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| Neutral (Iroquoian) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Neutral (Iroquoian) |
| Region | Southern Ontario |
| Extinct | Late 17th century |
| Familycolor | Iroquoian |
Neutral (Iroquoian) The Neutral were an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people historically located in what is now southern Ontario, noted in early modern European records for their role in regional trade and diplomacy between groups such as the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and Anishinaabe peoples and for contact with explorers and missionaries like Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Cartier, and representatives of the French colonization of the Americas. Their name appears in accounts associated with events including the Beaver Wars, the establishment of missions by the Society of Jesus, and diplomatic missions tied to the Treaty of Paris (1763) aftermath.
Early European chroniclers used the exonym “Neutral” based on reports by Étienne Brûlé, Jean de Brébeuf, and Samuel de Champlain who contrasted them with the Wendat and Haudenosaunee Confederacy; the label appears alongside terms used by other groups such as the Anishinaabe and Mississauga. Linguists and ethnographers including Frances Densmore, Horatio Hale, and later scholars working in Iroquoian studies have classified their speech within the Northern Iroquoian branch related to Wyandot and Huron-Wendat languages. Colonial administrators in the New France period and cartographers like Samuel de Champlain and Nicolas Sanson perpetuated the designation in maps and reports used by officials such as Jean Talon and missionaries of the Society of Jesus.
The Neutral occupied territories between the Niagara River, the Grand River, and the Bruce Peninsula, including sites along the Niagara Escarpment, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie shores; these locales appear in maps compiled by Champlain and later by cartographers such as Pierre DuVal and Guillaume Delisle. Contemporary estimates of population prior to sustained European contact vary among historians such as Bruce Trigger, John Steckley, and William W. Warren and are informed by archaeological surveys led by teams associated with institutions like the Royal Ontario Museum, the University of Toronto, and the Canadian Museum of History. Settlement patterns documented in excavations near historic villages correlate with descriptions in reports by missionaries such as Jean de Brébeuf and traders tied to the Compagnie des Cent-Associés and the Hudson's Bay Company.
Primary sources and comparative analysis by linguists including Frances Densmore, Ives Goddard, and Mithun indicate the Neutral spoke a language closely allied with Huron-Wendat and Wyandot, sharing morphological and phonological features documented in vocabularies recorded by missionaries like Jean de Brébeuf and colonial scribes in the archives of New France. Scholars at institutions including the Jacques Cartier Institute and the University of Western Ontario have used historical wordlists, place-name evidence recorded by Samuel de Champlain, and comparative reconstruction methods employed by Edward Sapir and Franz Boas to situate the language within Iroquoian comparative dictionaries compiled by researchers such as Marilyn Legare. Modern revitalization projects among descendant communities and allied groups draw on records preserved in repositories like the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and the Archives Nationales de France.
Ethnohistorical accounts by Jean de Brébeuf, Gabriel Sagard, and Samuel de Champlain describe Neutral material culture, longhouse dwellings, horticultural practices cultivating maize, beans, and squash analogous to those of the Huron-Wendat and social organization featuring clan systems comparable to Haudenosaunee Confederacy matrilineal descent. Archaeologists from the Royal Ontario Museum, McMaster University, and the University of Waterloo have uncovered pottery, tools, and trade goods indicating participation in wide networks involving groups such as the Odawa, Mississauga, and Innu, and traded items documented in inventories tied to New France merchants and the Compagnie des Cent-Associés. Ceremonial life described in Jesuit Relations shares motifs with practices recorded among the Wendat and elements observed in ethnographies by Lewis Henry Morgan and comparative ritual studies by James Mooney.
Initial sustained contact involved fur trade intermediaries, missionaries of the Society of Jesus including Jean de Brébeuf and Paul Le Jeune, and explorers such as Samuel de Champlain and Étienne Brûlé; reports in the Jesuit Relations and correspondence of colonial officials like Jean Talon and Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac document alliances, conflicts, and trade patterns with New France. The Neutral were drawn into the larger sequence of conflicts and diplomacy known as the Beaver Wars, facing pressures from the expanding Haudenosaunee Confederacy and interactions with Dutch and English trading partners based in ports like New Amsterdam and companies such as the Dutch West India Company and later the Hudson's Bay Company. Missionary accounts and French military reports by officers serving under governors like Pierre de Voyer d'Argenson and chroniclers such as François-Xavier Garneau record raids, refugee movements, and shifting alliances that linked Neutral communities with neighboring polities including the Huron-Wendat and Anishinaabe.
By the late 17th century, a combination of factors recorded in Jesuit correspondence, colonial dispatches, and archaeological stratigraphy—including epidemic disease evident in demographic reconstructions by historians such as Bruce Trigger, warfare during the Beaver Wars led by elements of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and displacement documented in accounts involving New France officials—resulted in dispersal and absorption of Neutral survivors into groups like the Wyandot and various Anishinaabe communities. Legacy issues persist in place names, museum collections at institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum and Canadian Museum of History, and academic studies by scholars at the University of Toronto, McGill University, and the University of Western Ontario, while descendant identities and heritage projects feature in collaborations with First Nations organizations including the Huron-Wendat Nation and contemporary Mississauga communities. Category:Extinct Indigenous peoples of North America