On June 17, 2023, Minister of International Affairs and FANA’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Principal Chief Dr. Ronald Yonaguska Holloway of the SandHill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians (NY, NJ, PA), and The Federation of Aboriginal Nations of the Americas’ Director, Chief Raymond Two Hawks Watson, Mashapaug Nations; FANA’s Communication Authority Director: Chief Casike/Tureygua Taino Cay, The Cibuco Bayamon Taino Tribe (PR and FL); FANA’s Director of Visual Media and Digital Content, SandHill Tribal Council member Norris Branham, and FANA’s Director of Indigenous and Cultural Outreach to the United Nations, SandHill Tribal Member Ms. Maria Lorena Cosme attended the Juneteenth Silent March in Teaneck, New Jersey.
For expedience’s sake, I will refer to the SandHill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians as the SandHill and the Federation of Aboriginal Nations of the Americas as FANA.
The Minister of International Affairs and FANA’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Principal Chief Dr. Holloway of the SandHill was invited by the organizers of the event as a way of extending a long overdue recognition to the Indigenous people buried in the sacred site.
He then invited the members of FANA to attend the Silent march that was the kickoff to the Juneteenth weekend celebrations in Teaneck.
The event started on the Fairleigh Dickenson University Hackensack Campus by the statue of Reverend Martin Luther King. The silent march took them from the Campus to the bridge connecting the Hackensack Campus with the Teaneck Campus to the Native American and enslaved African Burial Ground located on Pomander Walk in Teaneck, Nj.
The current burial ground is a small remnant of what had once been a very large sacred burial site near the Hackensack River.
With the arrival of the Europeans came the enslavement of both Indigenous and African peoples. It was not unusual…
Blythe and Charlotte Wessman making journey sticks with Renee Perna and Molly Hanford. (Photograph by Jim Hudgings) 
