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.
Elements of Erie shown in the general area of the Upper Ohio Valley. Clip from John Senex map ca 1710 showing the people Captain Vielle passed (1692-94) by to arrive in Chaouenon's country as the French Jesuit called the Shawnee.
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.)[1] 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.
Language
The Erie spoke an Iroquoian language said to have been similar to Wyandot. [(Hodge[2], John R. Swanton[3])][4]
↑ Tooker 1978 and Snyderman 1948, doubts poisoned arrows. "Iroquois Wars: Extracts from the Jesuit Relations and Primary Sources" Page 11 By Anthony P. Schiavo, Claudio R. Salvucci ISBN 188975837X
↑ Erie (Huron: y?ñresh, 'it is long-tailed', referring to the eastern puma or panther; Tuscarora, k?n'räks, 'lion', a modern use, Gallicised into Eri and Ri, whence the locatives Eri'e, and Riqué, 'at the place of the panther', are derived. Compare the forms Erieehronon, Eriechronon, and Riquéronon of the Jesuit Relations, signifying 'people of the panther'. It is probable that in Iroquois the puma and the wild-cat originally had generically the same name and that the defining term has remained as the name of the puma or panther). A populous sedentary Iroquoian tribe, inhabiting in the 17th century the territory extending south from Lake Erie probably to Ohio river, east to the lands of the Conestoga along the east watershed of Allegheny river...and spoke a language resembling that of the Hurons, although it is not stated which of the four or five Huron dialects, usually called "Wendat " (Wyandot) by themselves, was meant. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin #30
↑ Erie. Meaning in Iroquois, "long tail," and referring to the panther, from which circumstance they are often referred to as the Cat Nation. The Erie belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic family. Also called: GA-quA'-ga-o-no, by L. H. Morgan (1851).
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