Editing Genesee County, New York (section)

===Precontact era===
The archaeological record at the [[Hiscock Site]], in [[Byron, New York]] goes back 10,000 to 12,000 years to the [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]]. Researchers have found a variety of humanmade tools, ceramics, metal, and leather, along with a [[mastodon]] jaw, tusks, and teeth and assorted animal bones, indicating long occupation of the site. This site is among North America's most important for [[archaeological]] artifacts from the Ice Age.<ref name="BMS1">[http://www.sciencebuff.org/geology.php Geology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703163624/http://www.sciencebuff.org/geology.php |date=July 3, 2008 }} The Buffalo Museum of Science, Retrieved on December 5, 2007</ref><ref name="BMS2">[http://www.sciencebuff.org/ftp_only/adopt_a_pit.pdf "Excavation pit at the Byron Dig"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207031356/http://www.sciencebuff.org/ftp_only/adopt_a_pit.pdf |date=February 7, 2009 }}, The Buffalo Museum of Science, Retrieved on December 5, 2007</ref>

Different [[Indigenous peoples]] lived in the area for thousands of years. Centuries before European arrival, the [[Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Seneca Nation]] developed in the central part of present-day New York; it became one of the first Five Nations of the [[Haudenosaunee]] (Iroquois Confederacy). Beginning in 1639 and lasting for the rest of the century, the Seneca led an invasion of Western New York, driving out the existing tribes of [[Wenro]], [[Erie people|Erie]] and [[Neutral Confederacy|Neutrals]].