Since the late 19th century, a Catholic tradition developed associating Auriesville with the site of the Mohawk village Ossernenon, where Jesuit missionaries were martyred in 1642 and 1646.

But, according to Dean R. Snow and other late 20th-century archeologists specializing in Native American history, Ossernenon was located about 9 mi (14 km) west on a tributary on the south side of the Mohawk River.

It is disproved by archeological evidence discovered by Snow, Donald A. Rumrill, and other 20th-century archeologists who assert that Ossernenon was located approximately nine miles west of Auriesville on a tributary south of the Mohawk River.

[3] The Jesuits in Nouvelle France (Canada) later developed a mission village known as Caughnawaga and spelled as Kahnawake, reflecting Mohawk pronunciation.

After several months, Jogues was ransomed by Dutch traders from Fort Orange (Albany), with the aid of Protestant minister Johannes Megapolensis, who had good relations with the Mohawk.

In late September 1646, he set out for Ossernenon on a peace mission to the Mohawk with Lalande, a young Jesuit lay brother.

[8] From 1655 to 1658, Father Simon Le Moyne reported traveling a number of times to Ossernenon from Quebec as an ambassador to negotiate peace with the Mohawk.

[3] In 1666, the Marquis de Tracy conducted a punitive expedition against the Mohawk, destroying Ossernenon and their two other villages on the south side of the river.

Father Boniface, James de Lamberville, Jacques Frémin, Bruyas, Jean Pierron and others laboured here until 1684, when the Mohawk destroyed the mission.

The exact location of Ossernenon, closely associated with the founding of Catholicism in present-day New York, was debated by scholars.

As noted above, based on extensive archeological work and analysis of historic documents, late 20th-century ethnohistorians and archeologists disagree with this conclusion.

They have established that Ossernenon was located nine miles west of Auriesville at what they call the Bauder site, also on a tributary of the Mohawk river.

A student of the lives of the early missionaries, Loyzance erected a small shrine under the title of Our Lady of Martyrs.

While in the 19th century Ossernenon was associated with Auriesville, twentieth-century research has placed it approximately nine miles west of the current hamlet by that name.