NEUTRAL

In the early seventeenth century, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain described an Iroquoian people who occupied territory at the western end of Lake Ontario as 'neutral'. By this he meant that they were uninvolved in the on-going disputes between the Huron and the Five Nations who lived to the south of Lake Ontario. These 'neutral' people (really a confederacy of independent tribes) occupied a relatively small area bounded on the south by Lake Erie, and the west by the Grand River in a series of well defined tribal territories. They have become known as the Neutral. Click here for map .

These people were attacked and dispersed by Five Nations Iroquois between 1647 and 1651. After this time the Neutral ceased to exist as a distinct people.

During the fifteenth century, however, Neutral peoples had occupied a much broader region, extending west from Lake Ontario, as far west as the St. Clair Clay Plains and generally bounded on the north by the interface between the Carolinian and Canadian biotic zones. They range in scale from large defended village sites such as Lawson ( at the Museum of Archaeology in London), Southwold and Clearville (near the Lake Erie shore) and Wolfe Creek (near Chatham) to smaller camps and hamlets. These sites are present in clear clusters. In the London area, for instance, clusters of sites are found in close proximity to the Thames River near Lake Whittaker, Dingman Creek, Medway Creek and Oxbow Creek. Similarly, a group of sites has been identified in the Wolfe Creek area near Chatham, consisting of the Wolfe Creek, McGeachy and Wilson Sites, along a tributary of the lower Thames River.

There is little evidence to suggest that Iroquoian people continued to occupy this area after about A.D. 1550. The generally accepted interpretation is that the Neutral abandoned parts of their former homeland and focussed their settlements in a relatively small area between the Grand River and the western End of Lake Ontario.

While, at first glance this retraction may seem strange, this pattern is also known to have occurred among the Huron who abandoned much of the north shore of Lake Ontario in favour of a much smaller territory in Simcoe County.

A number of reasons have been postulated for the movement of Neutral peoples towards the west end of Lake Ontario, including; greater access to goods of European manufacture, hostilities with the people of the Fire Nation (an Algonkian people living near the west end of Lake Erie and probably known archaeologically as the Wolf Phase ), and most recently, climatic influences of the Little Ice Age on their agriculture. Of these, the conflicts with the neighbouring Fire Nation appears the most plausible. This idea is supported by historical references to poor relations between these two groups, and the archaeological evidence of an increasing pre-occupation with defence during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries on both Wolf Phase and Neutral sites in southwestern Ontario. Most of the villages occupied by these people were defended with ditches and palisades. In all probability the Neutral withdrew to the east to create a buffer zone between themselves and their hostile neighbours.

In recent years a large amount of information about the Neutral has come to light. What is presented here is only a brief summary.

NEUTRAL SETTLEMENTS

Information from the Jesuit Relations and from archaeological excavations has shown that in the seventeenth century Neutral people lived communities which ranged in size from 'towns' of over 5 acres, to small seasonally occupied hamlets consisting of one or two small houses.

Towns

These large communities were occupied year round. Excavations of some of these settlements have shown that they were not generally defended by palisades. For instance during the excavations at the Walker Site which covers more than 10 acres, no evidence of a defensive palisade was encountered although the site occupies a naturally defensible hill top surrounded by steep stream courses. These large settlements may have housed so many people that they felt safe without any additional defensive works. Towns contained numerous. closely spaced longhouses. Each town was surrounded by a number of smaller villages and hamlets. The towns may have operated as local political and economic centres.

Villages

Settlements which covered 1-5 acres are usually referred to as villages. These were also year-round settlements. Most were defended by stout palisade walls and contained a number of longhouses.

Hamlets

Hamlets are small villages, usually less than one acre in area and containing a few longhouses.

Cabin Sites and Camps

Numerous small cabin sites and camps have been found in the territory surrounding the main areas of Neutral occupation. Some of these were probably occupied on a seasonal basis, providing accomodation during harvest time. Those situated close to water were probably fishing camps.

Most Neutral settlements were situated to take advantage of good quality agricultural soil. They are often located close to the headwaters of creeks - large settlements rarely occurring near major rivers or along lakeshores. Neutral people often close naturally defensible locations for their settlements then enhanced them with palisades. This concern for defence is particularly obvious on sites dating to the seventeenth century.

LONGHOUSES

Slash Pits are a unique feature of Neutral longhouses. These oblong or oval pits are found in lines located parallel to the inside the longhouse walls, about a metre from the inner edge. From preserved wood found in some examples, these are thought to have been pits containing the lower edge of plank walls providing an interior partition along the sides of the longhouse. These partitions probably separated storage areas and sleeping platforms from the communal areas of the structure. Neutral houses often have well defined storage areas at either end of the structure.

Post moulds are the stains left by house support posts. Neutral longhouses were supported by a large number of closely set vertical posts. By identifying and mapping the layout of these features archaeologists can define the size, shape and location of the buildings. Neutral houses consisted of two rows of posts with bark or poles laid between them to create a weather proof structure. The layout of the post moulds often indicates that houses were expanded or modified during their lifetime.

Storage and refuse pits are a common feature of all Iroquoian longhouse interiors. Some are simple, shallow pits containing few artifacts. Others are more elaborate affairs with bark lining which were used for storing quantities of harvested plant foods. In some instances pits were dug to store valuable possessions or to hide them from view.

Most Iroquoian longhouses contain hearths and areas of burnt soil. Hearths were important for cooking and warmth. Usually a number of hearths (4-8) are found along the centre line of the longhouse, however, since these were usually shallow features many have been removed by subsequent ploughing and do not show up as archaeological features.

NEUTRAL BURIALS

Neutral people, like other Late Ontario Iroquoians, buried their dead in mass burial pits called ossuaries. As people of the community died they were buried in temporary graves or left out on raised scaffolds until the flesh had rotted. When the time arrived for the mass burial ceremony (usually when it was time to move the village), all those who had died since the previous ceremony were dug up and their bodies prepared for the mass burial.

INDIVIDUAL BURIALS

When they died, Neutral people were either buried outside the village or within the village longhouses. Burials within longhouses occurred both along the central corridor of the building, and beneath the family bunks.

Some individuals were also buried within the storage areas at either end of the buildings. Usually young children were buried in the middle of the longhouse, or along the major village paths. Huron people believed that the souls of the young could enter into the wombs of women who walked over their graves, and thereby be reborn. It seems likely that Neutral people shared these hopes.

OSSUARIES

Neutral people reburied their dead in large communal burial pits, or cemeteries consisting of a number of smaller group-burial pits. Some ossuaries, particularly those dating to the period before any contact with Europeans occurred (ie. prior to 1615) can be rather elaborate, containing clay sub-floors and separate chambers. Some researchers have suggested that there may have been a class structure or social hierarchy in Neutral society which was perpetuated into death; those of higher rank being buried in a different 'chamber' to the rest of the dead. This is quite distinct from Huron ossuaries where the bones of all the people were placed together with little or no attempt made to keep individuals separate.

Seventeenth century Neutral burial sites generally consist of a number of smaller burial pits containing anywhere from one to over one hundred burials. This change in burial practices may reflect some of the devastating changes which occurred in Neutral society as a result of epidemics of diseases (brought by contact with European missionaries and traders). It suggests that burial sites tended to be re-used - rather than representing a single event in the life of a community.

Most of the burials within the communal burial pits consist of 'bundle burials' each bundle representing the exhumed, cleaned and prepared corpse of a beloved family member. Many artifacts were also included with the burials. Pipes, pots, strings of beads, stone and bone tools and some objects of European manufacture such as glass beads, knives and copper kettles. The most complete description of a Neutral cemetery was published by Dr. Walter Kenyon of the Royal Ontario Museum. It is lavishly illustrated.

ISOLATED BONES

Not all burials at Neutral sites seem to have occurred as a result of the tender and loving disposal of village members. Isolated fragments of human skeletons, often showing the marks of burning, cutting and boiling, are a common find on Neutral village sites. These probably represent the remains of captives who had been brought back to the village for torture and who were eventually killed in the village.

Pottery sherds from broken pots and even whole pots are a common feature of Neutral sites. Neutral pottery shares much in common with the pottery from other late Ontario Iroquoian areas (ie, Huron, Petun, St. Lawrence Iroquois). Pots, of various sizes, are usually round bottomed with constricted necks and collared or collarless rims. The patterns of decoration used by Neutral people also closely mirror those used by their Huron counterparts. Simple patterns of incised lines, often arranged in opposed triangles are most common.  These are usually incised into the collar (if present), or into the upper part of the rim. Decoration of the neck is not common and has been found to become increasingly rare after about A.D. 1500.

The bodies of Neutral pots are usually left undecorated. While some show cord markings left from their manufacture by the paddle and anvil method, most are smooth. The smooth exterior was achieved either by careful wiping, or by the application of a thin slip of liquid clay to the exterior.

Some of the pottery found on very late prehistoric and historic Neutral sites is 'shell tempered'. This appears in increasing frequencies on sites dating after A.D. 1600. Researchers believe that this pottery may have been made by people captured during battles with the Fire Nation, an Algonkian people who lived in the lands surrounding the western end of Lake Erie. Between A.D. 1638 and A.D. 1641 more than 1000 Fire Nation people (mostly women and children) were brought to Neutral villages as captives for adoption. These people may have made pottery vessels according to their traditional methods, and using their distinctive styles, within Neutral territory.

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