Description
The Erie people were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio before 1658. Their nation was almost exterminated in the mid-17th century by five years of prolonged warfare with the powerful neighboring Iroquois for helping the Huron in the Beaver Wars for control of the fur trade. Captured survivors were adopted or enslaved by the Iroquois. Their villages were burned as a lesson to those who dared oppose the Iroquois. This destroyed their stored maize and other foods, added to their loss of life, and threatened their future, as they had no way to survive the winter. The attacks likely forced their emigration. The Iroquois League was known for adopting captives and refugees into their tribes.
Language
Erie was believed to have been an Iroquoian language spoken by the Erie people, similar to Wyandot.
Culture
The three most commonly grown crops were squash, corn, and beans. While the Erie people were known to be an agricultural tribe, they were also well-versed in hunting for fur, weaving, and pottery. They traded both beaver fur and other pelts because these were enormously valuable at the time. Little is known of their social or political organization, but early Jesuit accounts record that the Erie had many permanent, stockaded towns, practiced agriculture, and comprised several divisions. Erie traditions told of numerous wars with tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy; the final conflict occurred between 1653 and 1656, with the Erie being forced to capitulate when their bows and poisoned arrows were unable to withstand the guns supplied to the Iroquois by Dutch and English traders.