Abstract

This paper notes historic references to the Erie and other named groups who are believed to have lived along the Southeastem shore of Lake Erie during the early Contact Period. It also examines the distribution of village sites during the same period. Ceramic patterning within and between these sites is discussed along with postulated sequences of village movement. The Ripley site in Southwestern New York, some 70 miles south of the cluster of village sites near Buffalo, is ceramically highly similar to these sites and represents an anomaly.