Deck Builder in Tivoli, NY

For thousands of years, indigenous peoples had lived in this area. The historic Mohican Native American tribe was living in the area now known as Tivoli at the time Dutch colonists arrived in the 1600s. The Mohican derive from Lenni Lenape people who moved North from the coastal areas and settled in today’s Hudson Valley. They lived along the Hudson River which they named Mahicannituck. They originally called themselves the Muh-he-con-neok (The People of the Waters That Are Never Still). Based on their location, they were often referred to as the River Indians. Their name evolved in spelling over the years, including the name “Mahikan”, until it became today’s Mohican.

A deed to land purchased by Robert Livingston from several Mahican Indians in July 1683, is the strongest evidence that the Roeliff Jansen Kill is considered to mark the downriver boundary of Mahican territory on the East side of the Hudson Valley. This land purchased would form the majority of the manor and lordship of Livingston. Historical accounts state that the settled land of Tivoli was purchased from Native American communities “legitimately” by Colonel David Schuyler on June 2, 1688, although no records of this transaction exist today. There is speculation as to whether or not the Mohican Tribe “fully understood European notions of land ownership.” This transaction would have been a trade of goods in exchange for land. This deal was part of the Schuyler Patent, a June 1688 patent defining some of the towns and villages in Dutchess County and the Poughkeepsie regional area. The patent was obtained for land in the far North-West corner of Dutchess County, lying to the East of Magdalen Island (present-day Cruger Island). The North boundary of the patent abutted the Livingston Purchase of 1683.

The village was formerly known as “Upper Red Hook Landing”. An adjacent community, “Madalin”, was contiguous to Upper Red Hook Landing.