The Lenni-Lenape, New Jersey's Original People

The Lenni-Lenape, who inhabited New Jersey long before the Europeans arrived, considered themselves to be the "Original People."

Unfortunately, they did not survive long after the arrival of the Europeans. The Colonists wanted to own the land. As with other Native Americans, European diseases, guns and alcohol all led to the death of natives and flight from the original homelands. By 1700, the Lenni-Lenape population was probably one fourth of what it was when the Dutch arrived and estimated it at 2000.

Lenape traditions and lifestyle seemed strange to the Europeans. Rather than settling and staying in one place and home, the Lenape moved with the seasons in what is now New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

In spring, planting was done in around their permanent settlements. In summer, they moved to the shore for oysters and clams and to escape the heat. In autumn, they returned to their village and harvested crops. In the winter, they lived by hunting deer and other animals.


The Lenape Indians lived in bark houses called wigwams. The frame was made by bending branches to form a dome shape. These branches were tied together with vines or leather thongs and it was then covered by bark or hides. A hole at the top let out smoke from the small fire circle inside.

The Algonquin Nation, including Lenni-Lenape, sided with the French in the French & Indian War hoping that they would move the settlers away from their homeland. The French and the Indians were fighting British colonists in what was the final Colonial War here. (It was fought in Europe by Austria, England, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Sweden and was called the Seven Years War. although it extended from 1689 to 1763.)

The French and Indians lost the war on our soil. Some peace came through negotiations in 1758 with the New Jersey Governor Francis Bernard and Lenape leader, Teedyuscung. A home for the Lenni-Lenape in Burlington County was established and this was the first "Indian reservation."

There were about 200 Lenape who made a home in what was called Brotherton and was supervised by a hopeful Reverend John Brainerd.  A grist mill and sawmills were set up for the Lenape to create a new life and the area became known as Indian Mills.(Now, Shamong Township.)

The experiment was not successful and in 1796 the Oneida tribe (also Algonquin by language) in New Stockbridge, NY, invited the Brotherton tribe to live with them, and almost all of them moved to NY.

The New Jersey Assembly sold the reservation in 1801 and gave the proceeds to the less than 100 remaining tribe members.

Although Elisha Ahhataina (Lashar Tamar), the last chief of the Brotherton Indians, did go to New York, he eventually returned to New Jersey with some members and settled near the town of Rancocas, NJ.

Those who stayed with the Oneida asked the New Jersey Legislature in 1832 for the balance of the money from the sale of their Brotherton Reservation and were given $3,551. Forty remaining members resettled in Statesburg, Wisconsin. A small number moved west to be with the Cherokees and Osages.

The modern day Lenape Trail was intended to follow some of original trails and areas where the "Original People" lived.

There is still a group of the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation (AKA Ramapo Mountain Indians) numbering about 5,000 who live around the Ramapo Mountains of northern New Jersey and southern New York.

Source:  New Jersey Homepage of the American Local History Network

Politics and Pollution on the Passaic River

a Passaic River cleanup, Lyndhurst

An article this past weekend by Tom Moran in The Star-Ledger gives a good summary of the complicated history of the pollution and cleanup attempts on the Passaic River.

It is a tale of corporations, environmentalists and politicians. The article opens by saying:

A half-century has passed since workers at Diamond Shamrock were ordered to dump dioxin into the Passaic River in Newark, and then to march out at low tide and knock down the toxic mud piles with rakes so that no one would know.

So began the long history of polluters evading responsibility for the murder of this river, an effort that continues to this day. Workers with rakes have been replaced by consultants and lawyers.

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Hurray, Bats Are Back in NJ

hibernating bats

Bats in New Jersey go into dormancy, hibernating in caves and abandoned mines, for the cold winter months. But those bats will be active again in the late spring, summer, and early fall.

The Hoary Bat, Red Bat, and Silver Haired Bat are part time residents to our state and migrate to southern states in the fall to over winter in the milder climate and return.

However, bats do not get the same good public relations that returning birds and butterflies get when they return to our state. We might see that first robin on the lawn as a sign of spring, but the site of that first brown bat doesn't have the same effect on most people.

Unfortunately, in our ever-changing world, bats have evolved to be habitat and food specific. They rely on certain food sources and certain habitats in order to survive. That makes them very vulnerable to disturbances to their places of hibernation or roosting. Changes to their habitat can also affect available food or water.

Of course, New Jersey is a state where many areas are constantly changing and hibitats are being changed or lost.

Bats need to eat and drink every night. The best areas for them are probably open grasslands and edges of forests where insects are abundant. They also like to roost near open bodies of water where
they drink water without landing.

During the day, they roost in tight crevices such as cracks in rocks, under exfoliating tree bark and in awnings of buildings because these places offer protection from predators and stable temperatures.

Groups such as the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ conduct summer bat surveys to monitor populations and also to encourage bat population stability using "bat houses."

Of course, they are valuable to us because they are the primary predators of night flying insects. It is often noted that a single little brown bat can consume up to 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in an hour and up to 3,000 insects in a single night. Nursing mothers can eat up to 4,500 insects nightly, which is more than their own body weight.

Many of the insects they consume are ones we label as "pests":cucumber beetles, leaf hoppers, termites, ants, roaches, corn earworms, grasshoppers, and mosquitoes.

Fear of bats goes back a long way in our history, literature and folklore. In fact, less than one percent of wild bats have rabies.

And despite my mother's stories, bats do not entangle themselves in human hair. They don't really want to even encounter people and will do so more in defense than anything else.

And despite tales of vampires, very few species of bats are blood consuming. There are more than a thousand species of bats worldwide. Only three consume animal blood (usually cattle and poultry) and none live in the United States.

As with snakes and some other animals, one danger to bat populations is our fear and misinformation about them. Protecting their habitats from disturbance is important to maintaining a good bat populations. That is especially true in the warm-weather breeding months.

If bats do get into your home, getting them out safely is important. It is illegal for anyone, including animal control officers and exterminators, to kill bats.  (Download information on nuisance control guidelines)

The critical time to NOT disturb them is mid-May to mid-September.

Information on Bats:
Bat Conservation International  www.batcon.org
Bat Conservation and Management  http://www.batmanagement.com

Information on the Bats of New Jersey
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/bat_fact_sheet.pdf
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/bat.htm
www.conservewildlifenj.org

New Jersey Osprey Project

days old osprey at Great Bay

The osprey was listed as an endangered species in 1973 and quickly after that the New Jersey Osprey Project began.

Starting with a spring 1974 aerial survey to determine the number of active osprey nests from Toms River to Atlantic City, the results were not good.

With a baseline historic count of 500 osprey nests, it was expected that the numbers would be down due to the effects of DDT and habitat loss and in the 1974 count only 50 nests remained.

New Jersey habitat was also lost because of a growing shore population. New construction eliminated trees needed for nesting and it increased the ground predator populations.

The project began to supply man-made nest platforms for the birds to replace snags and trees that lost to development on the barrier islands.

DDT in the food chain caused reproduction to fail. DDT was banned in 1968, but the negative effects and residual DDT continued for a number of years. Used in and near marine environments, it was absorbed by both organisms and soils and accumulated in the food chain. Because DDT is fat soluble it bioacummulated in predators, especially birds of prey.

It did not kill the birds, but rather caused the thinning of eggshells which often broke under the weight of the incubating female.

3 young

By 1986, the osprey population had surpassed 100 pairs. This allowed their status to be changed to "threatened"in NJ.

During that time, some of my volunteer work for the Endangered and Nongame Species Program involved monitoring and tracking nest success.

2006 found the NJ osprey population at a new post-DDT high of just over 400 active nests, and that was surpassed in 2009 with 486 nesting pairs.

The next aerial survey was scheduled for this year.

MORE
The Osprey Project at conservewildlifenj.org/protecting/projects/osprey/ and follow them on Facebook.
Endangered NJ posts on osprey