Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter 1: The Situation in 1626, 1870

First Information - The Neuter Nation - The Eries - Their Conhection With the Iroquois - Their Location - Open Ground to the South - Neighbors on the West - Slight Knowledge of the Eries - Genera! Character of the Indians - Meager Authority of Sachems and Chiefs - Absence of Property and of Jealousy - Forest and Game.

Ture first definite knowledge regarding the occupants of the south shore of Lake Erie dates from the year 1626, when Father La Roche Daillon, a '' Recollet" missionary, preached among the Atéiwandaronks, more commonly known as the Hahquahs, called by the French the Meuter Nation. 'This peculiar tribe was principally located in the Canadian peninsula on the north shore of Lake Erie, having, however, several outlying villages on the east side of the Niagara, and extending a short distance from Buffalo up the southeastern side of the lake.

Before going farther, we may note that at the time our story begins, the French had been for twentythree years established on the shores of the St. Lawrence, the Dutch were already located at the mouth of the Hudson, while the Pilgrim Fathers had for six years been sternly battling with want, and hardship, and danger, on the rock-bound shores of New England. The position of the French on the St. Lawrence gave them a great adyantage in prosecuting discoveries and establishing posts along the great lakes, and that adventurous people were well disposed to make the fullest possible use of their opportunities.

From the information obtained by Father Daillon during his sojourn among the Neuter Nation, eked out by occasional reports from straggling French hunters and /roquois chiefs, it appears that at that time all the southern shore of the lake, from the mouth of Cattaraugus creek, in New York, to the vicinity of Sandusky bay, was occupied by a powerful tribe of Indians, called "rie or Hrickronons (people of Erie) and known by the French as the Nation of the Cat. It is not exactly certain that '" Erie" meant to be the case. Some writers have claimed that the Eries and Neuters were the same nation, but the weight of evidence is decidedly in favor of their separate existence, and the powerful authority of Parkman ('' Jesuits of North America," p. 44) is on the same side.

Little is known of the ries save that they were a powerful tribe, of kindred blood with the celebrated Lroquois, or Five Nations, wd speaking a dialect of the same language. In fact, according to the most profound students of Indianology (if we may be allowed to coin a convenient word) the Jroguois, the Neuter Nation, the Hries and the /furvns were all parts of one aboriginal stock, while around them, on the north, the east and the south were various branches of the still larger Algonquin race. 'Tradition asserts that at one time the authority of the Wries extended as far east as the Genesee river in New York, which was the boundary between them and the fierce Svnecas, the westernmost nation of the Zroguots confederacy. Their villages, however, were on the shore of the lake which bears their name, and as near as can be ascertained, their principal seats stretched from the vicinity of the present city of Erie to that of Cleveland.

To the southward there was a vast open space, alternately the hunting ground and the battlefield of rival tribes, over which the Hrievs could range with more or less difficulty, to the confines of the Choctaws and Cherokees. On the west and northwest were the lands of the powerful Ol/awas, Potlawatlomies, Uhippewas and Miamis. It will be understood that the word ''powerful" is used in a relative sense, meaning powerful for a tribe of Indians. The Seuecas, the strongest of the "ive Nudions, had but about a thousand warriors, and it is not probable that either of thie western tribes, including the Zies, had more than that number. '

Less is known of the "ries than of most other Indian tribes, for during the middle part of the seventeenth century the French missionaries and fur-traders were generally deterred by the cumity of the Lroguois from taking the route to the West by way of Lake Krie, and ere that route was opened to European travel the "rie nation was blotted out of existence, as will hereafter be described. rom the slight accounts which, have reached us, however, it is evident that they did not differ materially from the other Indian tribes which surrounded them, and whose characteristics are so well known to Americans.

Fierce, cruel and intractable, the men spent their time in hunting and fighting, while the women not only performed their domestic labors, but bore all burdens when attending their masters, and planted, tended and gathered the maize, the pumpkins and the beans, which were the principal vegetable food of the tribe. Slight indeed were the bonds of government imposed on these most democratic of republicans. A few of the elder men were known as sachems, a position rather of honor than of power, though they exercised a gentle authority in maintaining order at home, and determined whether there should be peace or war with neighboring tribes.

In war, the leadership of the tribe devolved on younger men, called war-chiefs, but even these had no authority resembling that exercised by the officers of a civilized army. War being once declared, any ambitious chief could raise a party of volunteers to go on a raid against the enemy. They usually followed his guidance, but in case they refused to obey him there was no punishment known to Indian law which could be inflicted upon them. Even if one of them showed cowardice, the severest chastisement visited upon him was to call him a "'squaw," and debar him henceforth from the honors-and privileges of awarrior. 'This, however, was a terrible punishment to men whose only idea of glory or fame was in connection with warlike prowess. Sometimes, in cases of great importance, the chiefs called the whole nation to arms, but even then those who failed to respond were merely designated as ''squaws," and left in company with the squaws.

Of civil government there was little need. Ferocious as the Indians were against their enemies, the members of the various tribes seldom quarreled among themselves, 'here was not much for them to quarrel about. 'There was almost no individual property save the stone tomahawk, the bow and the arrows which each man could manufacture for himself; so there were no contests arising from the sin of covetousness. The marriage bond sat lightly upon them, although they were not a peculiarly licentious race. They were merely apathetic in that respect, and marital infidelity did not awaken the anger often felt among barbarous nations no purer than the Indians; so there were few quarrels about women. Liquor had not been introduced among them, and thus another large class of troubles was avoided.

True, they had ferocious and malignant tempers, but it was not necessary to exercise them at home, and until after the introduction of liquor they seldom did so.- If a number of Erie braves felt their native fierceness gnawing in their breasts till it must have vent, it was necdless for them to slay each other; they could get up a war party, go forth and scalp a few Ottawa women, or burn a captured Seneca warrior, and be happy.

of stringent government. Parental restraint over children was of the lightest kind, though great deference was paid to age in both men and women. The little copper-colored rogues ran about in naked blessedness, doing whatsoever they liked; the girls, as they approached womanhood, expecting nothing else than to share the labors of the wigwam and cornfield, while the adolescent boys eagerly trained themselves to become hunters and warriors.

When the Zries were the lords over the territory of Cuyahoga county there was ample opportunity for the young braves to exercise themselves there in the exhilarating duties of the chase. The level or gently undulating ground, composed of sandy soil near the lake and a clayey loam farther back, was covered with a gigantic growth of beeches, maples, oaks, elms, etc., probably unsurpassed on the continent. The Indians were in the habit of burning off the underbrush so that they could more readily see the game, and this killed the small trees, but caused the large ones to attain magnificent proportions.

Here the deer wandered in great numbers. and there, in some aged and hollow tree, the black bear made his hermitage through the wintry days, coming forth in the spring to feed on roots and berries, and, later, on the ample supply of nuts and acorns afforded by the forest. Here, too, was occasionally heard the fierce scream of the American panther, at which even the hardy Indian youths shrank back in dismay, leaving the task of confronting that dreaded foe to the bravest warriors of the tribe.

Numerous birds flitted among the trees, on which the children could test the strength of their tiny bows and their own accuracy of aim, while at long intervals the lordly eagle soared far overhead, or circled swiftly downward to seize his prey, usually defying with impunity the arrows even of the most renowned bowmen of the forest. Upon the earth, among many harmless congeners, crawled the deadly rattlesnake, which, however, was easily avoided by the dark youth, shod with wariness and buskined with cunning.

Life was even more abundant in the water than on shore. 'The lake swarmed with pike, pickerel, sturgeon, whitefish, etc., etc., some of which found their way into the river, where they were met by the gleaming trout from the upland streams.

Such was Cuyahoga county and its inhabitants at the time when the first accounts regarding this locality came to the knowledge of the whites. Even then, those accounts were very vague, but, as they have been eked out by subsequently acquired knowledge, one is able to bring up before the mind's eye a tolerably accurate picture of this primeval period. Before, however, we move forward from this standpoint, it is proper to make brief mention of that long, vague period which antedates all reliable information, and is commonly called the pre-historic era.