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Erie (tribe)

The Erie (also Erieehronon, Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were an Iroquoian pre- and early-historic group of Native Americans, who lived from western New York to northern Ohio on the south shore of Lake Erie. They were ultimately destroyed by the Iroquois, who adopted some of the survivors into their own group, these being primarily absorbed into the Senecas.

The names "Erie" and "Eriez" are shortened forms of "Erielhonan," meaning "long tail." The Erielhonan were also called the "Cat" or the "Raccoon" people. They lived in multi-family long houses in villages enclosed in palisades and grew the "Three Sisters"—corn, beans, and squash—during the warm season. In the winter tribal members lived off the stored crops and animals taken in hunts.

History

In the competition in the fur trade, the Erie alienated the surrounding tribes by encroaching on their territories. They also angered their eastern neighbors, the League of the Iroquois, by accepting refugees from Huron villages that had been destroyed by the Iroquois. Though rumored to use poison tipped arrows (Jesuit Relations 41:43, 1655-58 chap. XI), the Erie were disadvantaged in armed conflict by having few firearms (If the Erie tribe used poison on their arrows, it would make them the only tribe in North America to do so.) Beginning in the mid-1650s, the Erie and other tribes were in battle with their enemies, the Iroquois. As a result of this war, the tribe no longer existed as a unit, but dispersed groups survived a few more decades before being absorbed into the Iroquois. Anthropologist Marvin T. Smith (1987:131–32) has theorized that some Erie fled to Virginia and then South Carolina, where they became known as the Westo. Some were said to flee to Canada. Members of other tribes claimed later to be descended from refugees of this defunct culture. There are members of the Seneca people in Oklahoma and Kansas who claim to be descended from the Erie nation.

The Erie had little contact with Europeans. Only the Dutch fur traders from Fort Orange, now Albany, New York and during the Beaver Wars, Jesuit missionaries in Canada, made contact. What little is known about them historically is derived from legends, archaeology, and comparisons with other Iroquoian people.