In the 1450’s, Native Americans spear fished near Chimney Bluffs. The word “Sodus” is said by most to be derived from the Indian word “Assodorus,” meaning “silvery water.” Two Iroquois Nation tribes, Cayuga and Seneca, used the Sodus Bay area as their summer home because of the abundance of fish and wild game. They mostly used locally made elm bark canoes that were very large, somewhat crude, and disposable, and they also traded with more northern tribes for lightweight, smaller, beautifully decorated birch bark canoes. The bald eagle and its feathers were highly revered and considered sacred within American Indian traditions, culture, and religion, and the bald eagle lives in the Sodus Bay area. Native Americans vacated the Sodus Point area before early American settlers settled it in 1794.