Erie tribe
The Erie tribe were a group of Native Americans, related to the Iroquois, who lived pre-historically from western New York to northern Ohio on the south shore of Lake Erie. They were destroyed by the Iroquois, who adopted some of the survivors into their own group, primarily being absorbed into the Senecas.
The name is a shortening of "Erielhonan," meaning "long tail." The Erie were also called the "Cat" or the "Racoon" people. They lived in multi-family long houses in villages enclosed in palisades and grew the Three Sisters - corn, beans, and squash during the warm season. In the winter tribal members lived off the stored crops and animals slaughtered in the hunt. In the competition in the fur trade, the Erie alienated the surrounding tribes by encroaching on their territories. They angered their eastern neighbors, the League of the Iroquois, by accepting refugees from Huron villages that had been destroyed by the Iroquois. The Erie were disadvantaged in armed conflict by having few firearms. By the middle of the 17th century, the tribe no longer existed as a unit, but dispersed groups survived a few more decades before being absorbed into the Iroquois. Members of other tribes also claimed later to be descended from refugees of this defunct culture.
Because there was only one contact made by Europeans, little is known about them historically, and most information is derived from legends, archaeology, and comparisons with other Iroquoian people.
