Back شعب إيري Arabic شعب ايرى ARZ Erie (Voik) BAR Эры (народ) BE Ери (племе) Bulgarian Erie (grup humà) Catalan Erie (Volk) German Nación del Gato Spanish Eriet Finnish Ériés French
 Nation du Chat region | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| extinct as a tribe after mid-17th century | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio | |
| Languages | |
| Erie language | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| possibly Whittlesey tradition[1] (1000–1640 CE) |
The Erie people were an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian-speaking tribe, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio before 1658.[2] 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.[2] Captured survivors were adopted or enslaved by the Iroquois.[3]
Their villages were burned by Haudenosaunee warriors. 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 Haudenosaunee Confederacy was known for adopting captives and refugees into their tribes. The surviving Erie are believed to have been largely absorbed by other Iroquoian tribes, particularly families of the Seneca, the westernmost of the Five Nations. Susquehannock families may also have adopted some Erie, as the tribes had shared the hunting grounds of the Allegheny Plateau and Kittanning Path that passed through the gaps of the Allegheny. The members of remnant tribes living among the Iroquois gradually assimilated to the majority cultures, losing their independent tribal identities.[4]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
whitwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., ed. (1961). The American Heritage Book of Indians. American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. p. 197. LCCN 61-14871.
[while the Iroquois were mopping up the Huron] ...the Erie... struck first in 1653. The next year [a counter-offensive] ...a victory which should have won the war on the spot, but ... two more years of fighting were required before the Erie, too, had been vanquished.
- ^ "THE ERIE INDIANS". Avon Historical Society. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
in 1656, after one of the most relentless and destructive Indian wars, the Erie were almost exterminated by the Iroquois. The surviving captives were either adopted or enslaved.
- ^ According to The American Heritage Book of Indians the Susquehannock were poised to wipe out the Iroquois after administering severe drubbings into 1668, only to be laid low by multi-year disease epidemics in 1669-1671. By 1672-1673 they were beset on all sides and, like the Erie, went extinct as a tribe because of their high mortality rate. Their small percentage of survivors had to disperse among kindred tribes. The Iroquois adopted their remnants under the terms of a formal treaty in 1678. Some of the Susquehannock fleeing during 1676 triggered Bacon's Rebellion in the south.