The 19th-century historians Howell and Munsell mistakenly identified Conistigione as an Indian tribe, but they were a band of Mohawk people known by the term for this location.

He ensured that the Mohawk retained the rights of hunting and fishing on lands they deeded to the Dutch and other whites.

He was reported to have said that "after the whites had taken possession of our lands, they will make Kaut-sore [literally spoon-food or soup] of our bodies."

[4] The first European settlers of the town were Dutch colonists who chose to locate outside the manor of Rensselaerwyck to avoid the oversight of the patroons and the trading government of New Netherland.

[5] The traders of Fort Orange retained their monopoly, forbidding the settlers in the Schenectady area from fur trading.

[citation needed] After World War II, the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory was opened in 1946 in Niskayuna, under a contract between General Electric and the US government.

In 1973, the General Electric Engineering Development Center moved from downtown Schenectady to River Road in Niskayuna.

The northern and eastern town lines are defined by the Mohawk River with Saratoga County, New York, on the opposite bank.

[9] As of the census[12] of 2020, there were 23,278 people, 7,285 single family homes,1,415 apartments, and a small number of town houses and condominiums.

The Town has many residents who commute about fifteen miles to work in Albany, the capital of New York State.

[citation needed] Since 1980, the annual community holiday "Niska-Day" (or Nisky-Day) is traditionally celebrated on the first Saturday after the third Friday in May.

[16] Herman Melville, in his novel Moby Dick, refers to a sailor on the ship Jeroboam who, according to a story relayed by Stubb, the second mate on the Pequod, "had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of Neskyeuna Shakers, where he had been a great prophet.” Niskayuna appears in a driving montage in The Simpsons episode "D'oh Canada.