The first people to see Niagara Falls were probably nomadic hunters and gatherers who left behind evidence of short-term camps and work areas in the form of tools and weapons. They were followed by the Neutrals, known for their peaceful nature, who built villages on both sides of the Niagara River. In the mid-17th century, the Senecas conquered the Neutrals. The Senecas were members of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederation of Nations, and by the beginning of the 18th century the Iroquois were the most powerful Native Americans in the Great Lakes region. The first Europeans to visit the area were French traders and missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1678, Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollet monk of the Franciscan order, visited the falls, and after returning to France he described his experience and commissioned a painting of the falls and their surroundings.