By the way, This New Yorker article is pretty much the only accurate, reasonable article I've read about the Ramapough.

From the article Tom linked:

Area teen-agers, recalling decades-old legends of unsuspecting people who climbed Stag Hill and never returned, dare one another to drive up at night.

Yep. I remember this going on when I was in high school.

Even in kindergarten, I could sense there was something different about them. In retrospect, they were showing obvious signs of lead poisoning.

In retrospect, they were showing obvious signs of lead poisoning.

In the horrifying Afterward to the most recent edition of Bury Me Standing (2009) she noted that in Italy a huge number of Roma were forced into "temporary" housing on an abandoned lead mine. Ten years later and hundreds of instances of birth defects...

America's weirdo notions about race which have gone through wild fluctuations in different eras.

In doing my genealogy, I'm discovering some fairly twisted descriptions to avoid having to claim Irish descent. I told my mother I'd found Irish blood, and she snapped, "Not on my side of the family, I hope." (Mother had issues. Full runs of them.)

I'm still not sure how many of the people identified as German really are German.

In doing my genealogy, I'm discovering some fairly twisted descriptions to avoid having to claim Irish descent.

Right. That's exactly the kind of thing I mean because there was much more racial mixing in the colonial era than there was after 1800 so a lot of people had combinations of Native American, Free Black, Portuguese sailor etc.

Then racial clasifications became more important in a negative way. So you could be part Native American and grown up with your mother's tribe. But you don't want to be shipped out on the Trail of Tears so you claim you're Black Dutch, or something like that. But you're still living with your family. And years later it becomes advantageous to be classified as Native American and then you've got to prove you're A Real Indian as for as the government is concerned.

At different times the census had different categories so "Free Person of Color" could be one category that they put you in, even though your mom was Cherokee and your dad was an ex-slave.

Also, the meaning of "race" has changed a bunch of time. On my ancestors' immigration papers, up through the early forties or so, "race" is listed as Hebrew, and then somewhere lower on the form, "color" is white. (Some of them also have a space for "complexion," and I've found the same person listed as light, medium, olive, and dark on different forms.)

Burrell, I'm so sorry.

Also, the meaning of "race" has changed a bunch of time.

Right, 'cuz it's a social construct. There's no such thing as "race" genetically.

I don't know if America's more whackadoo on the subject than other cultures but it's been foregrounded in our history a lot more.

Prevailing czech attitudes toward the Roma when I was there shudder.

Substitute Moldovan and yep. My host family's dog's name was Tsigan (gypsy). Why? He was black. And that ranks on the relatively innocuous side.