Local hiker and archaeologist Ed Lenik has spent many a day sifting through the layered evidence of human history in the Ramapo Mountains, a search that includes the general northern New Jersey, southeastern New York regions. His investigations have detected patterns that bear witness to Indians in the Ramapos.

Known throughout the northern New Jersey and southern New York area as a lecturer, hike leader and author Lenik’s  dictum is “Search the records before you dig.”

Ed Lenik, right, recently lectured on “Indians in the Ramapos” at Sterling Forest State Park Visitor’s Center. Holding the map is Kathy Goldman, proprietor of Ol’ Darlin’, a local product line of handmade soaps and salves sourced in the Ramapos.

That dictum has directed him through some 30 years of searching archives, libraries, museums and collections, seeking references to the continuing Indian presence in the Highlands of the Ramapo Mountains and surrounding parks region.

The archaeological record indicates a strong, continuous and persistent presence of Indian bands in the northern Highlands Physiographic Providence – Ramapos.

Lenik develops a narrative that testifies to the presence, persistence and survival of native Indians in the Ramapos. Through his work and discoveries, Lenik has developed a close relationship with the Ramapough Lenape Nation and has interviewed many tribal elders during his search for the earliest of settlers in this region.

Lenik’s historical hikes along the popular and hidden paths of the Highands have led him to explore the vanishing evidence of human occupation in the Ramapo Mountain forests.

Ed Lenik presented Indians in the Ramapos at the Sterling Forest Park Visitor’s Center Sunday, December 14, which will be part of the material from his third book on archeological in the Ramapo Highlands.

 Thanks to Geoff Welch for contributing this material all wrapped up.