Prior to European settlement, the land occupied by present-day Hope was within the territory of the Mohawk tribe, the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy and one of the original "Five Nations" which founded the confederacy sometime around 1450 [REF].
] Hope was first permanently settled in 1790 near the current south town line by Gideon and Jeremiah Homestead, who arrived from Massachusetts [REF].