Chapter 1
During the Beaver wars, the Iroquois signed a treaty with the French. Assured the French would not intervene, the western Iroquois attacked and destroyed two Erie fortified villages in 1654. However, the Erie inflicted heavy losses on the Iroquois during these battles. It took the Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga until 1656 before the Erie were defeated. Many survivors were incorporated into the Seneca to replace their losses in the war, and the Erie ceased to exist as a separate tribe.
The Erie, however, did not entirely disappear at this time. French map-makers during the next 50 years continued to place the Nation du Chat on their maps as occupying a large area south and west of the Iroquois. Unfortunately, no European explored the Ohio Valley until the 1670s, and they did not find any Erie, or anyone else for that matter. Some of the Erie, Neutrals, Tionontati, and Huron escaped. Most of these were small groups, but some may have been fairly large. It took the Iroquois many years to track these people down, and the last group of Erie (southern Pennsylvania) did not surrender to the Iroquois until 1680. Where they had been hiding during the intervening 24 years is a mystery.
During this time period, one village was attacked, but not part of the ongoing war between the Nations. And, so began a great love story, between a Seneca Warrior and an Erielhonan maiden.
