My Ancestors Lived Here
I didn't grow up in Tupper Lake. In fact, as a kid I knew absolutely nothing about a town that I now visit regularly, where I buy my groceries, eat fresh donuts, visit The Wild Center, and go paddling and rockhounding. I'm not a Tupper Laker, at least not in the traditional sense. In fact, I'm not even an Adirondacker based on where I was born and raised, and yet...my ancestors lived all over the Adirondacks. I am Mohawk.
As histories of the Adirondacks have changed over time, views on the presence of the Mohawk in the area have changed, too. There is a misconception that, until European explorers and pioneers started to settle in northern New York, the Adirondacks had been uninhabited, that at best the area was used as occasional hunting grounds. A few locations are known for Indigenous residents, such as Mitchell Sabbatis in Indian Lake, but Tupper Lake, like so many other locations, has been neglected. Yet bit by bit, people have been gathering together, doing research, conducting archaeological digs, and speaking out to finally get history right, to celebrate Tupper Lake as a place that has been home for thousands — not just hundreds — of years.
