NEUTRAL

French Neutre, a confederacy of Iroquoian-speaking Indians who lived in what are now southern Ontario, western New York, northeastern Ohio, and southeastern Michigan. They received their name from the French because they were neutral in the known wars between the Iroquois and the Huron before the mid-17th century. Their neutrality did not extend to all other tribes, and during the early 17th century the Neutral were at war with groups to the west, particularly the Potawatomi. Neutral villages of bark-covered houses were situated on high, defensible ground; their economy was based on agriculture, supplemented by game, which was plentiful in this area. During the war between the Huron and the Iroquois in 164849, the Neutral attempted to gain favour with the Iroquois by seizing those Huron who had sought refuge with them as well as other Huron; the Iroquois nevertheless attacked and destroyed the Neutral in 165051. The last mention of them as an independent group was a report of 800 members of the tribe living in the vicinity of Detroit, Mich., in 1653. The remainder were either killed or absorbed by the Iroquois.