Autumn Years Spring 2024

Native Indians From time immemorial, the Lenape Indians have lived in what would be come Bergen County. There are at least 12 known Indian burial grounds in the county. In 1900, when the trolley line was being constructed through Bogota, the general store at the intersection of River Road and West Main Street had to be moved. It was reported that the build ing was shifted south “squarely atop an ancient Indian burial ground.” In 1940, laborers from the Works Progress Ad ministration found two Indian skele tons where the Waldwick High School/ Middle School athletic fields are locat ed. Then in 1947, when the Washington Lake Association was establishing its development around Schlegel

skeleton and took the plaster cast home. The last public display of Giotta’s Indian skeleton was in 1973, and its current whereabouts are unknown. Adding the remains of another cul ture’s people to an Indian site is not new. Both George Washington Memo rial Park Cemetery in Paramus and the Pascack Reformed Church Cemetery in Park Ridge were established on Indian burial grounds. In Teaneck, when Al bert Zabriskie purchased land along the Hackensack River from the Indians in 1685, the property included a tribal burial ground. The Zabriskie, Kipp and Cadmus families interred their slaves in that Indian cemetery. In 2006, when threatened by development, a united coalition of Jersey Dutch descendants, African Americans and Native Ameri cans were successful in persuading the Township of Teaneck to purchase that site (located at 671 Pomander Walk). In addition, the Ramapo Munsee Lenape Nation (a New Jersey State-recognized tribal nation) has two cemeteries on its ancestral lands in Mahwah.

Indian skeleton found by Emil Giotta.

In 1963, Hackensack Water Com pany was about to create Lake Tappan in River Vale and Old Tappan. Emil Giotta—a published, local amateur ar chaeologist—found a Tappan Indian tribe site in the area that would be flooded. Looking for artifacts, he came upon a human bone. As he and helpers from the North Jersey Archaeologi cal Society dug deeper, they uncovered a complete Indian skeleton. Giotta poured plaster over the

Lake in Washington Town ship, it was reported that the land incorporated an Indian burial site. The word Sicomac , an area in Wyckoff, is a poor English attempt at spelling the Lenape word for graves or cemetery.

When the Indians sold that region to the Dutch, they expressly reserved the right to access the area containing the graves of their ancestors. Renowned histori an Claire Tholl noted an Indian burial ground south of Sicomac and Mountain Avenues. When her accuracy was ques tioned, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Museum stated, “There are a num ber of Indian burial grounds within a one-mile radius.”

Lenape burial practices.

SPRING 2024 I AUTUMN YEARS 37