The Erie, also called the Eriehronon, Ehriehronnons, Eriechronon, or La Nation du Chat, were Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in the lower Great Lakes region until the mid-1600s. As an Iroquoian group, they shared similar cultural practices with neighboring peoples such as the Neutral, Wendat (Huron), and Seneca. Their territory was located southeast of Lake Erie in an area that is now western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. The Erie no longer existed as a group in the mid-1650s after years of conflict with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). Most survivors joined the Haudenosaunee, though some evidence suggests a small group may have moved south to Virginia, where they were known as the Richahecrian. Later, this group relocated to the Savannah River and became known as the Westo.
Name
European contact with the Erie people was very limited. Most information about them comes from French missionaries and the Wendat people, who shared details with them. In 1624, Gabriel Sagard, a Recollet missionary, learned about the Eriehronon from the Wendat. He believed this name meant "La Nation du Chat" (Cat Nation), which may have referred to raccoons instead of cats, as the people of New France called raccoons "chat sauvage." The Jesuit Relation for 1653/1654 mentions "the Ehriehronnons… these we call the Cat Nation, because of the very large number of Wildcats in their country, two to three times larger than our domestic cats, but with beautiful and valuable fur." Some experts suggest that "Eriehronon" might more accurately mean "People of the Panther" or "People of the Long Tail," referring to the eastern panther (Puma concolor couguar).
Language and culture
The Erie people spoke a Northern Iroquoian language. Although no written records of this language exist, Jesuit missionaries noted that the Erie language was similar to the languages of the Wendat and the Neutral peoples. A Jesuit record from 1647 states that the Erie "till the soil and speak the same language as our Hurons." In the mid-1650s, the Haudenosaunee dispersed the Erie, leading to the extinction of their language.
In 1907, Arthur C. Parker studied the Ripley Site in Chautauqua County, New York, and identified the Erie as a complex, matrilineal, and clan-based Iroquoian society. Their villages included large, bark-covered longhouses arranged within fenced enclosures. These longhouses housed extended maternal family groups. The Erie economy relied on growing maize, beans, and squash—known as the "Three Sisters"—and was supported by hunting, fishing, and foraging. Their pottery often had carved designs and flared edges, and many items featured carvings of panthers. Parker discovered pipes and bone carvings with feline shapes, suggesting a spiritual connection to the eastern panther. His analysis of Erie burial practices, which included placing bodies in a bent posture and burying them with high-quality pottery and other items, indicated beliefs about life after death and a strong emphasis on family and community care.
Territory
The Erie were a group made up of three different settlement areas, which may have belonged to three to five separate nations. Before European diseases like smallpox and measles reduced their population by half, their total number was estimated to be about 12,000 people. Although French maps from that time showed the Erie living along the entire southern shore of Lake Erie, archaeologists now believe the area was divided into three parts: two Algonquian groups lived in the western areas, while the Erie lived in the eastern part.
The Erie lived near the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, between the Buffalo River and Presque Isle Bay. To the east of the Erie was the homeland of the Seneca, one of the five nations in the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. Across Lake Erie lived the Neutral, whose villages were in the Niagara Peninsula and the Grand River area. North of the Buffalo River were the Wenrohronon (Wenro), who joined the Wendat in 1638 after losing protection from the Neutral. To the south, the Erie’s influence reached the northern Allegheny Plateau, but there is no evidence of people living there permanently in the early 17th century.
West of Presque Isle Bay was a buffer zone between the Erie and people in the Cuyahoga River region who belonged to the Whittlesey tradition. Once thought to be Erie, the Whittlesey people built their villages on high river bluffs protected by ditches and embankments. They lived in small oval or rectangular homes, unlike the longhouses used by Iroquoian cultures. They made grit-tempered pottery instead of shell-tempered pottery. Early researchers believed the Whittlesey people were a separate Iroquoian group closely related to the Erie, but recent studies suggest they may have been an Algonquian group influenced by nearby Iroquoian neighbors.
Two Erie village names appear in the Jesuit Relations. Rigué has been identified as the Erie “capital” and the site of a large attack by the Seneca and Onondaga in 1654. Early linguist J.N.B. Hewitt translated Rigué as “at the place of the panther.” More recent research suggests it may mean “at the place of the cherry trees.” While Hewitt believed Rigué was located at Presque Isle Bay, archaeologist Marion White suggested the village was further east. The name Gentaienton, meaning “people who carry a field,” is linked to accounts of Erie people who were adopted by the Haudenosaunee. These accounts were recorded many years after the Erie were no longer a group. Gentaienton may refer to a subgroup of the Erie rather than a specific location.
History
The early history of the Erie people shows a change during the Late Woodland period (about 900–1650 AD) from small, mobile groups to a society that farmed and lived in large villages surrounded by wooden fences. This change happened because people began growing corn in large amounts and needed to protect their communities together. Early researchers, like Horatio Hale and James Mooney, thought the Iroquoian-speaking people of the Great Lakes region moved north from the southern Appalachian Mountains. However, scientists such as Richard MacNeish later found evidence that the Erie developed in their own area, on the Erie Plain and Allegheny Plateau.
Today, most experts believe the Erie were not one single group but an informal alliance of three regional groups. The "Eastern" Erie lived on the Erie Plain between the Buffalo River and Cattaraugus Creek. These people were originally scattered Iroquoian bands in the Niagara Frontier who came together and changed their culture quickly in the 1300s. Their way of life was influenced by the Ontario Iroquois Tradition, which describes how people north of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario evolved culturally.
In the early 1960s, Marian White studied two settlement sites that were farther from the Buffalo River than usual. She noticed these places looked similar to those found north of Lake Erie. At first, she thought the people living there were part of the Neutral Confederacy, a group from the west of the Niagara River. The discovery of a type of pottery called Glen Meyer-style led scientists to believe that people from the Ontario Iroquois Tradition moved there and took over local groups. Later, it was understood that these people were a separate Iroquoian group that had been strongly influenced by the Ontario Iroquois Tradition during the Middleport Phase (1300–1450 AD). This time saw a shift from small villages to larger, more centralized communities, which required new ways of organizing society and defending against threats.
The "Central" and "Western" Erie groups formed in the late 1500s when Iroquoian people moved from the Allegheny Plateau to the Erie Plain. This migration likely happened because the Little Ice Age made farming in the uplands harder, so people moved to the warmer area near Lake Erie. These groups were part of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau tradition, a cultural pattern that describes how people in the French Creek and Upper Allegheny River areas evolved from 1100 to 1600 AD. The final stage of this tradition, called the McFate Phase, involved building small villages with wooden fences and making pottery with geometric designs.
During this time, many people left the northern Allegheny Plateau in the late 1500s. Evidence from places like Wintergreen Gorge shows that groups first gathered into a large village on the Portage Escarpment before moving together to the Erie Plain. They joined with people already living there to form a settlement near Presque Isle Bay. At the same time, other McFate groups living on ridges near Chautauqua Creek moved to a single hilltop site before heading to the plain. Some may have built a village on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie.
By the time Europeans arrived, Algonquian and Iroquoian tribes traded with each other and competed for resources, but they usually stayed in a state of uneasy peace. Before guns were widely used, tribes could not easily kill each other because they could not outrun bullets. However, the fur trade with French and Dutch settlers, which began before 1611, made competition for land and resources more intense. This led to violent conflicts over hunting areas, starting the Beaver Wars in the early 1600s. These wars reduced trading and peaceful interactions between tribes.
The Erie tribe angered the Iroquois League in 1651 by accepting Huron refugees who had been driven out by the Iroquois. Though the Erie used poison-tipped arrows (as recorded in Jesuit Relations), they had few guns and struggled in battles against the Iroquois. In 1653, the Erie attacked the western Iroquois tribes and had early success in a five-year war.
In 1654, the entire Iroquois Confederacy attacked the Erie. Their villages were burned, and their stored food was destroyed, leaving them without resources to survive the winter. The Iroquois were known for taking captives and absorbing them into their tribes. Many Erie survivors were likely adopted by the Seneca, the westernmost group of the Five Nations. Some may have also been taken in by the Susquehannock, as these tribes shared hunting areas. Over time, the Erie lost their identity and were absorbed into other Iroquoian groups. By the mid-1650s, the Erie were no longer a unified group. Small groups survived for a few more years before joining the Seneca.
Historically, the Monacan and Erie were trading partners, especially for copper. However, this relationship ended due to pressure from European colonists. Some Erie groups moved to Virginia by 1656 and became known as the Richahecrian. They fought alongside the Nahyssans and Manahoac against the Virginia colonists and Pamunkey in the Battle of Bloody Run. Another group moved to South Carolina and became the Westo.
Because the Erie lived far from early European settlements, they had little direct contact with Europeans. Only Dutch traders at Fort Orange (now Albany, New York) and Jesuit missionaries in Canada mentioned them in records. The Jesuits learned about the Erie during the Beaver Wars, but most of their information came from the Huron, who had already suffered greatly. What is known about the Erie comes from stories told by other Native American tribes, archaeological findings, and comparisons to other cultures.