|
The Neutral Confederacy were a North American indigenous people, who lived near the northern shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. They were a largely agrarian society and comprised about 40 permanent settlements. The largest group referred to themselves as Chonnonton ("Keepers of The Deer") - partly due to their practice of herding deer into pens. Another group, the Onguiaahra ("Near the big waters" or possibly "The Strait") populated the more southern Niagara Peninsula and are the origin of the word "Niagara". The Chonnonton territory contained large deposits of flint, which was a valuable resource for sharp tools, fire starting and, eventually firearms and was a primary reason they managed to trade with simultaneously with the warring Huron and Iroquois. The Jesuit Relations of 1652 describes tattooing among the Petun and the Neutrals: "And this (tattooing) in some nations is so common that in the one which we called the Tobacco, and in that which—on account of enjoying peace with the Hurons and with the Iroquois—was called Neutral, I know not whether a single individual was found, who was not painted in this manner, on some part of the body." ==Territory== During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the territory of the ''Attawandaron'' was mostly within the limits of present-day southern Ontario. There was a single population cluster to the east, across the Niagara River near modern-day Buffalo, New York. The western boundary of their territory was the valley of the Grand River, with population concentrations existing on the Niagara Peninsula and in the vicinity of the present-day communities of Hamilton and Milton, Ontario.〔Ellis 1990〕 McMaster University professor William Noble has excavated and documented the existence of many villages south west of Hamilton comprising a Neutral Confederacy which he believes was centered at the "Walker" site and was presided over by a super war chief named Souharissen. Noble was instrumental in excavating and documenting other Neutral sites in Thorold, Grimsby, and Binbrook. Souharissen was the mighty auspicious warrior king who took on and defeated the "Fire" Nation in the present state of Michigan and with whom the Recollect priest Joseph Roche Daillon resided for five months in the winter of 1626–27. In his sojourn, Daillon visited 28 Neutral villages, including the capital which came to be called Notre Dame de Angels. The fertile flats of the various oxbows that Big Creek, three miles from its mouth at Grand River make are ideal for long term settlement pattern. Noble even uses the term "Neutralia" to designate this concentration of Iroquoian-speaking natives. Documentary sources indicate that the population of the historic Neutrals ranged from 12,000 to 40,000 persons, with the lower number indicating the devastating effect of new European infectious diseases and periods of famine during the first half of the 17th century.〔 F. Douglas Reville's ''The History of the County of Brant'' (1920) stated that the hunting grounds of the Attawandaron ranged from Genesee Falls and Sarnia, and south of a line drawn from Toronto to Goderich.〔Reville 1920, p.15.〕 Étienne Brûlé passed through the Attawandaron territory in 1615 but left no documentation of his presence. Joseph de La Roche Daillon conducted a missionary journey in Neutral territory in 1626. St. Jean de Brébeuf and Chaumonot visited eighteen villages of the Neutrals in 1640–1641, and gave each a Christian name. The only ones mentioned in their writings were ''Kandoucho'', or All Saints, the nearest to the Huron Nation; ''Onguioaahra'', on the Niagara River; ''Teotongniaton'' or St. William, in the centre of their country; and ''Khioetoa'', or St. Michael.〔(''Catholic Encyclopedia'', "The Hurons" )〕 F. Douglas Reville described their territory as having been heavily forested and full of "wild fruit trees of vast variety", with nut trees, berry bushes, and wild grape vines. "Elk, caribou, and black bear; deer, wolves, foxes, martens and wild cats filled the woods."〔Reville 1920, p.16.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Neutral Nation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|