tribal confederation · North America and Oceania
Neutral Confederacy
Origins
The Neutral, called Attawandaron by the Huron, developed from Iroquoian farming communities in what is now south-western Ontario, between the Grand River and the Niagara River. By the early 17th century they numbered perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 people in around 40 villages, organised as a confederacy of several tribes.
Rule and society
French observers named them the Neutral Nation because they let both the Huron Confederacy and the Iroquois Confederacy pass through their lands in peace. They grew maize and tobacco, quarried chert on the Niagara Escarpment, and traded with both sides. Under the war chief Tsouharissen in the 1640s they waged campaigns against Algonquian peoples to the west, notably the Mascouten. Recollet and Jesuit missionaries, among them Jean de Brébeuf in 1640 to 1641, made few converts.
Decline and legacy
After the fall of the Huron, the Iroquois Confederacy attacked the Neutral in 1650 and 1651, burning their towns. Thousands were killed or taken captive, and most survivors were absorbed into the Seneca.
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- Neutral Confederacy was conquered by Iroquois Confederacy1651 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Neutral Confederacy. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/neutral-confederacy
- MLA
- “Neutral Confederacy.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/neutral-confederacy. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Neutral Confederacy.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/neutral-confederacy.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Neutral Confederacy’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/neutral-confederacy (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻