Ramapough Mountain People
Indrid Cold
"The Jackson Whites"
A Pathfinder and Annotated Bibliography
by: Randy D. Ralph, MLIS, Ph.D.
In place 1995. Last updated January 2, 2001.
Copyright (c) Randy D. Ralph.
http://www.netstrider.com/documents/whites/
EXCERPT:
"The Jackson Whites":
The Ramapough Mountain People, also known locally,
and in the pejorative as "The Jackson Whites," are
an extended clan of closely interrelated families
living in the Ramapo Mountains and their more
remote valleys principally in Bergen County,
New Jersey, but also in immediately adjacent
Passaic County, New Jersey, and Rockland County,
New York. Their largely Dutch surnames, de Groot,
de Fries, van der Donck, and Mann, in all their
variant spellings, are among the oldest in the
countryside and predate the Revolutionary War.
They live only thirty miles or so from downtown
Manhattan which lies just across the Hudson River
(see map;
[ http://www.netstrider.com/documents/whites/index.html#MAP ]).
They are shy, gentle, proud, and reclusive people
who, until relatively recently, seldom ventured
far from their mountain homes.
They are clearly racially mixed. There are elements from
native Indian, Negro, Dutch, and possibly German (Hessian)
and Italian blood lines. Their isolation has resulted in
a high degree of intermarriage among the families which
has, on occasion, produced genetic anomalies such as
syndactyly (fusion of fingers or toes), polydactyly
(extra fingers or toes), pie baldness, albinism,
sometimes distinguised by a grayish skin color,
and mental retardation.
The majority of the members of the extended clan,
however, are robust, intelligent people with striking
good looks. In general, members of the clan have light
to dark bronze complexions, light eyes, and curly hair,
usually jet black or brunette but occasionally pure white.
Their facial features display a mixture of Indian and
Negro characteristics that have set them apart from
their neighbors for centuries. More than any other
aspect, it is their looks that have isolated them,
marked them, and engendered the many lies, misconceptions,
myths and legends that surround them in the local oral
history of the region.
The clan now prefers to be called the Ramapough (or Ramapo)
Mountain People or the Ramapough Mountain Indians.
In the 1980s, as a result of an activist movement led by
tribal author and historian, Mozelle Van Dunk, they
petitioned the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with support from
the Attorneys General of New Jersey and New York States,
for recognition and status as a bona fide Indian tribe.
To date, their efforts have been unsuccessful. The Bureau
classifies them as Black not Indian.
Map of the Ramapo Mountain region of New Jersey and New York
http://www.netstrider.com/documents/whites/index.html#MAP
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Legend:
According to the first part of the legend, the first
settlers in the Ramapo Mountain region were Tuscarora
Indians. They fled northward on the Cumberland Trail
to join their allies the Iroquois in upper New York
after a humiliating defeat at the hands of the British
Army in a series of skirmishes, part of the French and
Indian Wars, in western North Carolina from 1711 to 1714.
They were either joined shortly after their arrival by
or came accompanied with runaway slaves, often referred
to in those days as "Jacks." The sons of Black
freedmen from the plantations of the nearby
Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains also
joined them and brought their former masters'
Dutch surnames with them to the Ramapos.
They intermarried with the Tuscaroras and possibly
local Lenni Lenape Indians, as well. It is at this
time that their local neighbors may have begun to
refer to these people as the "Jacks and Whites."
According to the second part of the legend, during the
War of Independence, the British Army command at New York
contracted with a Colonial seacaptain and trader named
Jackson to bring 3,500 prostitutes recruited in the
cities of England to New York to serve the garrison.
On the trans-Atlantic voyage one of the twenty ships
in the convoy foundered during a storm and most of the
passengers were drowned. The clever and industrious
Jackson made for the West Indies and picked up an
additional 400 black women to replace those lost at sea.
On his return to New York harbor the black prostitutes,
known ironically as "Jackson Whites" and as "Jackson Blacks,"
were segregated from the rest and billeted for several years
in a cow pasture in Greenwich Village called Lispenard's
Meadows. When the British were forced, abruptly, to quit
New York during the War of Independence, the women fled
Manhattan in fear of their lives and wandered northward
into the Hudson Valley where they heard, possibly from
Hessian deserters, that the Ramapos were a haven for
Tory refugees, Dutch adventurers and villians of all
kinds, including the infamous Tory guerilla Cladius Smith,
Cowboy of the Ramapos. and his followers and admirers.
All these people, according to legend, wound up in the
Ramapos and by 1800 were firmly ensconced as a clannish,
isolated group bearing the collective name "Jackson Whites,"
presumably as an ironic variant of "Jacks and Whites."
The were despised by their respectable lowland neighbors
either for having been Tory sympathizers, for their mixed
blood, or for being Black, or Indian, or outlaw, or all
of that, and more. From roughly 1800 on, the Jackson Whites
had little to do with the world outside their Ramapo
Mountains retreat and the few towns and villages they
had managed to build.
[Cont...]
http://www.netstrider.com/documents/whites/
The Ramapough Mountain People : The Jackson Whites
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=The+Ramapough+Mountain+People+%3A+The+Jackson+Whites
RoadHog55
Fact meets Fiction or Verse Visa...
Lost TV Mystery Show...
Gerald DeGroot was a doctoral Candidate from the University of
Michigan, who founded the DHARMA Initiative in 1970. His last name
indicates that he is of Dutch desent. Influenced by B.F. Skinner,
Gerald and his partner Karen set out to create a large scale communal
research compound where scientists and free thinkers would be able to
pursue scientific pursuits. When a Danish Industrialist named Alvar
Hanso provided them with the adequate funds required, their dream was
brought to life
Planet Jupiter
We Live In Public
Josh Harris and QUIET:
"We Live In Public" - documentary by Ondi Timoner
Synopsis
'Ten years in the making and culled from 5000
hours of footage, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC reveals the
effect the web is having on our society, as seen
through the eyes of "the greatest Internet pioneer
you've never heard of", artist, futurist and
visionary Josh Harris. Award-winning director
Ondi Timoner (DIG! -- which also won the Sundance
Grand Jury Prize in 2004 -- making Timoner the
only director to win that prestigious award twice)
http://www.weliveinpublicthemovie.com/?page_id=59
documented his tumultuous life for more than a
decade to create a riveting, cautionary tale of
what to expect as the virtual world inevitably
takes control of our lives.
'Harris, often called the "Warhol of the Web",
founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television
network during the infamous dot-com boom of the
1990s. He also curated and funded the ground
breaking project "Quiet" in an underground bunker
in NYC where over 100 people lived together on
camera for 30 days at the turn of the millennium.
With Quiet, Harris proved how we willingly trade
our privacy for the connection and recognition we
all deeply desire, but with every technological
advancement such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter,
becomes more elusive. Through his experiments,
including a six-month stint living with his
girlfriend under 24-hour electronic surveillance
which led to his mental collapse, Harris
demonstrated the price we pay for living
in public.' http://www.weliveinpublicthemovie.com
[See also NPD: (DSM-IV code 301.81)
Synopsis
Diagnostic Features:
'Narcissistic personality disorder is a condition
characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance,
need for admiration, extreme self-involvement, and
lack of empathy for others. Individuals with this
disorder are usually arrogantly self-assured and
confident. They expect to be noticed as superior.
Many highly successful individuals might be considered
narcissistic. However, this disorder is only diagnosed
when these behaviors become persistent and very
disabling or distressing.' ... ]
[o][O][o]
Chrysler teams with NASA on future technologies
BY GREG GARDNER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
ggardner-AT-freepress.com
Chrysler and the NASA are forming a three-year
alliance to share research on technologies such
as robotics, radar, barriers and other
energy storage devices.
"This is a great opportunity to share knowledge
and data in areas where both Chrysler and NASA
have a vested interest," said Scott Kunselman
Chrysler senior vice president for engineering.
Project teams with representatives of the
Auburn Hills automaker and the space agency
have already been created for each
technology topic.
Chrysler worked with NASA in its early days,
building Redstone rockets for the Mercury Project
which put the first American in space.
The automaker also made boosters to power the
first two Apollo spacecraft into orbit.
[o][O][o]
Our View: Cheap thrills in NASA's future
http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=NASA
NEWSY comedian Stephen Colbert says he's appalled
at the administration's new direction for NASA.
"Sending robots into space does not win glory
for Americans," Colbert said this week on his
television show. "It wins glory for Roombas."
"You know I am a huge fan of space exploration,"
Colbert added. But "no one wants to grow up and
hear a robot landed and say, `This is one small
step for bleep-blorp."'
We, too, are huge fans of space exploration.
But we live among the robot masters of the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its women and men
first launched America into orbit in the 1950s
with Explorer and continue to both thrill the
world and advance science. Because it bolsters
their missions to Mars and throughout the
solar system, we applaud the sober,
forward-looking new NASA budget President
Obama announced Thursday in Florida.
The space agency in recent years had been
tentatively looking toward a swift return
to an expensive emphasis on human missions
to both the moon and soon enough to Mars.
Putting people's footprints onto heavenly
bodies is indeed a thrilling and very much
necessary part of the American space program.
We miss those Apollo days, which rightly were
at the center of the most exciting exploration
humans have ever embarked upon - the move
out from our home planet into the universe.
But NASA spending and planning needs reform.
Its federal bureaucracy, though it only takes
up 0.5 percent of the national budget, is just
that - too typically bureaucratic. Its long
tradition of granting cost-plus contracts to
vendors in which firms are guaranteed a set
profit over whatever their expenses are makes
for guaranteed wastefulness.
The new model for space exploration launched by
the president this week emphasizes the
entrepreneurial spirit of private companies
coming up with new technologies. The Orion and
Constellation crew-capsule systems that were to
replace the Space Shuttle were heading toward
boondoggle territory, and will be de-emphasized.
Launching directly from Earth's gravity is
horrifically expensive because of fuel costs.
Under the new plans, astronauts will now
head from Earth orbit in the early 2020s to
the moon, the asteroids and eventually Mars.
Instead of bloated traditional firms, there
will be an emphasis on new entrepreneurs such
as those running the small companies in our
High Desert that are currently redefining
efficient ways to get into space.
A new emphasis on earth science, the NASA
budget for which will jump 62 percent,
will suit the JPL engineers in La Canada
Flintridge just fine. As much of that money
will go toward replacing aging satellites,
four out of five of the U.S. manufacturers
of which are California-based, it's good
news for the entire Golden State.
Robots will never replace people as we
move toward the stars. But they will be
beside us, bleeping and blorping quite
efficiently, and sending home gorgeous
images and important science that provide
their own (cheap) thrills.
[o][O][o]
Part-time space racers shoot for Lunar X Prize
A group of ambitious Berlin-based, non-space
professionals are shooting for the moon.
Meet the youngest team competing to win
Google's $30-million Lunar X Prize for landing
a robot on the moon with only their brains
and private funding. [...]
http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20100421-26703.html
[o][O][o]
Google Lunar X-PRIZE
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/