Erie

Member of an American Indian people who lived by Lake Erie (now New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania). They comprised several sub-tribes, such as the Kentaientonga, Honniasont (or Black Minqua), and Rigué, and shared an Iroquoian language similar to that of the Huron. A farming people, they lived in permanent palisaded towns (fortified with a fence of stakes), and had an aggressive reputation. Tribal warfare from 1635, particularly with the Iroquois, diminished their population by 1680 and their tribal identity was lost. Survivors were absorbed into the Iroquois although some joined the Seneca of Ohio, where they became known as the Mingo. Their descendants are thought to be part of the Oklahoma Seneca.

The history of the Erie is sketchy, as few Europeans made contact with them. They grew corn and tobacco, and in the 1600s they obtained European goods (but not firearms) through trade, using the Susquehannock as middlemen. They are thought to have been a warring people, who used poison on their arrow tips. Decades of wars with other tribes in the 17th century, especially the Iroquois, who defeated them in 1656 with guns received from Dutch and English traders, decimated the Erie population by 1680.