THE NEW
JERSEY
SAND HILL BAND OF LENAPE AND CHEROKEE INDIANS
The Only Continuous and
Uninterrupted Lenape Tribal Government in Lenapehoking Homelands
The Sand Hill Band of
Lenape and Cherokee Indians are the oldest historically documented Delaware
Tribe still in our ancestral homeland. The Sand Hill Band are the
"only" recorded Delaware Tribe indigenous to New Jersey and
Pennsylvania [reference: Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 1948].
Additionally, the New Jersey Indian
Office and the records of James Revey, Chairman, indicate that the Tribe has
been in existence since before 1711.
In 1759, the State of New Jersey
established the Brotherton Indian Reservation in Indian Mills. The Revey
[Reeves, Reevey, Revies] family were Raritan-Lenape Indian residents who were
known to live in Old Monmouth. Their main community was in a place called
Edge Pillock in
Burlington
County
. The interaction between the Lenape and Cherokee is well documented.
For example, in 1779 the Cherokee Nation (called “Kittuwa” by the Lenape)
sent a delegation of “condolence” to their grandfather the Lenape, on the
death of the Lenape head chief White Eyes. This was only one of several
recorded migrations of Cherokee who were invited to stay among the Lenape.
New Jersey
records indicate Cherokee migration in the early 1700’s from the southeastern
United States
to
Monmouth
County
. Indians - often regarded as “colored,” were denied basic civil
liberties in the South. They found they were much better off in New Jersey
Indian communities.
Migrations occurred
from the
Virginias
and
Carolinas
as well as other areas of the old Cherokee Nation.The
Richardson
family was one such family.They
are listed in the Eastern Cherokee Rolls, Official
United States Census of the Cherokee Indians from 1817 to 1924 as residing east of the
Mississippi River
. The Crummel family, another Sand Hill Band Indian is also listed on the same
census as Cherokee.
In 1803 some members of
the Tribe relocated to the Stockbridge Indian Reservation while the main
body of Raritan-Lenape returned to
Monmouth
County
.They established a community known
as Reeveytown.Monmouth County Tax
records of 1780 indicate James Revey living in
Freehold
Township
and Thomas Revey living in
Shrewsbury
Township
in 1789. By 1860 a few hundred Lenape were scattered in remote communities
located in
Monmouth
County
on the
Shark
River
and in
Passaic
County
on the
Passaic
River
.
Centuries of
intermarrying produced the Sand Hill Band of Indians, a direct result of the
miscegenation of the Raritan-Lenape and the Keetoowah-Cherokee Indians. Today,
certain segments of the Tribe maintain a distinct Cherokee identity while
others are solely Lenape (
Delaware
). The Sand Hill Band of Indians in
New Jersey
have never sought federal or state recognition because they know themselves to
be a sovereign tribal entity. They are however, the only tribe in
New Jersey
to be recognized by both the federally-recognized Delaware Tribes of Oklahoma
and the revered Keetoowah Society of the Cherokee Nation. They consider this
acknowledgment paramount to any form of non-tribal governmental recognition.
However, the Sand Hill Band of Indians is the only Lenape tribe recognized by
the United States Government and the State of New Jersey, in Lenapehoking
Homelands.