) as well > as other streaming sites. The Ramapough were part of the Lenape > linguistic group (aka Delaware) that were to N.Y. and New Jersey that > the Lakota or Blackfoot were to the northern Plains. In the film I am > currently working on, to be titled “Utopia in the Catskills”, I devote a > fair amount of time to the Monsee Indians, another Lenape band, that > “sold” Manhattan to the Dutch. Closely related to the Lenape Indians, of > course, were the Mahicans who James Fenimore Cooper wrote about. Cooper > and Washington Irving were deeply enamored of the Catskill Mountains and > used it as a background for their novels and short stories. In reality, > the Borscht Belt was not exactly “the Catskills” despite it being > referred to as such customarily. By the time you got to my home town > Woodridge, which was identified as the “Utopia in the Catskills” in a > 1947 article in the leftist PM newspaper, the only mountains were those > of the Shawangunk Ridge nearby Ellenville. In the article below, you’ll > see a reference to Rachel Meeropol, who is the daughter of Robert > Meeropol and the niece of our comrade Michael Meeropol.) > > NY Times, April 23, 2019 > Native Americans Find Surprising Ally in N.J. Fight: Trump Administration > By Sarah Maslin Nir > > MAHWAH, N.J. — A knee-high pile of rocks sits in a far corner of a gated > community set among rolling hills known as the Polo Club. > > To the Ramapough Lenape Nation, which owns a patch of land in the gated > community and piled the stones here, it’s an altar. > > To the Township of Mahwah, the 15-foot-long mound is a violation of town > code. And since 2017, the town has regularly issued flurries of > citations: for the rock pile, for a collection of fallen trees tipped > upright and arranged in a circle, and for using a residentially zoned > plot for religious use, even when no one is there. > > So many summonses — the Ramapough estimated they receive up to $12,500 a > week in fines — that the town says the tribe owes more than $4 million. > > The tribe has refused to pay the fines or apply for the permits that the > town says are required, and instead has concentrated its energy on a > lawsuit it filed last year, contending that Mahwah and the club are > using zoning rules and fines to persecute it. > > The conflict is the latest episode in a series of longstanding disputes > over the government’s treatment of Native Americans — over planned > pipelines, water rights and how the United States handles funds and > natural resources that it holds in trust. > > But in this case, the federal government — often a tribe’s adversary — > has come to the Ramapoughs’ aid. The federal Justice Department filed a > letter last month expressing its support for the tribe, suggesting that > the tribe had cause to believe that the town’s behavior has > “significantly chilled Ramapough’s use of the land for religious > purposes” in violation of federal protections. > > The Justice Department letter comes on the heels of a ruling in Trenton > that clarified the Ramapoughs’ status as a state-recognized tribe. > > “Freedom of religion is so endem
[Marxism] The Ramapoughs
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (In 2011, I reviewed an HBO documentary titled “Mann vs. Ford” about the struggle of Ramapough Indians to make Ford Motors accountable for the toxic spills from their Mahwah plant. You can see the film for only $2.99 on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4VKDusnSL4) as well as other streaming sites. The Ramapough were part of the Lenape linguistic group (aka Delaware) that were to N.Y. and New Jersey that the Lakota or Blackfoot were to the northern Plains. In the film I am currently working on, to be titled “Utopia in the Catskills”, I devote a fair amount of time to the Monsee Indians, another Lenape band, that “sold” Manhattan to the Dutch. Closely related to the Lenape Indians, of course, were the Mahicans who James Fenimore Cooper wrote about. Cooper and Washington Irving were deeply enamored of the Catskill Mountains and used it as a background for their novels and short stories. In reality, the Borscht Belt was not exactly “the Catskills” despite it being referred to as such customarily. By the time you got to my home town Woodridge, which was identified as the “Utopia in the Catskills” in a 1947 article in the leftist PM newspaper, the only mountains were those of the Shawangunk Ridge nearby Ellenville. In the article below, you’ll see a reference to Rachel Meeropol, who is the daughter of Robert Meeropol and the niece of our comrade Michael Meeropol.) NY Times, April 23, 2019 Native Americans Find Surprising Ally in N.J. Fight: Trump Administration By Sarah Maslin Nir MAHWAH, N.J. — A knee-high pile of rocks sits in a far corner of a gated community set among rolling hills known as the Polo Club. To the Ramapough Lenape Nation, which owns a patch of land in the gated community and piled the stones here, it’s an altar. To the Township of Mahwah, the 15-foot-long mound is a violation of town code. And since 2017, the town has regularly issued flurries of citations: for the rock pile, for a collection of fallen trees tipped upright and arranged in a circle, and for using a residentially zoned plot for religious use, even when no one is there. So many summonses — the Ramapough estimated they receive up to $12,500 a week in fines — that the town says the tribe owes more than $4 million. The tribe has refused to pay the fines or apply for the permits that the town says are required, and instead has concentrated its energy on a lawsuit it filed last year, contending that Mahwah and the club are using zoning rules and fines to persecute it. The conflict is the latest episode in a series of longstanding disputes over the government’s treatment of Native Americans — over planned pipelines, water rights and how the United States handles funds and natural resources that it holds in trust. But in this case, the federal government — often a tribe’s adversary — has come to the Ramapoughs’ aid. The federal Justice Department filed a letter last month expressing its support for the tribe, suggesting that the tribe had cause to believe that the town’s behavior has “significantly chilled Ramapough’s use of the land for religious purposes” in violation of federal protections. The Justice Department letter comes on the heels of a ruling in Trenton that clarified the Ramapoughs’ status as a state-recognized tribe. “Freedom of religion is so endemic to the country that I almost can’t believe that people would have the gall to try to suppress it with Jim Crow zoning,” said Dwaine Perry, chief of the Ramapough tribe. “One part is racism, and the other part is that they see an opportunity by manipulating zoning,” he said. “They want to fine us out of existence.” The disputed land, at 95 Halifax Road, sits within the Ramapo Hunt & Polo Club Association, a private community where houses routinely sell for in excess of $1 million. The site, 25 miles northwest of Manhattan, is near areas considered sacred to the tribe: the Ramapo Pass and the junction of the Mahwah and Ramapo Rivers. In community meetings and on social media, club residents complain that the Ramapoughs have damaged their quality of life by using the nature preserve for noisy and unlawful gatherings that have filled the quiet enclave with cars and outsiders, and the air with ceremonial smoke and drums. “The tribe are trying to get away with murder,” said Stephen Murray, a retired schoolteacher whose house overlooks the tribal property. “They are trying to make this an issue of religious discrimination,” he said. “But when they have a community gathering, a smoking celebration or a ‘half moon’ or whatever they’re doing, we have to hear their drums and the ot
