Native Americas

Early days

Early French reports on the Neutrals are sketchy, because the Huron protected their trade relationship with the French and discouraged direct contact.

While the Huron welcomed French traders and priests to their own villages, they told the Neutrals that French fur traders carried sickness, and described Jesuit 'Blackrobes' as evil witches with spells and magic.

These stories were effective. The French were usually met with a chilly, and sometimes hostile reception when they tried to visit the Neutrals. The Jesuits made only two visits: Father Joseph D'Alyon in 1626 and fathers Jean de Breboeuf and Pierre Chaumonot in 1640. On both occasions the priests were forced to leave when the Neutrals began to suspect them of sorcery.

Despite their reluctance to deal directly with the French, the Neutrals were active in the fur trade through the Huron. While this new economic relationship brought in prosperity, it also disrupted the peace of the entire region.

Neutrals' territory extended entirely across the Niagara peninsula of southern Ontario and into south-eastern Michigan, and to find the necessary furs they began to expand west for hunting. This soon had the Neutrals encroaching into the lands of Algonquian-speaking tribes which lived in lower Michigan and then it brought war.

The Huron told the French in 1635 that the Neutrals had given refuge to the Aouenrehronon, an unidentified Iroquoian-speaking tribe from the western end of Lake Erie (possibly Erie or Neutrals). The Aouenrehronon had been attacked by the Asistagueronon, presumably as a result of the increasing tension and competition for hunting territory.

The defeat of the Aouenrehronon in 1635 was apparently the only major victory for the Asistagueronon.

With the advantage of metal weapons (and, at later dates, firearms) in the years immediately afterwards, an alliance of tribes which traded with the French and Huron swept into lower Michigan and began driving out the Algonquin, marking the beginning of the Beaver Wars in the western Great Lakes. The Neutrals, Tionontati, and Ottawa were included in this sweeping arrival.

The thoroughness and extent of this conquest during the 1630s and 1640s by the French allies is uncertain. It is known that it was completed a decade later by the Iroquois League. Only one detailed report of the actual warfare reached the French, again through the Huron.

The Susquehannock territories were centred around the river which bore their name, but extended far to the east, towards Lake Erie where they abutted the generally peaceful Erie people and north to the Iroquois nations, who certainly were not peaceful (click or tap on map to view full sized)

In 1641, two thousand warriors of the Neutrals attacked a large, fortified Asistagueronon village in central Michigan (presumed by location to have been Mascouten). Following a ten-day siege the village was overrun and eight hundred prisoners taken. Women and children were taken back to the villages of the Neutrals, but the men were blinded and then left to wander aimlessly in the woods until they starved to death.

The Neutrals, however, were also forced to deal with the growing power of another competitor in the fur trade, the Iroquois League from upstate New York. Increasingly well-armed with firearms through their trade with the Dutch, the Iroquois were determined not to be shut out by the Huron of the French fur trade.

This rivalry exploded into a series of wars in which the Neutrals steadfastly refused to take sides with either adversary. The Neutrals just looked the other way while Iroquois and Huron war parties slipped through their territory to attack each other's villages.

Since prior to the European arrival in North America, the Neutrals had protected themselves against the Iroquois and Huron through alliances with the Wenro and Erie. For some reason, the Erie and Neutrals abandoned the Wenro in 1639, leaving this small tribe to face the Iroquois alone.

The Wenro were subsequently attacked and were quickly defeated.

Try as they may to retain the old ways of living in the woodlands of Maryland and Virginia, Iroquoian speakers were gradually being forcibly 'civilised' by their European neighbours

Some found refuge with the Neutrals, a large group (numbering eight hundred) fled to the Huron, and one Wenro village east of Niagara Falls held out against the Seneca until it was abandoned in 1643, with the survivors joining the Neutrals.

In 1640 the Dutch began supplying the Iroquois with unlimited amounts of firearms and ammunition. With this arms advantage, the Iroquois' war with the Huron escalated, and the league became increasingly demanding with the Neutrals.

The Iroquois Wars

In 1647 the Seneca accused the Attiuoaisgon (Neutrals) of sheltering Huron war parties. A brief war followed which forced the Attiuoaisgon to retreat across the Niagara River into Ontario. The failure of the Erie to support the Neutrals in this conflict led to the collapse of their alliance the following year.

After the Iroquois overran the Huron homeland during the winter of 1648-1649, the Tahontaenrat (Huron) fled en mass to the protection of the Neutrals. Apparently, the Neutrals captured some small groups of Huron and turned them over to the Iroquois, but they allowed the Tahontaenrat to remain unmolested in their territory. Temporarily respecting Neutrals numbers and neutrality, the Iroquois next attacked the Tionontati, in December 1649, Huron allies who had taken in a large number of Attignawantan Huron.

With the Tionontati beaten and dispersed, the Iroquois were down to less than a thousand warriors but were able to rebuild their numbers through the massive adoption of Huron and Tionontati prisoners.

A line drawing of a classic Huron palisaded village, although the Huron were greatly overrun by the Iroquois at the start of 1649

Meanwhile, the Tahonaenrat (Huron) had continued to make war on the Iroquois from their refuge in the Neutrals' homeland. The Iroquois blamed the Neutrals for permitting this, and after diplomatic efforts failed to force the Neutrals to surrender the Tahontaenrat, the western Iroquois attacked the Neutrals in 1650.

With the decline of the beaver population, the Iroquois began to conquer their smaller neighbours. The Wenro were quickly gobbled up. Survivors fled to the Hurons for refuge. The Wenro had served as a buffer between the Iroquois and the Neutral tribe and their Erie allies. These two tribes were considerably larger and more powerful than the Iroquois. At that time, the Dutch were the Iroquois' primary European trading partners. As Iroquois sources of furs declined, so did the income of the trading posts.

Immediately following the political destruction of the Hurons by the Iroquois, the latter again attacked the Neutrals. The entire conquest of the Neutrals in 1650-1651 was the result of this war, and some remnant of Neutrals tribes were incorporated chiefly into the Seneca villages in New York.

By the end of 1651 the Iroquois had completely driven the Neutrals from traditional territory, killing or assimilating thousands. At the time, the tribe inhabited a territory ranging from the present-day Niagara peninsula, westward to the valley of the Grand River.

Native Americans of Niagara, presumed to be Neutrals who, by the early 1650s were in serious trouble, the strength of the Iroquois being irresistible

The Iroquois attacked the Erie in 1654. The war between the Erie and the Iroquois lasted for two years. By 1656 the Iroquois had almost completely destroyed the Erie confederacy, whose members refused to flee to the west.

Erie territory was located on the south-eastern shore of Lake Erie and was estimated to have twelve thousand members in 1650. Greatly outnumbered by the tribes they had subdued, the Iroquois had been able to achieve their victories through the use of firearms which they had purchased from the Dutch. The subdued tribes accepted Iroquois overlordship, with some villages consisting of vanquished tribal members alone.

After the defeat of the Neutrals and their Erie allies, the Iroquois turned their attention to the Susquehannock.

At first the Susquehannock attempted to help the Neutrals, but their assistance ended when the Mohawk, in a separate war, attacked the Susquehannock in the autumn. For the most part, the war was over by the following year, and the Neutrals had ceased to exist.

Although the Dutch colonial administration initially pursued a policy of not arming the natives with ammunition and guns, the realities of the Beaver Wars eventually made them realise that there was no other option

Main Sources

First Nations: Issues of Consequence website

Legends of America

Text copyright © Mick Baker. An original feature for the History Files.