HACKENSACK – Summonses alleging the Ramapough Lenape Nation violated Mahwah’s zoning code amount to harassment and discrimination against a tribe that considers itself a sovereign nation, an attorney for the tribe argued Tuesday.
On Tuesday, attorneys for the tribe sought to have those summonses dismissed, arguing they interfered with the tribe’s religious freedom.
In a sign of the tension between the tribe and their neighbors, Ramapough Chief Dwaine Perry and another Ramapough leader, Steven D. Smith, have also been charged with criminal mischief for their alleged involvement in the tampering of a Polo Club surveillance camera.
The summonses issued by the township state that the tribe failed to obtain zoning permits for “Structures and uses of land” on its property, and moved soil without permission.