Report of a Survey by
The Interracial Committee
of the
New Jersey Conference of Social Work
In Cooperation With the
State Department of Institutions and Agencies
December,1932

The "Pineys"

Scattered throughout the pine territory,colored families of
Irish,Indian and Negro blood have settled.Their communities
bear such names as Hog Wallow,Sow's Crotch,Froggie,Bessie's
Brook,Sweet Water Run,Flat Belly Run,Tabernacle,Shamong,
Cranberry Hall,Green Tree and Turkey Lawn.


Almost White
A Study of Certain Racial Hybrids in the
Eastern United States
by Brewton Berry  1963

New Jersey,too.There are the so-called Sand Hill Indians in
Monmouth County,unless they have all scattered by this time.
Across the river from Philadelphia,in Burlington and adjacent
counties,there are the Pineys,a forsaken people who make their
living by picking cranberries,weaving baskets,and working at
odd jobs.In Cumberland County there are two groups--a people
of Indian-White-Negro ancestry known as "Moores,"and who
apparently came over from Delaware,and the Gouldtown
settlement,whose history traces back to colonial times.Most
famous of all,however,are the Jackson Whites,found in the
New Jersey counties of Passaic,Morris,and Bergen,and in the
New York counties of Orange and Rockland.



The Pine Barrens:
Isolation and Image

An Historical Geography by Robert G. McGarvey
May 1972

Whether the reason was disease or alcohol,the Indians were a
minor factor in the general settlement pattern of New Jersey
but they were of some importance to the subsequent heterogeneous
character of the Pineys.From Indian Mills to the iron towns of
Atsion and Batsto in the Pine Barrens is but a few miles,and many
Indians left the reservation to work in the industry before 1800.
They intermarried with other peoples there and pure blooded
Indians are probably absent today.Cultural evidence is,however,
seen of them everyday.Woven tools used for clamming and
other artifacts like cranberry scoops in common use indicate the
adoption of Indian skills(Stewart 1932).The principal roads in the
Pine Barrens have been determined to be on original Indian trails
(Weygandt 1940) so that the Indians contributed their communication
network as well as traditional skills to the melting pot.




INDIAN LORE OF NEW JERSEY
Twelve Articles by Charles A. Philhower
Reprinted From Newark Sunday News
By New Jersey Council
Division of Planning and Development
Department of Conservation and
Economic Development  1949

Part XI
REDSKINS IN JERSEY TODAY

With all these territorial adjustments the coastal Algonkins
found themselves associating with new people-- Dutch,Germans,
Swedes,Finns,Negros,English,Spaniards,Protestants,Catholics,
Friends and Moravians.A certain amount of racial amalgamation
took place with both White and Negro populations of our state.
To this day one frequently meets members of old families who
have Indian blood.Some of them are proud of it while others
are reticent to discuss the question.Members of white families
who lived in remote areas often married Indians.
This was true in the hills of Sussex,in the plains of Burlington,
Ocean and Atlantic,in the Sourlands and Watchungs of Mercer
and Hunterdon,Union and Morris,and in the cedar swamps and
coastal marshes of Ocean,Cape May,Gloucester,Salem and
Cumberland.There was intermarriage in the days of exploration
and settlement with Portuguese,Spaniards,Italians,French,
German and English adventurers associating intimately with
the redskins thus spreading Indian racial features and
characteristics.
Whenever individuals of a recluse character are found,Indian
racial contact is likely to be unearthed.The backwoodsman
who subsists by fishing,trapping and hunting with a bean patch
and corn field under neglected cultivation frequently discloses
Indian ancestory after conversation in that direction.
Hessian soldiers who deserted and British prisoners of war when
released wandered into the remote and outlying areas where
there were Indians who did not leave with the general exodus
of 1758.There they took up residence with the natives,especially
in the hills of Northern Bergen and the pines of Burlington.
Indian blood still persists among the descendants of
"Jackson Whites" and "Pineys"in those regions.

(Web Master's note: The term "Redskin" is racist and its use is no
longer acceptable.Neither is the term "Jackson White" for the
Ramapough Mountain People.)


David Douglas 1823-His Journal During
North American Travels 1823-1827
William Wesley,London,1914

The country from Evesham down to Tuckerton has all the
appearance of its original wilderness -- few houses or
settlements appear.Pine and oak woods on both sides of
the road perpetually;and for at least 30 miles of the road,
the bushes on either side fill up the whole road,which is
scarcely the single path which one wagon fills.We met
almost nothing on the road to turn us out.I could thus
have a very good conception of how the country looked
in the hands of the aborigines,some few of whom still
linger about.


Down Jersey
by Cornelius Weygandt
pg.289

Those of the clammers from "The Pines" that I have met
are a quiet and courteous people,as are most of "The Pineys,"
I know.Like other people of their native heaths they may
go a little on the loose at times,but no more generally than
city butchers and bakers and candlestick makers on vacation.
There are those who attribute their footloose ways to Indian
blood,of which some of "The Pineys,"like many other
Americans,have a certain amount.


The eternal melody of
Piney Music
by Peggy Morgan
Inquirer Sept.23,1984
pg.24
 
Merce Ridgway Jr. could boast of Indian chromosomes if he
were the boasting kind.The music of his ancestors -- the Lenni
Lenapes -- has been lost to the Pines.The tribe was shoved onto
the country's first reservation -- Brotherton,now called Indian Mills,
in the Pines -- before being pushed out of the State almost completely.
As conscious of his rich heritage as if it were alive and present,Merce
Jr.has put together a "time capsule"of Pine Barrens music that he
narrates and sings with the Pinehawkers for schools and associations
such as the Ocean County Artists Guild.The musical history begins
with acknowledgment of "Americas forgotten musicians"-- the Lenni
Lenapes and their five-noted flute.

(Web Master's note: Brotherton was not the country's first
Indian Reservation)

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