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The Neuter Indian Tribe

The Neutral were an Iroquoian-speaking peoples of the early 17th century lived in the Hamilton-Niagara district of southwestern Ontario and across the Niagara River to west New York state. They were known to the HURON as the Attiwandaronk, meaning "people whose speech is awry or a little different," but their name for themselves was Chonnonton, or "people of the deer." In 1615 Samuel de CHAMPLAIN named them "la Nation neutre" since they were then at peace with the Five Nations and the Huron.

--- The earliest known occupants of the Niagara Region of Western New York were the Neuter Indians, who occupied this area in the early 1600's. A peaceful nation, they lived in villages on both sides of the Niagara River and as far east as the territory of present day Orleans County. In 1651, however, nearly the entire Neuter population was exterminated by the Senecas who then claimed the Neuters’ lands as their own.

Peter A. Porter, who wrote a “Brief History of Old Fort Niagara” and several other works on the history of the Niagara Frontier, gives this account of the varying ownership of the territory:

“The Neuter Nation to 1651; Indian Ownership (Seneca and Iroquois) 1651-1669; Indian Ownership, predominant French influence 1669-1725; Indian ownership, French occupation 1725-1759; Indian ownership, English occupation 1759-1783; American ownership, English occupation 1783-1796”.

During the period of 1772 until 1789, the Western New York area with varying border lines to the east, was known as “Six Nations Indian Country, Kingsland, German Flats and Whitestown”.

- The Shelby Earthworks: An Ancient Indian Fort

Alongside of a highway in the Town of Shelby, Orleans County, there is a historical marker erected in 1932 that reads:

"Neuter Fort occupied in 14th century by Neuter Indians. Only Double Palisaded Fort in New York State. Destroyed by Iroquois in 1650."

The message on the marker, calculated to provoke curiosity, fires the historical imagination. What story lies behind these words?

To read the rest of Gary S. Lane's story, see page 12 in the Summer 2004 issue. --- http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/arthur-caswell-parker/the-archeological-history-of-new-york-volume-2-hci/page-16-the-archeological-history-of-new-york-volume-2-hci.shtml

Circular earthwork 1.5 miles west of Shelby Center. Squier quotes Turner's account, which has many features of interest. F. H. Cushing describes it in the Smithsonian report for 1874 and mentions its double walls, gateways and boulders. Some have ascribed to it a great antiquity but Doctor Beauchamp says this is simply a prehistoric Iroquois fort with the usual relics, but it includes some Ohio shells. It may be an easterly town of the Neuter nation.

Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf , an accomplished linguist, supervised the preparation of a Huron grammar and dictionary. In 1640, following a devastating smallpox epidemic, the Huron attacked him and his companion and damaged their mission. In 1640-41 Brébeuf began a mission among the NEUTRAL, but they regarded him as a sorcerer.

In 1644 he returned to Huronia, remaining there until 16 March 1649, when he was captured by invading IROQUOIS at the St-Louis mission, taken to St-Ignace and brutally killed. After his death, Paul Ragueneau discovered 39 fragmentary writings in which Brébeuf described his visions, his ecstasies and prophetic dreams. His bones are buried at the Martyrs' Shrine near Midland, Ontario. [picture} Martyrdom of the Jesuits This composite view of the torture and death of the blackrobes of Huronia (Gabriel Lalemant left and Jean de Brébeuf right) in 1649 was one of the most powerful images distributed of the New World, not least for its value as propaganda (courtesy Library and Archives Canada). -- http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02751b.htm In 1640 he set out with Father Chaumonot to evangelize the Neutres, a tribe that lived north of Lake Erie, but after a winter of incredible hardship the missionaries returned unsuccessful. In 1642 he was sent down to Quebec, where he was given the care of the Indians in the Reservation at Sillery. About the time the war was at its height between the Hurons and the Iroquois, Jogues and Bressani had been captured in an effort to reach the Huron country, and Brébeuf was appointed to make a third attempt. He succeeded. With him on this journey were Chabanel and Garreau, both of whom were afterwards murdered. They reached St. Mary's on the Wye, which was the central station of the Huron Mission. By 1647 the Iroquois had made peace with the French, but kept up their war with the Hurons, and in 1648 fresh disasters befell the work of the missionaries — their establishments were burned and the missionaries slaughtered. On 16 March, 1649, the enemy attacked St. Louis and seized Brébeuf and Lallemant, who could have escaped but rejected the offer made to them and remained with their flock. The two priests were dragged to St. Ignace, which the Iroquois had already captured.

On entering the village, they were met with a shower of stones, cruelly beaten with clubs, and then tied to posts to be burned to death. Brébeuf is said to have kissed the stake to which he was bound. The fire was lighted under them, and their bodies slashed with knives. Brébeuf had scalding water poured on his head in mockery of baptism, a collar of red-hot tomahawk-heads placed around his neck, a red-hot iron thrust down his throat, and when he expired his heart was cut out and eaten. Through all the torture he never uttered a groan. The Iroquois withdrew when they had finished their work. The remains of the victims were gathered up subsequently, and the head of Brébeuf is still kept as a relic at the Hôtel-Dieu, Quebec.

His memory is cherished in Canada more than that of all the other early missionaries. Although their names appear with his in letters of gold on the grand staircase of the public buildings, there is a vacant niche on the façade, with his name under it, awaiting his statue. His heroic virtues, manifested in such a remarkable degree at every stage of his missionary career, his almost incomprehensible endurance of privations and suffering, and the conviction that the reason of his death was not his association with the Hurons, but hatred of Christianity, has set on foot a movement for his canonization as a saint and martyr. An ecclesiastical court sat in 1904 for an entire year to examine his life and virtues and the cause of his death, and the result of the inquiry was forwarded to Rome. [He was canonized in 1930. --Ed.] -- http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78596/Saint-Jean-de-Brebeuf Saint Jean de Brébeuf, (born March 25, 1593, Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy—died March 16, 1649, Saint-Ignace, New France; canonized 1930; feast day October 19), Jesuit missionary to New France who became the patron saint of Canada.

Brébeuf entered the Society of Jesus in 1617, was ordained priest in 1623, and arrived in New France in 1625. Assigned to Christianize the Huron Indians between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, he lived in danger of death until forced by the English to return to France in 1629. Back again in “Huronia” in 1634, Brébeuf laboured for 15 years in primitive surroundings. He was a veteran of 18 missions when, in 1647, peace was made between the French and the Iroquois, who were competitors with the Hurons in the fur trade and their bitter enemies. The Iroquois, determined to destroy the Huron confederacy, continued their fierce war against the Hurons and in 1648–50 destroyed all villages and missions. They seized Brébeuf and his fellow missionary Gabriel Lalemant and tortured them to death near Saint-Ignace. Brébeuf endured stoning, slashing with knives, a collar of red-hot tomahawks, a “baptism” of scalding water, and burning at the stake. Because he showed no signs of pain, his heart was eaten by the Iroquois. He was canonized with Lalemant and other Jesuits (collectively, the Martyrs of North America) in 1930.