Today at Camden County Historical Society, an archaeologist spoke of the hundreds of artifacts found in digs near the former shipyard site on Broadway between Camden City and Gloucester City.
What was most interesting to me, however was some remarks by Chief Sam Beeler of the Sand Hill tribe of the Lenape. He briefly and generally discussed how the current day existence of the tribe is being erased by the New Jersey Government, and when I looked it up later, I saw that it was true.
Perhaps you, like me, had gone to the Pow Wow at the Rancocas Indian Reservation in October of each year. I wondered what happened to it when I tried to go one year and found it was gone. What happened was that in retaliation for a law suit filed by the Sand Hill tribe attempting to get the government to recognize their continued existence here, funding was cut for the reservation museum and office and it was demolished! Documents were supplied proving the existence of the tribe, of which Dr. Sam Beeler is current Chief, to no avail and to further retaliate the government cut the retirement benefits of the men, who were veterans!
As Buffy St. Marie said so eloquently in one of her songs Now That the Buffalo is Gone, "And it's still going on today." From the North Dakota protest where the pipe line is cutting through Native American protected treaty land, under their river, which is their water source, to the ongoing struggle for our native New Jersey tribe the Sand Hill to even get the government to acknowledge that they exist. Unjust and depressing.
My friend, Barb Solem and I tried to find Benjamin Cooper's Ferry house at Erie Street but we got lost and gave up for today. We'll try again another time.
Happy Trail, Sad Trails, but always on the trail!
Jo Ann
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