Documentary Explores Struggle of New Jersey’s Ramapough Tribe
By TAMMY LA GORCEAUG. 8, 2015
Corey Bobker was an accomplished 30-something adult when he took his first drive into the Ramapo Mountains in 2010. But the 12-year-old version of him still had knots in his stomach.
“When I was a kid growing up, everybody knew you don’t go up into the mountains because you’d get shot,” said Mr. Bobker, producer of the documentary “American Native.” His film explores the struggles of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, a Native American tribe with about 5,000 members, according to its chief, Dwaine C. Perry. The Ramapough live mostly across the Stag Hill region of Mahwah, Ringwood and nearby Hillburn, N.Y.
Mr. Bobker, of Los Angeles, grew up in Livingston. As a child, he attended summer camp in Stanhope, near the Ramapos in Mahwah. He had not gotten close to the mysterious mountain chain again until this anxiety-ridden car trip to visit with the tribe for the first time. “I was definitely worried,” he said. “I thought, Maybe it’s true — maybe they’re going to confront us if we say something the wrong way.”
THU, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
AT 07:30 PM Warner Quad
Ridgewood, NJ
If the Stag Hill folks are Indians then I’m Squanto’s second cousin.