The aboriginal tribes that are known to have inhabited this region, together with the entire country in Ohio lying to the south of Lake Erie, belonged to one or the other of two great families of Indians: the Algonkin, or Huron–Iroquois. The tribes which may be named as having been at one time or another dwellers upon the soil of what is known as the Western Reserve, are:

Of the Huron-Iroquois family: The Eries, followed by the Iroquois proper, or the six nations—the Mohawks, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Senecas and the Tuscarawas—and the Hurons proper, or the Wyandots. Of the Algonkin family: The Delawares, the Shawnees, the Ottawas, the Miamis, the Chippewas, the Pottawattomies and the Sickapoos.

The Eries are the only red men, who as a complete tribe have inhabited the region bordering the southern shore of the lake that bears their name. They were known to the first French explorers and discoverers of the great west, and by them were called the Felians or the Cat nation. Why they received this name is not known, except it was that through the forests in which they dwelt there prowled great numbers of the animal known as wild cats. They have given to the lake near which they dwelt the name that designated their tribe. More than this, we do not know aught of this strange people, except the interesting information which the traditions of other tribes furnish us in regard to their overthrow and complete destruction. These traditions come from their conquerors, the fierce and powerful Iroquois, and by them we are assured that the account is accurate and trustworthy. We give herewith the narrative as taken from the lips of Black Snake and other venerable chiefs of the Senecas and Tonawandas, and published in the Buffalo Commercial of July, 1845. That paper says:

"Near the mission-house, on the reservation adjoining the city of Buffalo, can be seen a small mound, evidently artificial, that is said to contain the remains of the unfortunate Eries, slain in their last great battle. The 1ndians hereabouts believe that a small remnant of the Erie, still exist beyond the Mississippi. The small tribe known as the Qwapaws, in that region, are also believed to be the remains of the Kaukwas, the allies of the Eries."

This sanguinary conflict is supposed to have taken place a few years prior to the year 1700.

The Eries were the most powerful and warlike of all the Indian tribes. They resided south of the great lake (Erie), at the foot of which stands the city of Buffalo, the Indian name for which was Tu-shu-way.

When the Eries heard of the confederation which was formed between the Mohawks, who resided in the valley of that name, the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, who lived, for the most part, upon the shores and the outlets of the lakes bearing respectively their names (called by the French the Iroquois nation), they imagined it must be for some mischievous purpose.

Although confident of their superiority over any one of the tribes inhabiting the countries within the bounds of their knowledge, they dreaded the power of such combined forces.

In order to satisfy themselves in regard to the character, disposition, and power of those they considered their mutual enemies, the Eries resorted to the following means: They sent a friendly message to the Senecas, who were their nearest neighbors, inviting them to select one hundred of their most active, athletic young men to play a game of ball against the

same number to be selected by the Eries, for a wager which should be considered worthy the occasion and the character of the great nation in whose behalf the offer was made.

The message was received and entertained in the most respectful manner. A council of the "Five Nations" was called, and the proposition fully discussed, and a messenger in due time dispatched with the decision of the council, respectfully declining the challenge. This emboldened the Eries, and the next year the offer was renewed, and, after being again considered was again formally declined. This was far from satisfying the proud lords of the great lake, and the challenge was renewed the third time.

The blood of the young Iroquois could no longer be restrained. They importuned the old men to allow them to accept the challenge. The wise counsels which had hitherto prevailed at last gave way, and the challenge was accepted.

Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which each tribe sent forth its chosen champions for the contest. The only difficulty seemed to be to make a selection where all seemed so worthy. After much delay one hundred of the flower of all the tribes were finally designated, and the day of their departure was fixed. An experienced chief was chosen as the leader of the party, whose orders the young men were strictly enjoined to obey. A grand council was called, and in the presence of the assembled multitude the party was charged in the most solemn manner to observe a pacific course of conduct towards their competitors and the nation whose guests they were to become, and to allow no provocation, however great, to be resented by any act of aggression on their part, but in all respects to acquit themselves worthy the representatives of a and great powerful people, anxious to cultivate peace and friendship with all their neighbors. Under these solemn injunctions the party took up its line of march for Tu-shu-way. When the chosen band had arrived in the vicinity of the point of their destination, a messenger was sent forward to notify the Eries of their arrival, and the next day was set apart for their grand entree.

The elegant and athletic forms; the tasteful, yet not cumbrous, dress; the dignified, noble bearing of the chief, and, more than all, the modest demeanor of the young warriors of the Iroquois party, won the admiration of all beholders. They brought no arms; each one bore a bat, used to throw or strike a ball, tastefully ornamented, being a hickory stick about five feet long, bent over at the end, and a thong netting wove into the bow. After a day of repose and refreshment, all things were arranged for the contest. The chief of the Iroquois brought forward and deposited upon the ground a large pile of elegantly wrought belts of wampum, costly jewels, silver bands, beautifully ornamented moccasins, and other articles of great value in the eyes of the sons of the forest, as the stake or wager on the part of his people. These were carefully matched by the Eries, with articles of equal value, article with article tied together and again deposited on the pile.

The game began, and, although contested with desperation and great skill by the Eries, was won by the Iroquois, who bore off the prize in triumph. Thus ended the first day.

The Iroquois having now accomplished the object of their visit, proposed to take their leave, but the chief of the Eries, addressing himself to their leaders, said their young men, though fairly beaten in the game of ball, would not be satisfied unless they could have a foot-race, and proposed to match ten of their number against an equal number of the Iroquois party, which was assented to, and the Iroquois were again victorious.

The Kaukwas who resided on Eighteen-Mile creek, being present as the friends and allies of the Eries, now invited the Iroquois party to visit them before they returned home, and thither the whole party repaired. The chief of the Epics, as a last trial of the courage and prowess of his guests, proposed to select ten men, to be matched with an equal number of the Iroquois party, to wrestle, and that the victor should dispatch his adversary on the spot by braining him with a tomahawk and bearing off his scalp as a trophy. This sanguinary proposition was not at all pleasing to the Iroquois; they, however, concluded to accept the challenge ; with the determination, should they be victorious, not to execute the bloody part of the proposition. The champions were accordingly chosen. A Seneca was the first to step into the ring, and threw his adversary, amid the shouts of the multitude. He stepped back and declined to execute his victim, who lay passive at his feet. As quick as thought the chief of the Fries seized the tomahawk, and, at a single blow, scattered the brains of his vanquished warrior over the ground. His body was dragged away, and another champion of the Eries presented himself. He was quickly thrown by his more powerful antagonist of the Iroquois party and as quickly dispatched by the infuriated chief. A third met the same fate.

The chief of the Iroquois party, seeing the terrible excitement which agitated the multitude, gave a signal to retreat. Every man obeyed the signal, and in an instant they were out of sight. In two hours they arrived at Tic-sku-way, gathered up the trophies of their victories, and were on their way home.

This visit of the hundred warriors of the Five Nations and its results only served to increase the jealousy of the Eries, and to convince them that they had powerful rivals to contend with. It was no part of their policy to cultivate friendship, and strengthen their own power by cultivating peace with other tribes. They knew no way of securing peace to themselves but by exterminating all who might oppose them. But the combination of several powerful tribes, any of whom might be almost an equal match for them, and of whose personal prowess they had seen such an exhibition, inspired the Eries with the most anxious

forebodings. To cope with them collectively they saw was impossible. Their only hope, therefore, was in being able by a vigorous and sudden movement to destroy them in detail. With this view a powerful party was immediately organized to attack the Senecas who resided at the foot of Seneca lake (the present site of Geneva), and along the banks of Seneca river. It happened that at this period there resided among the Eries a Seneca woman, who in early life had been taken prisoner, and had married a husband of the Erie tribe. He died and left her a widow without children, a stranger among strangers. Hearing the terrible note of preparation for a bloody onslaught upon her kindred and friends, she formed the resolution of apprising them of their danger. As soon as night set in, taking the course of the Niagara river, she traveled all night and early next morning reached the shore of Lake Ontario. She jumped in a canoe, which she found fastened to a tree, and boldly pushed into the open lake. Coasting down the lake, she arrived at the mouth of the Oswego river in the night, where a large settlement of the nation resided. She directed her steps to the house of the head chief, and disclosed the object of her journey. She was secreted by the chief, and runners were drspatched to all the tribes, summoning them immediately to meet in council, which was held in Onondaga Hollow.

When all were convened the chief arose, and, in the most solemn manner, rehearsed a vision, in which he said that a beautiful bird appeared to him and told him that a great party of the Eries was preparing to make a secret and sudden descent upon them to destroy them, and that nothing could save them but an immediate rally of all the warriors of the Five Nations, to meet the enemy before they should be able to strike the blow. These solemn announcements were heard in breathless silence. When the chief had finished and sat down, there arose one immense yell of menacing madness. The earth shook when the mighty mass brandished high in the air their war-clubs, and stamped the ground like furious beasts.

No time was lost. A body of five thousand warriors was organized, and a corps a reserve, consisting of one thousand young men who had never been in battle. The bravest chiefs of all the tribes were put in command, and spies immediately sent out in search of the enemy, the whole body taking up their line of march in the direction whence they expected the attack.

The advance of the party was continued several days, passing through, successively, the settlement of their friends, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas; but they had scarcely passed the last wig-wam, now the fort of Ca-an-du-qua (Canandaigua) lake, when the scouts brought in intelligence of the advance of the Eries, who had already crossed the Ce-nis-se-u (Genesee) river in great force. The Eries had not the slightest intimation of the approach of their enemies. They relied on the secrecy and celerity of their movements to surprise and subdue the Senecas almost without resistance.

The two parties met at a point about half-way between the foot of Canandaigua lake, on the Genesee river, and near the outlet of two small lakes, near the foot of one of which (Honeoye) the battle was fought. When the two parties came in sight of each other the outlet of the lake only intervened between them.

The entire force of the five confederate tribes was not in view of the Eries. The reserve corps of one thousand young men had not been allowed to advance in sight of the enemy. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of the Eries at the first sight of an opposing force on the other side of the stream. They rushed through it and fell upon them with tremendous fury. The undaunted courage and determined bravery of the Iroquois could not avail against such a terrible onslaught, and they were compelled to yield the ground on the bend of the stream. The whole force of the combined tribes, except the corps of the reserve, now became engaged. They fought hand to hand and foot to foot. The battle raged horribly. No quarter was asked or given on either side.

As the fight thickened and became more desperate, the Eries, for the first time, became sensible of their true situation. What they had long anticipated had become a fearful reality. Their enemies had combined for their destruction, and they now found themselves engaged, suddenly and unexpectedly, in a struggle not only involving the glory, but perhaps the very existence of their nation. They were proud, and had hitherto been victorious over all their enemies. Their superiority was felt and acknowledged by all the tribes. They knew how to conquer, but not to yield. All these considerations flashed upon the minds of the bold Eries, and nerved every arm with almost sillier- human power. On the other hand, the united forces of the weaker tribes, now made strong by union, fired with a spirit of emulation, excited to the highest pitch among the warriors of the different tribes, brought for the first time to act in concert, inspired with zeal and confidence by the counsels of the wisest chiefs, and led by the most experienced warriors of all the tribes, the Iroquois were invincible.

Though staggered by the first desperate rush of their opponents they rallied at once, and stood their ground. And now the din of battle rises higher; the war-club, the tomahawk, the scalping-knife, wielded by herculean hands, do terrible deeds of death. During the hottest of the battle, which was fierce and long, the corps of reserve, consisting of a thousand young men, were, by a skillful movement under their experienced chief, placed in the rear of the Eries, on the opposite side of the stream in ambush.

The Eries had been driven seven times across the stream, and had as often regained their ground; but the eighth time, at a given signal from their chief, the corps of young warriors in ambush rushed upon the almost exhausted Eries with a tremendous yell, and at once decided the fortunes of the day. Hun-

dreds, disdaining to fly, were struck down by the war-clubs of the vigorous young warriors, whose thirst for the blood of the enemy knew no bounds. A few of the vanquished Eries escaped to carry the news of the terrible overthrow to their wives and children and old men that remained at home. But the victors did not allow them a moment's repose, but pursued them in their flight, killing all who fell into their hands.

The pursuit was continued for many weeks, and it was five months before the victorious party of the Five Nations returned to their friends to join in celebrating the victory over their last and most powerful enemy—the Eries.

Tradition adds that many years after a powerful war-party of the descendants of the Eries came from beyond the Mississippi, ascended the Ohio, crossed the country, and attacked the Senecas, who had settled in the seat of their fathers at Tu-shu-way. A great battle was fought near the site of the Indian mission-house in which the Eries were again defeated, and slain to a man. Their bones lie bleaching in the sun to the present day,—a monument at once of the indomitable courage of the terrible Eries and of their brave conquerors, the Senecas.

After their conquest, the Five Nations became the undisputed owners, if not the actual occupants, of the soil bordering the southern shore of Lake Erie. They carried their incursions into the far west, and became sovereigns of an almost boundless territory. For many years succeeding the subjugation of the Eries this region was known as the hunting-ground of the powerful Iroquois. The Senecas which were the westernmost tribe of the Five Nations were oftener the occupants of the territory than any other tribe. The rivalry between the French and English for title to American soil involved the Indians in innumerable wars, resulting in great decimation of their numbers. This struggle for rivalry ceased in 1763 with the treaty of Paris, when England came into the possession of France's title to the great west. From this time to the close of the Revolutionary struggle the Iroquois retained possession of the forests of Northern Ohio. In 1780 the number of the Iroquois warriors inhabiting what now is the Reserve could not have exceeded two hundred.

The peninsula enclosed between lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, had been the dwelling-place of the original Hurons. After their defeat by the Five Nations they became widely scattered, some descending the St. Lawrence, where, in the region of Quebec, their descendants are yet to be seen; a part were adopted into the tribes of their conquerors; others fled beyond Lake Superior and hid themselves in the wilderness that divided the Chippewas from their western foes, while scattered hands took refuge in the forests of Northern Ohio. They were probably more familiarly known to the pioneers of this region than any other tribe of Indians.

The Algonkins, two hundred years ago, were by far the most numerous family of American Indians, and their domain reaching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river was the greatest in extent. The historian, Bancroft, fixes their number two centuries ago at ninety thousand, while the Iroquois family are thought not to have exceeded seventeen thousand. A hundred years ago a number of their tribes were quite numerously represented on the soil of what is now Northern Ohio. The greatest number of these red men belonged to the Delaware, the Chippewa, and the Ottawa tribes, although remnants of the Shawnees, the Pottawatomies, the Miamis, and the Kickapoos were likewise present. In the wars between the Indians and the pioneer settlers of Ohio, preceding the treaties of Fort McIntosh (1785), of Fort Harmar (1789), of Fort Greenville (1795), and of Fort Industry, (1805), the red men were completely subdued, and thereafter this region, instead of being the permanent dwelling-place of one or more tribes of Indians, came to be temporarily the common hunting-ground of many tribes. Seeking permanent homes in the remoter west, they returned here during the hunting seasons to renew the sports of the chase and roam through the pleasant forests where lay buried the dead of their forefathers. Such was the condition, for the most part, of the red men of this locality when first came hither the white settler.

DATE OF

TREATY

WHERE MADE, AND BY WHOM

SUMMARY OF THE GRANTS

1713

1726

1744

1752

1763

Utrecht. England, France and other European powers.

Albany, New York. Iroquois and the English.

Lancaster, Pa. Same parties as above.

At Logstown, on the Ohio. Same parties as above and western 1ndians.

Paris. England and Portugal on the one side, and France and Spain on the other.

France cedes to England Bay of Hudson and its borders, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

All the claims of the Six Nations to lands west of Lake Erie, including a strip sixty miles wide along the shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie from Oswego river to the Cuyahoga.

All the lands of the Iroquois that are or hereafter may be within the colony of Virginia.

Confirm the treaty of Lancaster, and consent to settlements south of the Ohio river.

France cedes to England islands in the West Indies; the Floridas; the eastern half of the valley of the Mississippi; all Canada; Acadia; and Cape Breton and its independent islands.

1783

1784

1785

1786

1789

1795

1796

1805

1807

Paris. England and the United States.

Fort Stanwix, New York. The Iroquois and the United States.

Fort McIntosh, at the mouth of Big Beaver. The United States and the Chippewas, Delawares, Ottawas, and Wyandots.

Fort Finney, near the mouth of the Great Miami. The United States and the Shawnees.

At Fort Harman The Iroquois and western tribes and the United States.

At Fort Greenville. United States with twelve tribes,—Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias.

At Buffalo. The Senecas and the Connecticut Land Company.

At Fort Industry, on the Maumee. The United States and Western Tribes.

At Detroit. The United States and Western Tribes.

England cedes to the United States the territory in North America lying south of the chain of lakes and east of the Mississippi.

The Iroquois cede to the United States all their claims west of Pennsylvania.

The Indians cede all their claims east and south of the Cuyahoga, and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens (Bolivar); thence to Laramie's Fort (northwest part of Shelby county); thence along the Portage path to the St. Mary's river, and down it to the Omee or Maumee river and the lake shore to the Cuyahoga.

These 1ndians did not own the land occupied by them on the Scioto, and are allotted a tract on the heads of the two Miamis and the Wabash, west of the Chippewas, Delawares, and Wyandots.

Treaty of Fort Stanwix confirmed by the Iroquois. Treaty of Fort McIntosh confirmed by the western tribes,—the Sauks and Pottawattomies assenting.

Boundary of Fort McIntosh and Fort Harmer confirmed, and extended to Fort Recovery nd the mouth of the Kentucky river.

The Senecas, represented by Brant, cede the Connecticut Land Company their rights east of the Cuyahoga.

The Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Munsees, and Pottawattomies relinquish all lands west of the Cuyahoga as far west as the west

line of the Western Reserve, and south of the line from Fort Laurens to Laramie's fort.

The Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandots and Pottawattomies cede all that part of Ohio north of the Maumee river, with part of Michigan.

1808

1815

1817

1818

Brownstown, Michigan.

Springwells, near Detroit.

At the rapids of the Maumee

At St Mary's

The same parties and the Shawnees grant a tract two miles wide, from the west line of the Reserve to the rapids of the Maumee, for the purpose of a road through the Black swamp.

The Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, Wyandots, Delawares, Senecas, Shawnees, and Miamis, who had engaged on the British side in the War of 1812, confirm the treaties of Fort McIntosh and Greenville.

The Wyandots cede their lands west of the line of 1805, as far as Laramie's and the St. Mary's river and north of the Maumee.

The Miamis surrender the remaining 1ndian territory in the north of the Greenville line, and west of the St. Mary's river.