Wenrohronon

The French missionaries monitoring first people in 1630s report the Wenro's territory was north and east of the Erie peoples, East of the Neutral people across the Niagara River and west of the Genesee River valley and the Genesee Gorge across which the Seneca people had their home.

Amerindian boundaries, such as they had use to understand, would likely have been defined along water courses, and ridgelines (i.e. Drainage divides, unlike the southern border approximated by the neat lines above); their famed oil spring, for example, was well south of the marked territory.

The Wenrohronon or Wenro people were an Iroquoian indigenous nation of North America, originally residing in present-day western New York (and possibly fringe portions of northern & northwestern Pennsylvania), who were conquered by the Confederation of the Five Nations of the Iroquois in two decisive wars between 1638–1639[1] and 1643. This was likely part of the Iroquois Confederacy campaign against the Neutral people, another Iroquoian-speaking tribe, which lived across the Niagara River. This warfare was part of what was known as the Beaver Wars, as the Iroquois worked to dominate the lucrative fur trade. They used winter attacks, which were not usual among Native Americans, and their campaigns resulted in attrition of both the larger Iroquoian confederacies, as they had against the numerous Huron.

After defeating the Huron in 1649, the Iroquois conducted a December 1649 attack against the Tabacco people, who fell in 1650–1651. The Iroquois continued to campaign westwards along the north shores of Lake Ontario. As had happened to the Huron peoples, the sudden and unexpected winter attack led to disorganization and isolation of clan groups, and early losses of key towns by the Neutrals in the 1651–1653 campaign by the warriors of the League of the Iroquois leading to eventual defeat and displacement (flight by whole villages)[2] of first the Tabacco tribes, then the Neutral groups, as had happened to the Huron.

  1. ^ Lee Sultzman. "Erie History". Retrieved August 9, 2016. In 1639 the Erie and Neutrals withdrew their protection from the Wenro leaving them to fend for themselves. The Iroquois attacked, and the Wenro were quickly defeated. Most fled to the Huron and Neutrals, although one Wenro group remained east of the Niagara River and resisted until 1643.
  2. ^ Josephy, Alvin M. Jr., ed. (1961). The American Heritage Book of Indians. American Heritage Publishing. pp. 188–219. LCCN 61-14871.