Neutral Confederacy

The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or Attawandaron) was a tribal confederation^[1] of Iroquoian peoples. Its heartland was in the floodplain of the Grand River in what is now Ontario, Canada. At its height, its wider territory extended toward the shores of lakes Erie, Huron, and Ontario, as well as the Niagara River in the east. To the northeast were the neighbouring territories of Huronia and the Petun Country, which were inhabited by other Iroquoian confederacies from which the term Neutrals Attawandaron was derived. The five-nation Iroquois Confederacy was across Lake Ontario to the southeast.

Like others of Iroquoian language and culture, the tribes would raid and feud with fellow Iroquoian tribes. They were generally wary of rival Algonquian-speaking peoples, such as those who inhabited Canada to the East, along the St. Lawrence Valley basin. Iroquoian tribes were later known to historians for the fierce ways in which they waged war.^[2] A largely agrarian society, the Neutral Confederacy developed farmsteads that were admired and marveled over by European leaders writing reports to their sponsors.^[2]

The Neutral Confederacy were primarily engaged in hunting; they traded with others through furs and animal skins.^[3] The largest group identified as Chonnonton^[1] ('keepers of the deer'), partly because of their practice of herding deer into pens, a strategy used while hunting.^{[citation needed]} Another group, the Onguiaahra ('near the big waters' or possibly 'the strait' – or something else, see Niagara Falls § Toponymy), populated the more southern Niagara Peninsula and allegedly account for the origin of the word "Niagara".^[4] The Chonnonton territory contained large deposits of flint, which was a valuable resource for sharp tools, fire-starting and, eventually, firearms, which, as a primary resource, allowed them to trade simultaneously with often-warring Huron and Iroquois tribes.

Since they were not at war with the Huron or the Iroquois in 1600, Jesuits travelling in the area of what is now Hamilton, the lower Grand Valley and Niagara, called them the Neutrals. However, the confederacy had feuds with an Algonkian people called the Mascouten or "Fire Nation", who were believed to live in what is present-day Michigan. In 1616, the Neutral Confederacy had an estimated 40 villages and 4,000 warriors.^[5] In 1641, after a serious epidemic, the Jesuits counted 40 Neutral villages, with about 12,000 people.^[6]

The nation was unable to survive the changes. In the 1650s, after the Iroquois Wars,^[specify] they dispersed. One source indicates that the reasons included "wars, diseases and famine". The remaining members became a part of various other Iroquoian nations. Historical records kept by the French do not discuss the Neutrals as a nation or confederacy after 1672.^[1]