“One of the first things the chief said to me was, ‘What are you?’ ” Mr. Oritt said. When Mr. Oritt told Mr. Perry, a Vietnam War veteran and, for the last 10 years, the elected chief of the Ramapough, that he was Jewish, Mr. Perry posed a question: If a few of Mr. Oritt’s ancestors were not 100 percent Jewish, would that make him any less Jewish? Mr. Oritt replied that it would not. “He said, ‘Now you know where my people are coming from,’ ” Mr. Oritt recalled.

Despite the filmmakers’ challenging first encounter with the Ramapough, the result, five years later, is an 84-minute documentary chronicling the tribe’s quest for respect and recognition. Made for $262,000, “American Native” has been shown at several film festivals since last spring and recently won the award for best documentary at the Manchester Film Festival in July. In September, “American Native” will be shown at the Clairidge Cinema, in Montclair and the Warner Theater, in Ridgewood.

Mr. Bobker said the filmmakers spent close to a year convincing Ramapough leaders, particularly Mr. Perry, that a documentary would give them “a voice to tell people who they are,” he said.

Mr. Perry questioned their sincerity. “I told them, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ve heard that before,’ ” he said recently, from within a still-under-construction house of worship on a 13-acre parcel of land in Mahwah owned by the tribe. His skepticism stemmed from being disappointed by past articles in Weird NJ, The New Yorker and other publications, as well as the tribe’s portrayal in a 2013 movie, “Out of the Furnace,” which provoked a small faction of Ramapoughs to sue for $50 million, claiming defamation. The film depicted them as “scumbags and inbreds,” Mr. Perry said. The lawsuit was unsuccessful.