Caughnawaga is a former

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in then Tryon County, later

Montgomery County, New York Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 49,532. The county seat is Fonda. The county was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, an American Revolutionary War general killed in 1 ...

, United States. Caughnawaga is believed to be a

Mohawk language Mohawk () or (' anguageof the Flint Place') is an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian language currently spoken by around 3,500 people of the Mohawk people, Mohawk nation, located primarily in current or former Haudenosaunee territories, predomin ...

word meaning "at the rapids", referring to the site along the Mohawk River. It was the name of a Mohawk village nearby that was occupied from 1666 to 1693, when it was destroyed by French colonists. Today the Caughnawaga Indian Village Site is a state-recognized

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

. French Jesuits established a mission there, which operated for about 10 years ranging from 1668 to 1679; they taught some of the Mohawk to read and write in French, as well as teaching them about Christianity (Roman Catholicism). Scholars believe that the village known as "Caughnawaga" was first located upstream until 1679 at what is now known as the "Fox Farm site". The French attacked the site in retaliation for other deaths, and the Mohawk moved it to this location. Archeologist Dean Snow gives a population estimate of around 300 people, fewer than had lived at the Fox Farm site due to the departure of converted Catholic Mohawk to Canada by 1679. The French and other European settlers began to apply the term Caughnawaga to the mostly Mohawk people who lived in the area of the

Lachine Rapids The Lachine Rapids () are a series of rapids on the Saint Lawrence River, between the Island of Montreal and the South Shore. They are confusingly located near the borough of Lasalle and not Lachine. The Lachine Rapids contain large standi ...

on the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

. They were also called the "Praying Indians", as they were Mohawk who had converted to Roman Catholicism, under the influence of Jesuit French missionaries. Numerous Mohawk were still living in this area at the time when the Dutch colonists formed an early settlement in what is now the eastern part of the village of Fonda, New York and called it Caughnawaga. Before 1788, the British and later Americans had classified all land in the county north and south of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson R ...

as the district or town of Mohawk. In 1788, the land north of the river became organized as the Town of Caughnawaga, named after the Dutch settlement. After the Town of Caughnawaga was divided in 1793, it no longer existed in name. The town of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, along with the Fulton County towns of Broadalbin, Johnstown, and Mayfield were created from the former territory of Caughnawaga.

References

{{coord, 42.9499, -74.3929, type:city_globe:earth_region:US-NY, display=title Former towns in New York (state) 1788 establishments in New York (state) Montgomery County, New York