INDIAN OCCUPATION - 19 (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) CHAPTER III. The Indian Occupation — The Eries — Their Destruction by the Five Nations — The Iroquois Confederacy — Lake Erie — Its Name and Derivation — The Huron or Wyandot Indians — Their Subjugation by the Five Nations — Other Tribes of this Region — Incidents Concerning Them — Their Final Removal. THE first nation of Indians concerning whom any reliable information is obtainable as having occupied the lands bordering on Lake Erie in this vicinity was the Eries, and they prior to their destruction by the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, occupied the greater part of the country on the south of the lake. From this tribe, or nation, the lake derives its name. The name, Erie, was always mentioned by the early French writers as meaning " Cat." On Sanson's map, published in 1651, Lake Erie is called "Lac du Chat," Lake of the Cat. There were certainly no domestic cats among the Indians until introduced by the whites, and the name must be attributed to the wild cat or 20 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY. panther. It may have been assumed by this tribe because its warriors thought themselves as ferocious as these animals, or it may have been assigned to them by their neighbors because of the abundance of wild cats and panthers in the territory occupied by the Eries. It is then first with this nation that we have to deal. The precise years in which these events occurred are uncertain, nor is it accurately known-whether the Eries or other tribes first felt the anger of the Five Nations (the Iroquois). According to early French writers, among these Indians there lived a tradition that runs somewhat as follows : The Eries had been jealous of the Iroquois from the time the latter formed their confederacy. - About the time-under consideration the Eries challenged their rivals to a grand game of ball, a hundred men on a side, for a heavy stake of furs and wampum. For two successive years the challenge was declined, but when it was again repeated it was accepted. The Eries were defeated, and then proposed a foot-race between ten of the fleetest young men on each side. Again the Iroquois were victorious. Still later the Eries proposed‘a wrestling match between ten champions on each side, the victor in each bout to have the privilege of knocking out his adversar-'s brains with his tomahawk. This challenge, too, was accepted, though, as the various Iroquois historians assert, with no intention of claiming the forfeit if successful. In the first bout the Iroquois wrestler threw his antagonist, but declined to play the part of executioner. The chief of the Eries, infuriated by his champion's defeat himself struck the unfortunate wrestler dead, as he lay supine where the victor had flung him. Another and another of the Eries was in the same way conquered by the Iroquois, and in the same way dispatched by the wrathful chief, until the Eries were thrown into a state of terrific excitement, and the leader of the confederates, fearing an outbreak, ordered his followers to take up their march home. But the jealousy and hatred of the Eries was still more inflamed by their defeat, and they soon laid a plan to surprise, and, if possible, destroy the Iroquois. In this they were foiled and terribly beaten in an open conflict. Afterwards a powerful body of the descendants of the Eries went from the west to attack the Iroquois, but were utterly defeated and slain. Such is the tradition. It is a very nice story for the Iroquois. None of these scenes was enacted in this region, but in the far eastern country occupied by the Eries ; and as the possessors of the soil hereabouts were engaged actively in that series of events, it is here related. The time of the destruction of the Eries by the Iroquois is somewhat uncertain, but from all authorities it may be placed at about 1655. It was certainly later than 1645, and earlier than 1660. This fierce Iroquois nation possessed the soil of this region for a few years after the subjugation of the Eries, but as their possessions were so vast, and they were engaged in a terrible warfare with tie Delawares,-soon after they INDIAN OCCUPATION - 21 withdrew from its actual occupation, still, however, exercising authority and acts of ownership until their treaty with the whites extinguished their claim to title. A word or two will suffice to describe these temporary possessors of the soil of Erie county, who have been variously known as the Five and subsequently as the Six Nations and as the Iroquois Confederacy. It should be said that the name "Iroquois" was never applied by the confederates to themselves. It was first used by the French, and its meaning is veiled in obscurity. The men of the Five Nations (afterwards the Six Nations) called themselves "Hedonosaunee," which means literally, "They form a cabin"; describing in this expressive manner the close union existing among them. The Indian name just quoted is more liberally and commonly rendered "The People of the Long House ;" which is more fully descriptive of the confederacy, though not quite so accurate a translation. The tribes comprising the Five Nations were the Mohawks, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas and Senecas. During one of their warlike excursions to the Carolinas they were assisted by the Tuscaroras in overpowering the Powhattans. At a later period the Tuscaroras were overcome by the Powhattans and whites and driven out of the country. They came north and were taken into the confederacy, whereupon the Five Nations became the Six Nations. The best authority regarding the name of the first Indian occupants of this region is the work of the Jesuit priest, Father Louis Hennepin, published about the year 1684, in which he says : "These good fathers were great friends of the Hurons, who told them that the Iroquois went to war beyond Virginia, or New .Sweden, near a lake which they called Erige,' or Erie,' which signifies 'the cat,' or 'nation of the cat;' and because these savages brought captives from the nation of the cat in returning to their cantons along this lake, the Hurons named it, in their language, Erige,' or Ericke,"the lake of the cat,' and which our Canadians, in softening the word, have called 'Lake Erie.'" Another French writer, Charlevoix, says respecting the lake : "The name it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron (Wyandot) language, which was formerly seated on its banks, and who have been entirely destroyed by the Iroquois. Erie, in that language, signifies cat, and in some accounts, this nation is called the Cat Nation. This name probably comes from the large number of those animals formerly found in this country."—Howe's Hist. Col. From this it is inferred that the Hurons were the successors to the soil of this region under sufferance of the Iroquois Confederacy. Charlevoix credits the Hurons, or Wyandots, for they were the same people, with speaking the same language as the Eries. This would seem to confirm the theory advanced by some writers of note that a remnant of the unfortunate Eries, some years after their subjugation, returned and possessed the soil of their fathers, 22 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY although unwilling to assert their relationship to the Eries through fear of another visitation of the vengeance of the dreaded Iroquois. But the Hurons, too, fell victims to the merciless attacks of these fierce confederates, for, says Johnson : " After the overthrow of the Kahquahs and Eries the Iroquois went forth-conquering and to conquer. This was probably the day of their greatest glory. Stimulated but not yet crushed by contact with man, they stayed the progress of the French into their territories, they negotiated on equal terms with the Dutch and English, and, having supplied themselves with the terrible arms of the pale-faces, they smote with direst vengeance whomsoever of their own race were so unfortunate as to provoke their wrath. " On the Susquehanna, on the Alleghany, on the Ohio, even to the Mississippi in the west and the Savannah in the south, the Iroquois bore their conquering arms, filling with terror the dwellers aliketon the plains of Illinois and in the glades of Carolina. They strode over the bones of the slaughtered Kahquahs and Eries to new conquests on the lakes beyond, even to the foaming cascades of Michillimacinac, and the shores of the mighty Superior. They, inflicted such terrible defeat upon the Hurons, despite the alliance of the latter with the French, that many of the conquered nation sought safety on the frozen borders of Hudson's Bay. In short, they triumphed on every side, save only where the white man came, and even he was for a time held at bay by these fierce confederates." The seat of government of the Erie Indians was in the western part of New York State, but their possessions extended westward along the lake even to this region and beyond it on the west. With the Hurons or Wyandots their relations were entirely friendly and they spoke the same language. The Hurons occupied, in their time, this locality, both on the east and west, in the latter direction their lands extended to Lake Huron, and from them that body of water derives its name. The name " Wyandot " is applied to a branch of this family or people, as it was a custom followed for hundreds of years to give the scattered branches of the parent tribe some name suitable to the locality in which they chanced to dwell. The name Huron was applied to this people by the French, but its signification is unknown. The Ottawas, also, were a tribe of Indians that used to visit this locality, but their main seat of residence was on the Maumee. The "Ottawa," is an Indian word meaning " trader." Occasionally there comes information that other tribes have been represented in this vicinity, and frequently some chief of prominence in the wars made a visit here. The Shawnees were one of these. They came from the country of the Susquehanna River of Pennsylvania, having been compelled to FRENCH DOMINION - 23 leave that region by the sale of the lands to the proprietaries of that province y the Five Nation Indians. The Shawnees were formerly allied to the Delawares, and with the latter were beaten by the Iroquois in their greatest devastating and conquering excursion. They (the Shawnees) are supposed to have been of Southern origin. They spoke the Algonquin language. Some of these Indians :figured in the early wars, but their depredations were confined to the localities where white settlement had made an advance. Therefore we can furnish to the reader none of the blood-curdling incidents or tales of horror as having occurred within the boundaries of Erie county, Yet, in a general way, as a part of the history of this region, some reference will be made to the early battles in Northwestern Ohio. The last treaty with the Indians by which their title to lands in Ohio was extinguished was made in the year 1829, and soon thereafter their removal was commenced under the authority and direction of the general government. It was nearly ten years later, however, before the last remnant of the tribes was removed.