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Melissa Otis was born and raised in the Adirondacks of northern New York State. She received her BA in American history and Canadian studies from SUNY Plattsburgh and then left the region to pursue professional employment. After many years of working in private industry and government, Melissa quit her job to obtain her PhD.
Receiving her doctorate from the University of Toronto in 2013 in History in Education, Melissa thereafter completed a two–year postdoctoral fellowship at Carleton University in Ottawa with the Institute for the Comparative Studies of Literature, Art, and Culture where she taught in the history and Indigenous Studies departments. Melissa and her husband returned to the Adirondacks near Lake Champlain in 2017.
Her book called Rural Indigenousness: A History of Iroquoian and Algonquian Peoples of the Adirondacks, was published by Syracuse University Press in December of 2018. As well, she has written several peer-reviewed articles that have been published in scholarly journals. Melissa has contributed to the history community by writing book reviews, acting as a peer reviewer for scholarly articles, and participating in conferences as a speaker and panel member. In addition, she gives talks about the history of Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples in the Adirondacks throughout the region on a regular basis and has participated on local community boards.
Since moving back to the Adirondacks, Melissa has done consulting work for local museums, camps, and nonprofit organizations, including assisting with writing meaningful land acknowledgement statements. In addition, she worked with international students in the English as Second Language program at SUNY Plattsburgh in 2022. Melissa also worked with the Adirondack Land Trust to help inform their decision-making as they considered Indigenous ownership and stewardship with regards to the lands they own and manage. More recently, she spent six months in 2024 researching two of the Land Trust’s properties for their cultural due diligence efforts.
Over the COVID pandemic, Melissa turned her attention to writing fiction and is enjoying the creative process. Writing fiction is something she’s wanted to do since her pre-teenage years. Melissa has written a women’s upmarket fiction story with the working title of Embracing the Skies which she is polishing for querying in the near future. She also has an historical fiction story outlined and is eager to start on it.
Melissa can be reached at motis1031@protonmail.com.