Rural Indigenousness:

A History of Iroquoian and Algonquian Peoples of the Adirondacks

Rural Indigenousness is one of the few studies that examines the history of Indigenous people who stayed, or moved to, a rural area after contact. It is a microhistory that illuminates the rich history of Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples of the Adirondacks as an example of Indigenous people adapting to rural settler society, especially in the nineteenth century northeast, where their history was often erased by local historians. It illustrates the nuanced concept of “survivance” by Indigenous individuals and families within rural settler societies. This book emphasizes the importance of labor, class relations, and rural society to understand settler society history writ large.

This book argues that the Adirondack landscape was more than a hunting ground for nearby Native people; rather, it was a space of interaction where the land was woven into the fabric of their lives as an essential source of refuge and survival. It asks us to broaden our understanding of occupation and argues that hunting landscapes like the Adirondacks are complex. It introduces the term “location of exchange” which is defined as “a purposeful and occupied place where reciprocal acts occur, creating opportunities for entangled exchanges between people(s) and the land” and notes these acts between the people and the land are just as important, and maybe more so, as between peoples.  

“Rural Indigenousness” is defined here as “an individual, or individuals, whose family history connects them to known Indigenous ancestry and a shared history with an Indigenous community, nation, or band. They have an understanding of self as an Indigenous person to the point that they express it in a personal profession of their identity to their rural community and to an Indigenous one, if it is available.” Their history should be reviewed alongside the better researched locations of reservation/reserve and urban Indigenous studies and histories.