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Melissa Otis
Ph.D. Student of History
University of Toronto
Summary
My dissertation is a social history of Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples in the Adirondacks of New York State, a bordered lands region that shares geography and history with parts of Canada. Using primary documents such as local histories and travel writing plus family histories, images, and material culture I argue the Adirondacks have always been an indigenous homeland and suggest it was a region where many exchanges occurred. I have coined a new term to compliment the phrase hunting territory called "location of exchange" which I define as “a purposeful and occupied place where reciprocal acts occur, creating opportunities for entangled exchanges between people and the land”. My dissertation briefly explores pre-contact use of the Adirondacks as a place of resources and work and later as a place of refuge from colonization. I then focus on a violent period after the American Revolution between Euroamerican and especially Mohawk trappers. Abenaki and Mohawk hunters developed a strategy of cooperation and became “safe” Indians for incoming settlers and eventually tourists. I argue this period helped create the foundation for wilderness tourism in the Adirondacks. The rest of my thesis delves into the role of Native people as guides, entrepreneurs, and the marketing of their consumable culture during the wilderness tourism era. I look at the relationships between Aboriginal and rural people who worked and lived together; they left a legacy of a complicated people who borrowed from each other to enrich their lives. I also examine the interactions of both of these peoples with wealthy, urban tourists and argue that class and rural culture are important lenses to look at nineteenth century and later period contact history, especially as regions became more settled. I conclude that the history of Native people easily fits into the entire history of a place and should not end at contact as most North American histories do.
My dissertation is a social history of Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples in the Adirondacks of New York State, a bordered lands region that shares geography and history with parts of Canada. Using primary documents such as local histories and travel writing plus family histories, images, and material culture I argue the Adirondacks have always been an indigenous homeland and suggest it was a region where many exchanges occurred. I have coined a new term to compliment the phrase hunting territory called "location of exchange" which I define as “a purposeful and occupied place where reciprocal acts occur, creating opportunities for entangled exchanges between people and the land”. My dissertation briefly explores pre-contact use of the Adirondacks as a place of resources and work and later as a place of refuge from colonization. I then focus on a violent period after the American Revolution between Euroamerican and especially Mohawk trappers. Abenaki and Mohawk hunters developed a strategy of cooperation and became “safe” Indians for incoming settlers and eventually tourists. I argue this period helped create the foundation for wilderness tourism in the Adirondacks. The rest of my thesis delves into the role of Native people as guides, entrepreneurs, and the marketing of their consumable culture during the wilderness tourism era. I look at the relationships between Aboriginal and rural people who worked and lived together; they left a legacy of a complicated people who borrowed from each other to enrich their lives. I also examine the interactions of both of these peoples with wealthy, urban tourists and argue that class and rural culture are important lenses to look at nineteenth century and later period contact history, especially as regions became more settled. I conclude that the history of Native people easily fits into the entire history of a place and should not end at contact as most North American histories do.
| Current Institution | University of Toronto |
| Current School | Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) |
| Disciplines | |
| Geographical Focus | |
| Address | Toronto Ontario Canada Phone: |
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Education
University of Toronto
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
Ph.D.,
History in Education
(Sep 2006 - Jun 2013)
Carlow
MS,
Leadership and Training and Development
Work Experience
Course Instructor
University of Toronto
(Oct 2012 - Jan 2013)
HIS369: Aboriginal Peoples of the Great Lakes, 1600-1830
senior level, undergraduate course - took over for maternity leave.Duties: prepare and deliver lectures, prepare and facilitate learning exercises, review and approve primary source analysis, essay proposals and annotated bibliography, review and grade research essay and final exam. Experience creating online class on Blackboard discussion board and providing feedback to tie exercise into the larger class.
PhD Candidate in History in Education program - ABD / Graduate Assistant
University of Toronto - Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
(Sep 2006 - 2013)
Searched through dozens of archives in the Adirondacks, New York State, Vermont, and the National Archives of Canada for dissertation project. Research sources included early local histories, travel narratives, journal and newspaper articles and advertisements, maps, diaries, memoires, manuscripts, letters, personal and business records, pageant programs, examination of material culture, genealogical searches, interviews, legislation and policy records, and relevant secondary literature.
Online and Archival search for maps and statistical charts pertaining to electricity in Canada. Researched provincial and local historical associations, created and submitted advertisement to local historical journals for informants, created and used consistent correspondence for informants, acted as liaison and sent information to informants, and managed informant data in Excel sheet for project of Dr. Ruth Sandwell entitled “Heat, Light and Work in Canadian Household, 1900 – 1950”.
Researched, documented, and maintained Excel database of universities with History, History Education, and Public Education programs, as well as a separate database on professors and historians to be used for THEN/HiER website. Researched and compiled a bibliography of History Education article abstracts and wrote missing abstracts for THEN/HiER website.
Created annotated bibliography of relevant secondary sources and researched primary sources including Hudson’s Bay Company records on microfilm pertaining to project of Dr. Cecilia Morgan entitled “Travels of Nineteenth Century Native and ‘Country-Born’ / Métis people from British North America and Canada to Britain, Europe, and the United States”.
Achievements
- • University of Toronto Doctoral Completion Award (2010 – 2011) • University of Toronto Guaranteed Funding (2006 – 2010) • University of Toronto Research Travel Grant Awards (2007 – 2009)
General
Publication Summary
2013
- [Accepted] “Native Guides: Cultural Encounters on a Northeastern Frontier in the Nineteenth Century,” Social Science History Association Conference, Chicago, IL, November 21-24.
- [Submitted] “From at the Forest’s Edge to Working in the Woods: Iroquois Labor in the Adirondacks during the Long Nineteenth Century,” Conference on Iroquois Research, Cortland, NY, October 4-6.
2012
- “The pains bestowed and the labour required to make baskets – I thought it cruel ever to dispute the price,” American Society for Ethnohistory, Springfield, MO, November 7-10.
- “Enterprising Iroquois in the Nineteenth Century,” Conference on Iroquois Research, Cortland, NY, October 5-7.
- “Place of Refuge and Exchange: Algonquin and Iroquoian Occupation in the Adirondacks Before and After Contact,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Uncasville, CT, June 3-6.
- “Doing History,” panel focused on history methodology, OISE / University of Toronto, February 22.
2011
- “Reflecting on "Secret Lives, Affective Learning – Using Drama to Teach History,”The History Education Network / Histoire et Éducation en Réseau (THEN/HiER) website, November
- “Place of Violence and Refuge: the Adirondacks,” Conference on Iroquois Research, Cornwall, ON, September 30 – October 2.
- “Just a Hunting Territory? The Adirondacks,” Canadian Historical Association / Société historique du Canada Annual Meeting and Conference, Fredericton, NB, May – June.
2010
- Organized panel entitled “Colonizing the Authentic in North American History: Indigenous Experiences with Modernization in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries” – my paper’s title “I bought this at the Oneida’s: Native American Entrepreneurs in the Adirondacks,” American Society for Ethnohistory Conference “Creating Nations and Building States: Past and Present”, Ottawa, ON, October.
- Poster Session: “Iroquois at the Wood’s Edge: Iroquois in the Adirondacks,” Conference on Iroquois Research, Cornwall, ON, October.
- "Coughsachraga - The Dismal Wilderness or Place of Resources and Refuge?" Quelques Arpents de Neige, Environmental History Group Seminar, Ottawa, ON, May.
- “Our Collection on Native Americans is Limited,” OISE Graduate Student Conference, Toronto, ON, March.
2003
- “Meaningful Career Choices: Choosing Your Career Direction,” PennsylvaniaAssociation of Adult and Continuing Education Midwinter Conference, Hershey, PA.
2002
- “A Training Process That Turns Them On,” Expert Magazine.com, spring
2001
- “The Learning Environment,” ASTD Newsletter, Pittsburgh, PA.
Books
Other Publications
