Ramapo Laid Low

(circa 2016)

In Ringwood NJ are a group of
people known as the Ramapo People.
In Ringwood State Park the  annual
Pow Wow is held in early Fall.

They are a mixture of 
Dutch, African and
Native American in the
Hudson River Valley.
 
The Ford Company
based in Tarrytown NY
buys land behind the Ramapo territory
and poisons the land and people
by dumping toxins,
unused auto paint
in a dump in the woods.
 
Almost every week,
one of the Ramapo people
dies of some type of cancer.
 
One summer evening I drive
on Van Dunk Road towards Sloatsburg NY.
It is 8:30pm, the sun has set
and the stars are starting to shine bright.
 
I see the red lights of police cars,
flash lights and officers directing traffic.
Next to the power lines and utility poles
and wires powering northern NJ.
 
I drive by the body of a Ramapo Indian,
all 280-300 pounds of him.
The yellow plastic cover
pulled over his body with
only his boots sticking out.
 
When he was struck, was he drunk?
Was he just deep in thought and
carelessly crossed the road?
without looking both ways?
Was full of cancer and walked in
front of  a speeding car to end the pain?
 
I do not know,
the local papers
never reported on it.
 
The papers ignored
the Ramapo Indians
death as most
U.S. History classes
classes skip or skim by
the sections of
the genocide of
100 million
Native Americans
killed by the
U.S. Government
a few
generations
ago.