Page "Bergen County, New Jersey" Paragraph 4

At the time of first European contact, Bergen County was inhabited by Native American people, particularly the Lenape nation, whose sub-groups included the Tappan, Hackensack and Rumachenanck ( later called the Haverstraw ), as named by the Dutch colonists.

Some of their descendants are included among the Ramapough Mountain Indians, recognized as a tribe by the state in 1980.

Their ancestors had moved into the mountains to escape encroachment by Dutch and English colonists.

They reside mostly in the northwest of the county, in nearby Passaic County and in Rockland County, New York.

They trace their Lenape ancestry to speakers of the Munsee language, one of three major dialects of their language.

Over the years, they absorbed other ethnicities by intermarriage.