Millionaire Donates West Village Townhouse to Native American Tribe

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois—the millionaire son of renowned sculptor Louise Bourgeois—is in the process of donating his multi-million-dollar, landmarked West Village townhouse to a non-profit organization run by the Lenape tribe, multiple news outlets report. The Lenape Indians were the original inhabitants of Manhattan.

“This building is the trophy from major theft. It disgusts me,” Bourgeois told The Post.

His family’s LLC bought the three-story home at 6 Weehawken St. for $2.2 million in 2006. The townhouse dates back to 1834 and is part of the Weehawken Street Historic District.

Bourgeois is an activist for Native American causes and recently returned to Manhattan after protesting at Standing Rock for eight weeks.

In 2011, Bourgeois befriended a man named Joseph Scabby Robe at an Occupy Wall Street protest. Robe is a Canadian Cree Indian, and Bourgeois told him he wanted to give the land back to the Lenapes, according to the Post.

“The house isn’t important," Bourgeois said. "It’s the land that the house sits on that’s important.”

Robe introduced Bourgeois to Anthony Jan Van Dunk, who's the chief of the 5,000-member Ramapough Indians, which is part of the Lenape Nation.

Van Dunk had the idea of turning the townhouse into a patahmaniikan, or a prayer house.

“The purpose is to get indigenous people in touch with their language, their tradition," Van Dunk told The Post.

Check out the full New York Post article here.

Lead Photo: YouTube Screenshot