Native American Tribes - Erie People

The Erie people (also Erieehronon, Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were a Native American 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. They were destroyed in the mid-17th century by five years of prolonged warfare with the neighboring Iroquois, especially the Seneca, for helping the Huron in the Beaver Wars for control of the fur trade."

Their villages were burned as a lesson to those who dare oppose the Iroquois, adding to their loss of life and likely forcing emigration. The Iroquoian confederacies were known for adopting others into their tribes, and true to form, the remaining defeated Erie are believed to have been absorbed by other Iroquoian tribes, particularly the Seneca, and possibly their kindred Susquehannocks with whom they shared the hunting grounds of the Allegheny Plateau and the Amerindian paths through the gaps of the Allegheny. Whatever their individual fates, the remnant tribes living among the Iroquois, gradually lost their independent identity.

The names Erie and Eriez are shortened forms of Erielhonan, meaning "long tail." The Erielhonan were also called the Chat ("Cat" in French) or "Raccoon" people, referring to that characteristic. It appears that the cat reference may be to depict a connection to the sacred Underwater Panther, who was believed to have lived in the Great Lakes. Like all the Iroquoian stock, they lived in multi-family long houses in villages enclosed in palisades, which often enclosed crops. They cultivated the "Three Sisters": varieties of corn, beans, and squash, during the warm season. In winter, tribal members lived off the stored crops and animals taken in hunts.