BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 265 



Our Knowledge of the Indian Occupancy. 



The aboriginal inhabitants of the Niagara Frontier are 

 known to ns through history and archaeology. The early 

 history of the region abounds in references to the Indians who 

 lived in it, which are sometimes accurate but oftener confused, 

 inaccurate, indefinite, and insufficient. Some of the nations 

 dwelling there were strong, and able to thwart the designs of 

 the Europeans who coveted the region. These nations were 

 carefully studied and accurately described. Others were unim- 

 portant, or were destroyed before any accurate account of them 

 was ever made. Some were never visited by Europeans who 

 might have left a record of their nation. In many cases des- 

 criptions of these are based on accounts received indirectly, 

 perhaps from some ignorant trader, perhaps from some Indian 

 of another tribe, and naturally such a record is at best vague 

 and unsatisfactory. 



From the remains that they left behind them we may learn 

 much about their life, their customs and manners of living. It 

 is only by the aid of history, however, that we may establish 

 the identity of a people through archaeology. 



Historical Occupants of the Niagara Frontier. 



The accounts of explorers, missionaries, soldiers and trad- 

 ers show that the Niagara Frontier was occupied by the Neutral 

 Nation, the Eries, the Wenrohronons, the Senecas, the Mississ- 

 agas and the Tuscaroras. Owing to the work of the Jesuit 

 Missionaries amongst the Neutrals, and to the prominent part 

 taken by the Senecas in Colonial times, these two nations are 

 well known through history. The Eries and Wenrohronons 

 disappeared before anything was definitely known of them. 

 The Mississagas and Tuscaroras came to the Niagara Frontier 

 within the historic period. 



The Neutral Nation. 



The Neutral Nation was one of the largest of the divisions 

 of the Huron- Iroquois family. During the short time it was 

 known to Europeans it occupied the Niagara Frontier. It 

 perished through the ambition or the blood-lust of its kindred, 

 the Iroquois. 



