Lakewood Lore

Erie tale reveals demise of local Indians

First inhabitants of what is now Lakewood were the Erie Indians. They roamed lake Erie's southern shore from Ohio to New York long before colonial pioneers sifted westward through the Alleghenies. Also, they gave the lake its name.

Nobody knows exactly when the tribe arrived, but early Jesuit missionaries recorded its decimation, which took place in a battle near the site of Erie, Pa., in 1655.

In this encounter, nearly all of the Erie braves were wiped out by their most bitter enemies -- the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onandagas, Cayugas, and Senecas -- who had united to form the Five Nations Alliance.

At one time the Erie's were stronger, wiser and more prosperous than their neighboring tribes. They built wooden dwellings, planted gardens and grew fields of grain. When the soil was spent, they moved to new sites.

In a story in an 1845 edition of the Buffalo Commercial newspaper, Seneca Chief Blacksnake described events leading up to the Erie slaughter. He explained that the Eries had challenged the Senecas to a ball game, similar to lacrosse. The Seneca team won it and prepared for peaceful leave-taking. But the Eries were not satisfied. They proposed a foot race, 10 against 10, which they also lost. Wrestling bouts followed and they, likewise, were won by the Senecas.

The Eries, who had felt they were superior to all elements of the Five Nations, were so humiliated by the contests that a short time later they formed a war party, intending to destroy the opposing tribes one after another.

Erie warriors fought bravely, but had no firearms. The combined alliance forces, wielding muskets and using their canoes as ladders to scale the wall of the Erie stronghold, finally killed most of the defenders.

Following the conflict, the Eries lost their identity. Eventually, the few who remained were absorbed by other tribes.

Jesuit Father Lewis Hennepin, first white man to see Niagara Falls, reported in 1684 that the name Erie was derived from an Indian word meaning cat, or nation of the cat. It was believed that there were large numbers of wildcats in the lakeshore district.

But there were also wolves, bears and deer in the forests, wild fowl in the marshlands and plentiful fish in the rivers hereabouts. Small streams were filled with beaver dams, and beaver pelts were used as a medium of exchange by the Indians.

Indian hunting and fishing parties frequently came to the mouth of Rocky River, where they pitched camp in the woodlands bordering the cliffs.

The Eries once used the seven-acre "Dead Man's Island" (now Yacht Club Island) near the river's mouth as a burial ground. After being vanquished, tribe survivors returned to the island from time to mourn their dead and build fires to the Great Spirit.

Years later, many skeletons together with trinkets, arrowheads and other Indian artifacts were found there by the early white settlers.

This article appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post July 19, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

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