An Iroquois frontier: the north shore of Lake Ontario during the late seventeenth century

Historical accounts and assessments of Lake Ontario's north shore during the late seventeenth century generally describe the area as an abandoned battleground and devasted “no-man's land”. The impression is built of English and particularly French views that this was an area no longer useful as a major source of furs. To the Iroquois the land was anything but devastated. Whereas they bypassed the territory in their constant search for furs to the north and west, the north shore, strategic and fertile, became a trading, agricultural, and even settlement frontier. A reassessment of the written documents and largely neglected maps of the period suggest that the Iroquois occupation of the north shore was highly ordered and based on traditional trade routes and tribal territorial claims. It was an extension of the homeland. But innovations in subsistence, settlement, and lifestyle did occur. The study of expansion to the north shore provides valuable insights into the delicate balance between the forces of change and continuity in post-contact Iroquois society.