diseases and famine". The remaining members became a part of various other Iroquoian nations. Historical records kept by the French do not discuss the Neutrals as a nation or confederacy after 1672. Names The Neutrals' name for themselves was Chonnonton, or 'people of the deer', or, more precisely, 'the people who tend or manage deer'. They were called Attawandaron by the Huron, meaning 'people whose speech is awry or a little different'. The Iroquois called them Atirhagenrat (Atirhaguenrek) and Rhagenratka. Some of the tribes of the Neutral confederacy included the Aondironon, the Wenrehronon, and the Ongniaahraronon. They spoke Iroquoian languages but were culturally distinct from the Iroquois and competed with them for the same resources. The French called the people "Neutral" () because they tried to remain neutral in the many wars between the confederacy of the Huron tribes and the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Geographic context During the late 16th and the early 17th centuries, the territory of the Attawandaron, as they were called by the Huron Nation, was mostly within the limits of present-day southern Ontario. The Museum of Ontario Archaeology summarizes that territory as follows: they "inhabited dozens of villages in Southwestern Ontario stretching along the north shore of Lake Erie from the Niagara Peninsula to the Detroit River, perhaps as far north as Toronto in the east and Goderich in the west." They had population concentrations on the Niagara Peninsula and in the vicinity of the present-day communities of Hamilton and Milton, Ontario. In addition to this main territory, there was a single population cluster to the east, across the Niagara River, near modern-day Buffalo, New York, which was west of the Wenro people. Souharissen was the warrior chief who lived in a village called Ounontisatan, which was visited by the French in 1625-1626. His trade agreement with the Neutral people provided protection for them by his warriors. The "principal headman" took on and defeated the "Fire" Nation in what is now Michigan. The Recollect priest Joseph de la Roche Daillon lived with him for five months in the winter of 1626–1627. Daillon visited 28 Neutral villages, including the capital, which the French referred to as Nôtre Dame des Anges. The fertile flats of the various oxbows that Big Creek makes three miles from its mouth at Grand River, were ideal for long-term settlement. Noble uses the term "Neutralia" to designate the concentration of Iroquoian-speaking