The Iroquois launch a similar attack against the Erie in 1654 but with less success.

The Erie, or Nation of the Cat, an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, live from western New York to northern Ohio on the south shore of Lake Erie.

In the competition in the fur trade, the Erie have alienated the surrounding tribes by encroaching on their territories.

They have also angered their eastern neighbors, the League of the Iroquois, by accepting refugees from Huron villages that had been destroyed by the Iroquois.

Though rumored to use poison-tipped arrows (Jesuit Relations 41:43, 1655-58 chap. XI), the Erie are disadvantaged in armed conflict by having few firearms (if the Erie tribe did use poison on their arrows, it would make them the only tribe in North America to do so.)

The Erie territory in 1650 is estimated to have twelve thousand members.